THE WHITE SKULL

“To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities” says every child in the village of Dholakpur. What makes the children say this? Why do the children believe in this statement?

This is a story about what happened in Dholakpur in the 114 A.D. Dholakpur was a small village in the kingdom of Khwab Nagar. The sun rose in the East every morning as it does even now. But things were not the same then. There were no potholes as roads didn’t exist, no gigantic trucks on the roads, but there were giants. Yes, there were giants. One such giant was Demosura. Every afternoon, when the sun shone bright in the sky, Demosura walked with a thud into the village, with his enormous feet trampling on the lush green grass.

Animals ran into their homes and birds flew helter- skelter. People shivered and trembled in fear. Demosura lifted the first ten people he found and left for the forest. There he killed them, ate their flesh and drank their blood. He threw the skulls away in the forest as he found them too difficult to chew. The forest floor was laden with skulls of people, whose ill fate had got them in the clutches of Demosura. People in the village lived a life of terror. Unsure of whether they would see the next sun rise, many of them left the village. They could not do anything as Demosura was very powerful. They spoke to each other and finally one day arrived at the decision to speak to Demosura. So one evening, when Demosura had finished his lunch and was overfull, they had a chat with him and explained their concern. While the villagers of Dholakpur explained their grievances, Demosura relished the fruits that they had got for him.

“Let’s play a game” said Demosura in his harsh, thunderous voice. The villagers, left with no other choice had to agree. Demosura said to the villagers, “One of you will pick up a skull from this bag. If it happens to be a white one, I shall not enter this village again, but if it is a black one, you will have to offer me with ten humans and some bags of fruits daily.” Having said that, Demosura lifted two skulls from the forest floor and put them in a big, monstrous bag. Dholakpurians noticed him lifting two black skulls and hiding them in the bag. They gave up all hopes of their escape.

Among them was Wangdoo, who thought a little differently. He offered to pick up one skull from the big, monstrous bag. He hastily picked up a skull and dropped it on the ground laden with skulls.“How clumsy of me to have dropped the skull. But there is a way of finding out the skull that I have dropped. Let’s check back into the bag for the skull that remains” said Wangdoo. The villagers quickly opened the bag and took out the black skull. “The skull that I dropped was a white one” he exclaimed.

Demosura did not utter a word. He had nothing to say and left, never to return again to Dholakpur. The villagers rejoiced and danced the entire night. Wangdu had saved their lives. “To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities” he said to all. Every child in Dholakpur says this until this day and believes in it. Can we too say this aloud and believe in it?