Funday Times

A Sri Lankan folk tale retold by J.B. Disanayaka
Where do rivers go?
Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman. They had a son. A very obedient son, who did everything the way he was told. One day, his mother went to the nearby thicket to collect some firewood. As she left, she told her son, "My dear son, don't let anyone enter our house". The son nodded his head and agreed. The son was very watchful. He wanted no one to enter their house.

After a while, he saw a lizard (called 'hikanala' in Sinhala) enter the house. He kept on chasing it but lost sight of it after a while. He was angry that he couldn't drive it away. What will the mother say? Then suddenly he saw the lizard on the roof. I'll teach it a lesson, he thought. He set fire to the roof. In a matter of minutes, the whole house was reduced to ashes.

When his mother returned home, she was shocked to see the burnt house. His father was equally shocked. They have to build a new house. The next day, the father went to the forest with his son, to cut some sticks to build a new house. In those days, houses were build with mud and thatch. To built the walls, sticks were needed. So the father and the son went to the forest in search of sticks.

They found by a big river, a large tree that could give lots and lots of sticks. The father climbed the tree and began cutting sticks. He asked his son to collect the sticks into bundles so that they could be taken to their house on their backs. The son was at the foot of the tree.

The son was very fascinated by the river that flowed by. It was beautiful and the way it took the bend fascinated him. "Father, father”, he shouted, "from where does this river come?". The father said, "I don't know my son", for he really did not know. Everyone knows that rivers too have a beginning but who knows their exact beginnings?

After a while, the son shouted again. "Father, father, why is this river crooked here?". The father knew that all rivers are crooked but did not know why they were so. He said, "How on earth do I know?". He was gradually losing his temper because he wanted to think only of the sticks that should be cut so that he could take them home and build the new house.

"Father", his son shouted again. "Where does this river go?" His father lost his temper. In anger he said, "Where else? To your house". He kept on cutting some more sticks. After some time, he climbed down but was surprised to find that there wasn't a single bundle of sticks at the foot of the tree. He looked around. Not a sign of a stick.

He looked at his son and asked him, "My son, where are the sticks that I cut?'. The son said, "I've sent them to our house". "How did you send them to our house, there was no one to carry them?" "Well", said the son. "I put all the sticks into the river". "Why on earth did you do that?", asked the father in anger. "Well, didn't you say that this river goes to our house?". "Yes, I did", answered the father. "So, I put all the sticks into the river and I am sure they have reached our house by now".

The father didn't say a word. How could he? For wasn't it he who said that this river goes to their house? Ever since then, people began to say, when a lot of effort is just wasted, "it is like cutting sticks into the river".

‘Gangata ini kaepuva vagey’

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