A Chatrapathi Story for Ajay

Ajay with Prabhas (on 17/5/2009)

Many of you might be knowing how crazy i am about Chatrapathi. I always feel thrilled watching Prabhas in this movie. I sometimes go overboard with my likeness for this movie. This is one such incident that happened about a couple of weeks ago. I was in a dilemma as to whether i should post it or not, but then i thought may be a few of you might enjoy reading it.

I usually make my son Ajay (he's completing 9 yrs in a couple of months) go to sleep and on this day he was pestering me to tell a story. I was tired and in no mood to tell him a story but since he was troubling me i started to tell him a story.

"Once there two brothers named Ashok and Siva (probably you got it already!). The younger brother always disliked his elder brother. He told bad things about his brother and made him get beatings from his mother. One day there was a big fire in their village..."

At this point he found out that this was Chatrapathi story. I don't want Chatrapathi story, you tell me another story he started pestering me again. In a flash this story came in my mind and i started telling him another one. It might be a bit silly and illogical too, but it's a kids story and i really didn't mind taking liberties in my story. I even managed to evoke a few laughs from Ajay. There's an unexpected twist in the end, so please read the story fully. My wife was beside us with my daughter and she too was listening to my story. If at the end of the story, you too say that i am crazy, i will take it with a smile! Here it goes.

"Once there was a King who was a total coward. He feared everything from a cockroach to a Cheetah. He was afraid of the crowd and afraid to be alone. Everyone in the country laughed about their King. The king had a wise minister who was very much worried about the king. He wanted to change the king and make him a brave man."

"One day while the King was taking a walk in the nearby woods the minister let out a big Lion in the way of the King. The King shivered on seeing the Lion. Frightened, he climbed up a tall tree and sat high up on the tree. On seeing this the Lion laughed at the King and said," I haven't seen a cowardly king like you. Shame on you", and then the Lion walked away after teasing the King.

"The next day while the King was taking a walk the minister let out three ferocious dogs. On seeing the dogs the King ran helter skelter and then he fell into a pit of stinking slush (Ajay laughs loudly). The dogs laughed at the king and said to themselves "let's not get ourselves dirty getting into that pit." saying so they too moved away.

The minister was very worried that none his ideas worked out. He then hit upon an idea which he was sure will definitely work out (here comes the twist!). So the next day he took the King to the palace theatre and made him watch 'Chatrapathi' Movie! The King was very impressed and inspired watching the movie. He too wanted to become a brave man like Prabhas. He understood what is courage and compassion... and needless to say he became a brave king!

There was a brief gasp of unbelief in the room when i told the climax. Neither of them expected that i will bring Chatrapathi into this story. Well its another story that Ajay didn't ask me another story for quite sometime and when he asked me to tell him a story a few days back, i told him a moral story!