Vanamala - Children's story - Part 3

by Lakshmi Menon
(Bangalore, India)

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Vanamala - Part 3


Savithri thought of the plight of her helpless grandparents waiting for her return. She was eager to draw water from the well and rush to them. She moved to the direction of the well. “They would be waiting for my return. “Oh. God! Please help me.” She told herself.

She saw a coir with a bucket lying there. She took the bucket and slowly put it into the well to draw water with the help of the coir. The well was very deep and she could not even see the water level. When the bucket touched the water she was happy and began to draw the filled bucket up. She drew it as fast as she could. To her surprise, when the bucket came up she saw a plastic doll in the water. She found it interesting and took it in her hand and then filled water in her bottle. Suddenly the doll started speaking. “Thank you Savithri, for helping me to get out of the well.”

How can a doll speak? Savithri was stunned. As she was gazing at it in surprise, the doll continued, “You must be wondering how a doll can speak. I was a young girl like you and for disobedience I was cursed once to be a doll and thrown in this well. Now with your help I am getting back to my normal position. I would be ever grateful to you.” As she finished telling that she turned to be a beautiful girl like Savithri.

Savithri wondered, what was happening to her all of a sudden? Today was filled with surprises. Any way Savithri was happy to see the new girl and get acquainted with her.

“I’m Vanamala. I used to stay with my mother under the hill in a small hut,” said the new girl with a beautiful smile.




“Now your mother must be happy to get you back," said Savithri.

Suddenly Vanamala’s smile vanished. “No, my mother is dead long back. After her death my uncle used to look after me. Once I disobeyed him. He cursed me and threw me into the well. But now I have got some special powers from the well. I don’t want to go back to my uncle any more. I am coming with you. Would you accept me as your friend?”

Savithri was only too happy to accept her and introduced herself. She narrated her sad story to her newfound friend.

“Don’t worry about your grandparents. I can make them look healthier again,” assured Vanamala.

As the sun was setting behind the hills , Vanamala followed Savithri to the place where Savithri’s grandparents were lying. It was a great surprise to see her old grandparents healthier and happier again. They were also happy to accept Vanamala as their grandchild. She did not forget to tell them how she was able to escape from the rakshasa.

“Let’s go to your father’s friend who cheated you and took away your property. I will teach him a lesson and get back your property and your parents if they are still alive,” assured Vanamala shaking her hands.

That was a great relief to Savithri and her grandparents. The old people were not sure their son and daughter-in-law were still alive and living in despair losing all the hope of getting them back.

A soft breeze rustled the leaves of the tall trees and seductively whispered in her ear. “Sa….vi…..thri……. Sa….vi….thri!”

To everyone’s amazement, within a minute, Vanamala offered a prayer and turned that place to a small hut, but secured and furnished with minimum furniture, where they could spend their night without fear. Savithri lay restlessly in her humble bed, tossing and turning, unable to forget the events of the day.

The next day as the early morning sun busily dried out the overnight dew, Vanamala took the form of a bullock cart and asked Savithri and her grandparents to sit in the cart. They set out to their old big house in the village where they were living happily.


After reaching there, she took the form of a poor girl, and asked them to wait outside. She opened the gate and went inside alone to the new owner of the house. A solid man, with a thick moustache was sitting majestically in the courtyard with a newspaper in his hand. He wore a white dhoti and a thin white towel put on his left shoulder partly covering his thickly haired chest and smeared with vermillion on his forehead. Vanamala presumed that he was Savithri’s father’s friend Sathyendran. Vanamala went there like a poor lame girl in torn clothes and shabby hair, begging for alms.

“Sir, Please give me something to eat. I haven’t had any food since yesterday. I’m very hungry,” pleaded Vanamala.

She saw the servants coming to her, but with her supernatural power they stopped at a certain distance.
“Sir, please.” She begged again and then moved forward another four steps instead of going back.

When the servants refused to chase her away Sathyendran let out the dogs to chase her. Seeing the ferocious dogs running towards her, he laughed aloud.

But amazingly the dogs too stopped at a certain distance unable to move further. Getting too angry, Sathyendran himself moved forward to send her away. Suddenly he found himself unable to move a step further, as he had become suddenly lame. He wondered what was happening to him.

“You, dirty urchin! Run away from my sight. Otherwise I will kill you.” He screamed at the top of his voice.

Vanamala stood there laughing at him seeing his plight. “What happened to you suddenly, big man?”

Soon Sathyendran realized that she was not an ordinary girl. “Who are you, little demon? What do you want here? What brought you here?”
“I want to see the real owner of this house.”
“I am the real owner.” He said.
Vanamala laughed as though she heard a joke. “Since when did you become the owner of this house? Did you pay money and purchase it?”
“No. it’s my own house.”
“Is it?”
“I’m the owner of this house.” He bit his teeth in anger and tightened his face.

Vanamala laughed at him loudly. “Your name is Sathyendran, and it means you’re supposed to be one who is always truthful. I knew who you are and still you wouldn’t like to tell me the truth. See what is happening to you now.”

Within seconds his strength in the other leg also lost and he fell down. Sathyendran wondered who this girl in disguise was. Was she some Goddess who had come in disguise to punish him for all the mistakes he had committed? He was afraid something more would happen to him now.

“Yes. This is not my real house. I cheated my friend and took this house and all his property. Tell me now who you are?”

“I want to see the real owner of this house. If you don’t show him and his wife to me you will lose your eyesight now and become blind for the rest of your life. I am warning you.”

Sathyendran called his servants and asked them to release Savithri’s parents who were kept as captives in a room with their hands and mouth tied.

Savithri and her grandparents who were watching the scene from outside astonishingly came inside and cried seeing their plight.

They hugged each other in tears of joy.

Sathyendran begged for forgiveness and returned their house and property which he had possessed illegally. He had no other way but to spend the rest of his life as a cripple repenting for his avariciousness.


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