Chapter Notes and Summary
Prem, narrator of story had to run from his village as people there fought in name of religion. Many houses were burnt down in fire. Prem’s house was one of them. He reached Pambupatti by chance. He saw some people near a well. He ran to them, but before he could tell them anything, he fainted. An old man of village looked after him. He told Prem an interesting story.
Long ago there were no animals in Pambupatti. Only reptiles lived there. They used to hold a meeting every month. Makara, a crocodile, was their leader who presided over meetings. He disliked tortoises and snakes. So he ordered them to leave Pambupatti. lizards were also ordered to leave jungle.
All kinds of awful things began to happen in forest. jungle got filled with a strange smell—the smell of rot. No one was left to eat dead animals. rats became bold and took over whole forest. They ate up eggs of crocodiles. frogs also became nuisance. crocodiles soon became fed up of situation of forest. They had also realised that Makara was not that strong or powerful as they thought. So they sent urgent messages for tortoises, snakes and lizards to come back to jungle. In next two months forest was back to normal.
When Prem heard this story he wanted to tell story to everyone in his village. old man advised him to tell story to more and more people. He hoped that one day they too would understand that each of us is important and has a particular place in this worlds of ours.