In a small village in Gujarat, on the western coast of India, there lives a man named Vittap. His name evidently signifies his behavior; he guards his wealth closely.
One day, Vittap gathers a surplus amount of rice grains from working in his neighbors' fields and begging in the village. Growing rice is no easy task. After eating the rice that same evening, Vittap puts the remaining rice in a pot. The pot hangs over his couch so that he can bathe in its glory.
As Vittap becomes drowsy, he dreams about his future with the rice. He contemplates, "My beautiful rice. Oh, how beautiful! If there is a famine, I will always have my rice. Wait, can the rice not make me some profit?"
"I can buy a few goats with the rice and eventually have a family of goats!"
"I can then sell the goats, and get a couple of cows!"
"I can then sell cow milk and purchase buffaloes. Once the mares have foaled, I can have horses!"
"By then, I shall have accumulated plenty of gold to buy a house. A Brahman will even offer me his lovely daughter with a massive dowry. Oh, the future sounds amazing already."
"My love will birth a son, who will be greater than I am. While she cleans and cooks, I will play football with my son."
"Then I will kick the ball and make a goal!"
And with that, he kicks his beautiful pot of rice and ruins the rice and his future. As the rice falls on his head, he immediately wakes up from his blissful dream.
Vittap lies there in silence contemplating what he just did. "Is this destiny? Is this is the wrong year for me to become successful?" he wonders. "I guess when the time is right, profit will come to be naturally." With that last thought, he falls asleep.
Vittap's life goes on, and he remains in the same state. He is constantly dreaming on his couch. The couch became configured to his sleeping position. Even the couch knows how lazy this man is. Vittap keeps losing track of what he needs to achieve in order to have a successful life.
Vittap obtains several pots overflowing with rice throughout the years, but he kicks his beautiful pots of rice when he dreams just like the previous years. Once again he finds himself pondering the same thoughts, "This is the wrong time for me to become successful," and again falls asleep.
Many years later, Vittap has not accomplished the goals he sets for himself. He has not learned that to be successful, you must not be a miser. To this day, Vittap solely dreams about his future and does not work for it. Vittap's life repeats over and over again. He collects the rice, but the beautiful rice is wasted with his powerful kick. He can dream, but he cannot work for it. It is almost as if his dreams were cursing and punishing him for his lack of diligence. As he guards his wealth and spends little, he may never buy goats.
Author's Note:
In my version of the story, I retold The Broken Pot from the Indian Fairy Tales! The original story revolved around a man who dreamed about his future, but was not willing to work for it. He was passionate about his future yet lacked diligence. For the most part, the retelling was close to the original story. The plot and the character's situation were the same; however, the ending of my story was in greater depth and explored his future. Like my previous stories, I changed the name of the main character. Instead of Svabhavakripana, I chose Vittap. The former names means "a born miser," while the latter means "one who guards money." The name change allowed for a more positive connotation of the character. In addition, I also attempted to add detail about what happened to the man in the future. The ending along with the whole story is relatively short. The story mostly consisted of internal dialogue, which showcased Vittap's thoughts and goals. In the internal dialogue, I added repetition ("I can.."), which was also reflected in his future ("Vittap's life repeats over and over again"). I hope my changes made it interesting to read and offered detail about his future!
Bibliography:
The Broken Pot from Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
Image Information:
Dry White Long Rice in Wooden Spoon by Marco Verch (Flickr)