Sringeri Srinivas Learns to Laugh

Rohini Nilekani

Sringeri
Srinivas was a good farmer.
He grew the best bananas, which made the best banana halwa.

But
he also had the scariest frown in the world.
When
he was angry, his forehead became full of deep lines.
His
nose became red. His eyes became very sharp.

When
Sringeri Srinivas frowned, everyone ran away from him. His wife, his
children and his friends tried to hide. His cows and his dogs ran
away. Even the crows in the field flew away when Sringeri Srinivas
frowned.

And
Sringeri Srinivas frowned often. When his crops were not growing
well. When his barber had no time to cut his hair. When the TV did
not work. And so on. And on.

One
day, Sringeri Srinivas went into his field to look at his banana
harvest. He was in a bad mood. No one knew why.

He
walked quickly to his biggest banana plant. There were big bunches of
lovely fruit.
Soon,
he would begin to make his famous banana halwa. His frown changed to
a small smile.

Just
then, a troop of monkeys came swinging from a tree nearby. The
biggest one, with a fiery red bottom, jumped exactly onto the plant
that Sringeri Srinivas was looking at proudly.

This
made him frown again. His frown grew and grew. It was his biggest
frown ever. It began from his head and spread right to his toes.

The
monkey, with his own nasty temper, was surprised. He had never seen a
frown like that. He dropped a half-peeled banana on the ground, then
he dropped a few more. Quickly, he jumped to the next plant and then
the next. Soon, he was far away and safe from the frown.

Sringeri
Srinivas saw the monkey leap from plant to plant. He chased the
monkey. He wanted to teach the monkey a lesson.

On
the way, he slipped on a banana peel.
Swoosh,
he went down, and his chappals got stuck in the mud.

Sringeri
Srinivas sat up and tried to chase the monkey again.
Swoosh!
He slipped again. This time, he fell with his face down.

Somehow,
he managed to sit up again, his mouth full of leaves and mud and
twigs. When he looked up, the monkeys had gone.

Sringeri
Srinivas looked down at himself. His nice shirt was brown. His hands
were dirty and scratched. He could not even find his own legs. They
were all mixed up in the soil.

Suddenly,
he realised that he looked very funny. Sringeri Srinivas, the famous
farmer.
He
was now sitting all by himself on a pile of leaves, mud and bananas.
It was all very funny.
And Sringeri Srinivas began to laugh. It was a
little laugh at first. Hee
Hee .
Then
it became bigger. Ha Ha!

The
more he laughed, the more Sringeri Srinivas wanted to laugh.
The
laugh grew bigger. HA HA HA . And
bigger!
Soon, he was clutching his stomach, and rolling on the
mud. HA HA HA HAAAA!
Tears
were rolling out of his eyes.

The
laugh was so musical that the birds nearby came to listen. The laugh
was so loud that the monkeys came back. The laugh was so funny that
many kids came along. The laugh was so new that his whole family came
out to hear it, too.

Sringeri
Srinivas laughed so much that everyone else began to laugh as well.
The birds twittered. The crows cawed. The monkeys chattered. The kids
began to giggle. The banana plants began to sway. The barber in the
shop grinned. The tailor began to chortle. Even the tiger sleeping
far away in his cave smiled into his whiskers.

Suddenly,
Sringeri Srinivas finished laughing. Everything and everyone around
him looked so happy. He felt happy too. “Come on, let’s go home,”
he said, holding his hands out to his children.
Sringeri
Srinivas still frowns sometimes. But now, he also likes to laugh. And
he has the biggest laugh in town.