Synopsis
Gula is a young fish who lives in the Verinag spring, also known as the Neel-nag (Blue Spring) in Kashmir. He lives there with his mother, Sheer, and his other fish friends, Nika and Kaakh.
The Neel-nag spring is significant since the river Jehlum flows from here into the valley. Neel-nag is surrounded by gardens laid out during the Mughal era and used for leisure in the following centuries.
Gula loves people who love him in return. He is very popular and a great entertainer.
The stories (a set of 10) revolve around various problems that arise and the ensuing conundrums, which Gula solves with wit and patience, often helped by his sagely mother and friends.
Some important encounters of his are with Aarath, a snake who is envious of Gula’s popularity, a little girl, an elephant, a bird and some other creatures.
Each story has an implicit moral lesson, teaching children the importance of knowledge, love, patience, humour, compassion, family, friendship, diversity, resolve and sharing.
She was the tiniest of little girls you ever saw. With green eyes, curly locks and a soft rose petal mouth. Her favourite thing to do was to sit beside the spring and splash her feet in the water. An emerald stone hanging on her anklet made a sweet tinkling noise.
Gula would bob up and down keeping her company. She would stroke him with her feet. He would nibble at her toes. This tickled her pink.
She played until her father came to take her home. He was the gardener and took care of planting and weeding the garden.
He would also help the diver scrape all the hardened slime from the floor, clean out the crevices, rock under-bellies and spruce up the walls. He had special treats of cheese from Pahalgam for the fishes that he thought were patiently staying out of their way while they worked.
Gula looked forward to the little girl’s visit every week.
She sang to him in one of the sweetest voices he had ever heard, apart from his mother’s. Her songs were like shimmering honey.
Gula and his friends listened in rapt attention.
She would splash her feet in water in tandem with the lilting rhythm of her songs.
Unbeknown to her, one day an emerald from her anklet flew out and sank into the water.
She kept on singing and splashing.
Gula thought she surely must have cried at home after discovering the tiny stone gone.
One sunny afternoon when Gula was waiting for the little girl, he heard a jangling noise. An old man was dragging the gardener’s sack full of tools. It took a great effort for him to put it on the nearby shelf.
He sat down, and Gula could see tears falling from his eyes. He stroked his long white beard and sat there for a long time.
The little girl did not come that day or for weeks after that.
Gula was anxious to know what had happened. The gardener also did not come back anymore.
A new youngish looking man worked in the garden using the tools from the sack.
The spring was not cleaned for months.
What could have happened to the gardener and his little girl?
Gula woke up anxious every morning. He even dreamt about the little girl, most of the times he would see her splashing her feet in water, singing, with the sun glistening on her face. Then her father’s shadow fell on her face, and she turned ashen.
The dream would give him jitters.
One day he overheard the new gardener telling someone, “They found him yesterday morning, under a pile of leaves, he was buried in the afternoon”, his voice sombre.
Also Read: GULA OF KASHMIR: TALES FROM THE SPRING OF VERINAG
Also Read: PART II: GULA MEETS THE ELEPHANT, FINALLY!
Also Read: PART III: WHEN NITCH SAVED THE DAY
Also Read: PART IV: HAER SAVES GROUCHY GANHAR
Gula’s heart felt heavy.
He was sad for the little girl. He spent many afternoons waiting for her, wondering when she would overcome her grief.
He wanted to comfort her.
Suddenly a plan came to his mind.
As much as he disliked the spring being grimy, he suddenly felt thankful that it had not been disturbed since her last visit.
In the coming days, Sheer was exasperated with Gula, as were the others, since he hardly did any chores. Every morning he would get busy prodding the rocks, raking the dirt, which would send billows of mud right into other fishes’ eyes. They complained to Sheer, and she couldn’t do anything but ask Gula over and over for a reason for his strange actions.
Gula, in return, would ask for time and patience.
“I promise I will make up for all the chores once I am done, please, let me work”, he pleaded.
“Okay, whatever it is, finish it as soon as you can and please be mindful that you do not bother others while you are at it”, advised his sage mother.
“I will try, Mother”, promised Gula happy to be off the hook for some time.
One day Gula’s frenetic activity suddenly ceased, and his eyes shone with a secret joy. From then on, he was his regular old self. He even made up by trying to clean up the floor of the spring to the best of his ability, which was not enough of course!
It was a bright afternoon, the one that makes you lazy and makes you take a nap.
Gula was about to doze off with friends when he saw the little girl approaching.
She smiled through her tears, and it broke Gula’s heart.
He wanted to leap out and hug her, but of course, he was a fish, and that was not possible.
So he held out a fin and touched her gently. He tried to nibbled her fingers, but she did not squirm with mirth. Instead, she winced and took her hand back.
The anklet on her feet was quiet; she sat with her feet tucked underneath her.
Gula lunged down into the water.
Everyone gasped.
“What happened?” said Nika the tiny one.
“Instead of leaping out he is dunking in”, said the sceptic.
“Why is he behaving rude, he is supposed to cheer her up”, said someone puzzled.
Before the most melodramatic fish could deliver his lines, Gula surfaced.
He held up his fin before the little girl, on it shone the small emerald, which had fallen into the water the last time she was there with her father.
She took it from his tiny fin and held it in the palm of her hand with the utmost tenderness.
Her eyes were shimmering and sad.
“I had lost it, and my father looked everywhere”, she said untucking her feet.
She gave Gula a long peck on his shiny scales. It wet her nose, but she did not seem to mind.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you”, she said holding the stone tight against her heart.
She sat there for a long time amidst the quiet broken by the sound of the new gardener’s hoe loosening the soil. Gula floated nearby.
He knew it would take a long time for her to sing and laugh, but it was enough that she had returned and they were at least sharing silence.
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