Read award winning story by Dakar la from the Indian Village! The Antara Foundation in Dehradun asked students to write a story that they had been told by their grandparents which would then be published in a book called ‘Antara memories’. Dakar la from our Indian Village entered and was one of the 30 students out of 500 to win a prize!
‘My grandpa once told me a story about a buffalo and yak. A yak is a large ox with shaggy hair and large horns, found in Tibet and Central Asia.
Centuries ago, Yak used to live in India. At the time, the creature did not have the long, thick and shaggy hair that it now has.
It was also believed that Buffalo was Yak’s uncle. Buffalo used to have long, thick and shaggy hair, which Yak now has. Yak had heard stories about the beauty of the land of Tibet. He had heard their stories from the Tibetan antelope when a herd of them had come to India. So, he decided to go to Tibet and find out. He started his journey but couldn’t succeed, as the road to Tibet was very hard to navigate. It was also very cold, unbearable for an animal such as Yak. So, he came back to India.But he did still want to go to Tibet. He knew he had to plan well before he tied again. He went to his friends, who had thick fur, for help. It was decided that they all would go to Tibet together. Now he had to get some fur for himself. He went to his uncle to ask for his fur but his uncle refused. Yak assured him that he would give him his fur back along with lots of salt, once he returned from Tibet.
The next day, at sunrise, they all began their journey. They crossed the Brahmaputra with great difficulty and reached the boarder between Tibet and India. As they were crossing the river, a pack of wild dogs attached them. But after a long struggle, they fought off the dogs and journeyed on towards southern Tibet, now Lhasa. While crossing some fields, they were caught by a bunch of farmers, who tied them up, making it hard for them to escape. At midnight, managing to break free from their ropes, they ran for their lives. After three days, they reached Lhasa. It was more beautiful than what the antelope had told them. The air, the water and the sky were much cleaner than they had ever been in India, so they all decided to stay there forever.
Back in India, as time passed, Buffalo began to realise that his nephew had fooled him. Buffalo then learnt that one must not be gullible.
