Vishnupriya

Mystery of Broken Pots

As Radha and Vishnupriya put their pots down stones passed right above their head and click on the bark of a tree startling everybody. "Who is it? Who threw stones on me and my sister?" Vishnupriya quickly recovers and turns around but finds nobody.

"Sakhi Vishnupriya! The stone came from that direction." Rangadevi points and Vishnupriya goes there with the rest following. "Whoever aimed the stones must be the one who broke your pots as well." Radha says making them agree.

"Nobody..." Vishnupriya says searching the bushes. "Found choti?" Rada asks too searching for the culprit. "No didi.. Didi! Sakhiyon! Come here!" Vishnupriya calls and everybody comes to her spot.

"See! Broken pots with makhan!" Vishnupriya says. "This pot! This is the pot from our house!" Sudevi and Rangadevi says taking the piece of pot. "And this is from mine!" Tungavidhya says. "Choti! This is from ours! From the ones we made today morning!" Radha says gaining Vishnupriya's attention.

"Meaning the thief and the one who broke our pots are the same person!" Indulekha says. "What should we do? Should we continue to search? We might get him/her." Chitra asks. "To be able to steal these many pots from all the houses. They must be a group not individual." Vishnupriya says. "Lets go and report this to baba. he will surely find a solution!" Radha says and they rush to Vrishabhanu bhavan.

******

"Baba!!" Vishnupriya and Radha enter the bhavan running with their sakhis behind. "What happened my ladoo?" Vrishabhanu says raising his head up from his work.

"Pranipat kakashree, kakishree." the gopis greet. "Baba! We found the culprit!" Vishnupriya says sitting on her baba's lap along with Radha. "Culprit?" Kirti asks. "The culprit of the stolen makhan! Its not an individual but a group!" Radha says.

"How do you know?" Vrishabhanu asks. "Kakashree! As we were returning from yamuna after filling our pots. Someone secretly broke our pots!" Sudevi says. "And as Sakhi Radha and Sakhi Vishnupriya put their pots down to check the culprit aimed rocks to break their pots but failed." Rangadevi says showing their pots with hole.

"We tried to find the culprit but they were gone leaving only these broken makhan pots from Sakhi Sudevi, Sakhi Rangadevi, my and your house." Lalita says showing the pots. "Those pots? We just made it today morning! I will go and check." Kirti says and go to the kotha where she stored the makhan from morning.

"If so then we have to find this man." Vrishabhanu says. "Aree! CHOR! CHOR! THIEF!" Kirti says gaining everybody's attention. "What happened Kirti?" Vrishabhanu asks. "Somebody stole the two remaining pots from the kotha and exited from the window." Kirti says coming out.

"You should have locked the windows Kirti." Vrishabhanu says. "I did arya." Kirti says. "Kakashree! According to me the culprit must be mayavi!" Indulekha says. "Mayavi?" Vrishabhanu asks.

"Yes kakashree! Everybody locks their windows from inside but the thief still manages to open it from outside." Tungavidhya says. "Meaning they must have some powers or maya in them." Chitra adds.

"If the culprit is mayavi then it is a huge problem arya. He is just stealing sweets with his maya later he might slowly steal gold, valuables and may do many more harmful things. What is today instead of the pots our daughter would have gotten hurt by the stones?" Kirti asks hugging her daughters.

"I shall discuss the matter with the panchayat. Kirti did you see the thief?" Vrishabhanu asks. "no I didn't but I say his shadow and angavastram. he was wearing a bright yellow angavastram and his shadow was one of a kid." Kirti says.

"Of a kid? How is that possible?" Vrishabhanu says. "He must be a mayavi baba! How can a kid hunt all the house, break our pots, escape and appear in another place at the same time?" Radha says. "Yes you are right. Now go play, don't go too far until this culprit gets caught."  Vrishabhanu says.

******

"This is getting way out of hand! We have to do something sakhiyon!" Radha says as the culprit hadn't been caught yet making the rest agree.

"Let's start searching from the place where we found the broken pots! There must be few more traces!" Vishnupriya says. "Very good choti! Lets search!" radha says and they start searching for the place. 

They searched for an hour but found nothing. "Sakhiyon! Look!" Chitra says pointing at something gaining everybody's attention. They were hiding behind a bush, the looked through from a hole.

They couldn't see everything but they could see feet of the young boys with broken makhan pots on the ground. The boys then ran away laughing and the girls came out of the bush to find no trace of theirs.

"Hey!! Its the same monkey who tried to steal my clothes!" Indulekha says pointing at the little monkey who was eating makhan peacefully on the rock. "That! That pot is from my house!" Tungavidhya says.

The little monkey spots them and tries to hide but the 10 sakhiyon circles him making him sweat drop as there was no other way of escape. "Who are you little one?" Vishnupriya asks. "A monkey." the little monkey answers which only Vishnupriya can hear.

"I know, I can see that you are a monkey." Vishnupriya says. "A poor, hungry monkey." the monkey says. "A poor hungry monkey?" Vishnupriya asks making him nod. "Poor? Hungry? I think its greedy not poor or hungry." Chitra says seeing the multiple broken pots.

"Your name I am asking little one." Vishnupriya says. "Name? I don't have a name." the monkey says sadly. "You don't have a name?" Vishnupriya goes sad. "Choti ask him who gave him these pots of makhan." Radha says.

"You heard her." Vishnupriya says. "A group of boys gave me these pots after I stole their makhan yesterday." the monkey says. "A group of boys? What are their name? How do they look?" Sudevi asks after Vishnupriya translated it.

"They too were similar in number like you gopis, they are gopals and have 2 leader like you two." the monkey says. "Who are they?" Rangadevi asks. "The two siblings, one was mischievous whereas the other was calm. The older brother has a fair complexion of a crystal with great strength, wears blue garment. He wears his hair in a graceful topknot, his face decorated with tilak made of musk. Whereas the younger brother has a dark complexion and wears bright yellow garment. His dark curly locks left open, his forehead decorated with gopi chandana." the monkey says.

"Be abit more precise!" Vishakha says. "The younger brother wears a peacock feather and has a flute. Now I can't say anymore." the monkey says. "Why so?" Lalita asks. "If I say everything then I might not get makhan anymore." the monkey says.

"Wait, come here." Vishnupriya calls and the monkey comes towards her. Vishnupriya puts five mangoes infront of her and the monkey quickly takes it. "You certainly are greedy." Champaklata says making the monkey stand sheepishly with mangoes in his arms held tighter than his life making the gopis giggle. "You said you didn't have a name right? Your fur coating is like a beard and your nature is abit greedy so from now on you will be called Dadhilobha!" Vishnupriya says.

"Dadhilobha! Sound good and suits his character!" Tungavidhya says. Dadhilobha joins his hands and bows to Vishnupriya in gratitude and leaves jumping from one tree to another.