Sishir Basanta Ko Katha

Full story in Nepali
Told by Sashai Guragain:

English translation of the story :

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom ruled by a brave King who had two lovely sons. The eldest son was named Sishir and the younger son was named Basanta. Both the King and the Queen were loved by the people of the kingdom.

One day, outside of her chamber window the Queen saw a bird’s nest. It was a family of birds, in which the parents brought food to their children. She was happy to see a sweet bird family and she smiled at the sight. From that day, she would enjoy the sight of the nest and the bird family. One day, the mother bird fell sick and she died. The father bird was very unhappy. It grieved and mourned for a few days. A few days later he found another bird and the new bird moved in. The Queen was shocked to see how fast the male bird forgot his previous bird wife and brought a new wife into the bird family. The new bird wife wouldn’t treat the bird children like the real mother. She wouldn’t feed them and would treat them badly. One day, she threw the little birds from the nest. The little helpless birdies fell to the ground and died.

The Queen was shocked to see how the new bird-wife treated the little-birds of the previous wife. She wondered what would happen to her sons if she were to die. The Queen was so worried that she actually felt sick. The royal doctors checked the Queen but they couldn’t find any problem in her body. The Queen was worried and she couldn’t recover at all. Her worst nightmares slowly became a reality. When she realized that she was actually on her deathbed, she called her husband and made him promise not to marry anyone when she died.

The King tried to persuade that she was not going to die at all. The Queen was obsessed with the thought that she was going to die soon. She repeatedly asked her husband not to marry anybody after her death. Nobody could save the Queen. Two princes were left orphaned after she died.

The whole kingdom was sad and everybody mourned the death of their beloved queen. The King was very unhappy and mourned in the palace. After a while the King recovered because he had the kingdom to rule. He had to help the people of his country. After some time, the ministers and the people started to demand that they should have a new Queen. The King remembered his promise to his late Queen. So, he refused to get married.

Being alone was not easy for the King. The late Queen used to help the King in different aspects of ruling. Now, he needed helping hands to take care of women’s affairs and children’s affairs. The late Queen was greatly missed by the King and the people equally. After the pressure from the general public, and realizing he needed a helping hand, the King decided to marry a beautiful girl. The new Queen was very beautiful and she was a good person.
When she started living in the palace, she wasn’t happy by the way the princes behaved. She wanted to control them and do what she told them to do. She also didn’t want the King to care for the princes. She wanted the King all to herself.

The new Queen was very ambitious and when she became pregnant, she wanted the next king to be her son. According to the Kingdom’s rule, the eldest son was to be the next King. The new Queen didn’t want Shishir to be the next king.
On the other hand Sishir and Basanta liked the beautiful Queen and wanted to make her happy. They did whatever she told them to do. That made the Queen hate the brothers more.

One day, the kids were playing ball in the garden. Shishir and Basanta took turns in kicking the ball. One kick by Basanta hurled the ball out of control and shattered the window of the Queen’s chamber. The ball went into the Queen’s chamber. The princes were very sorry for the mistake. Basanta went to the Queen and begged his pardon and asked her to give his ball back. But, the Queen was very unhappy and wouldn’t give it back to him. Then Shishir went to the Queen’s chamber and asked for the ball. But, the queen scolded and showed him his way.

That day, when the king came back to his Queen, he was shocked to see the mess in her chamber. She had broken the mirror, scattered things around, made her hair a mess and was lying on the bed weeping. She exaggerated everything that happened that day and blamed Shishir and Basanta for everything. The king tried to reason that they were just kids. The Queen won’t agree. She was very unhappy and angry. She wanted to throw away the kids in the forest as a punishment. The Queen wouldn’t stop until the King agreed.

She asked a royal guard to take the princes to the forest and leave them there. Then the Queen went with them outside and told the guard to kill them both and bring their heart as a proof. The guard was shocked by the evil Queen’s order but he couldn’t disobey the royal order. He agreed and took the two princes with him to the forest. He told the elder prince, Shishir, about the Queen’s order and told them to run away from the evil Queen. The guard watched the Prince go into the forest. He killed two deers on his way back and took their hearts with him. He presented the hearts of the deer to the queen. Believing the hearts were of Shishir and Basanta, the evil queen rejoiced in the death of the prince.

In the forest, two princes all alone and scared. The elder brother Shishir was in charge of the two-Prince team. He did everything to protect and feed his little brother Basanta.

(I will update the story after a while)