kuruvi kathai

This is the famous Kuruvi kathai.. the story of a Kuruvi (sparrow) that every paatti(grandma) of Palakkad told her grandchild a generation ago.. An approximate translation..

There was a sparrow..

As it is her usual wont, she was foraging the courtyard littered with waste.

Her search fetched her a full grain of rice..

She decided to get some payasam (sweet porridge) made out of it..

With this request she approached an elderly grandma..

The grandma said, “You silly girl, how can we make porridge with rice alone? We should have sugar-candy, fireplace, firewood and many other things.”

The sparrow waited on the street corner..

A vendor carrying a bag of sugar candy came that way.

The sparrow shouted at him..” You vendor, have you not heard that your parents are taken ill and are dying?”.

The vendor dropped his sack and ran to see his parents.

The sparrow took away the sack and its contents to the grandma.

Similarly vendors for Vessels, Oven, Firewood.. all came and were sent away on a false alarm by the sparrow and their merchandise were carried to the gradma.

The grandma made the fire, placed the Uruli (vessel in which payasam is made) on the oven, poured water, rice and sugar candy..

While the mixture boiled in water, an irresistible aroma came out and the sparrow could not contain her greed.

She put her beak in to the boiling concoction and got scorched..

Blind with anger she poured the whole contents of the Uruli into a pond nearby..

The heat subsided, and so also the pain on her scorched beak.

The sparrow saw an isolated piece of grain sticking on the side of the Uruli ( the cauldron where the porridge was boiling early).

She tasted it and indeed it was heavenly to her tongue..

She was sad that she had thrown off the payasam into the pond.

So she decided to drink the whole water available in the pond.. To prevent the water from leaking from her behind, she stuck a piece of straw on her hind side, and heartily drank in the whole contents of the pond.

Her belly bloated and she could not fly.

So she lied down in the cow-shed attached to the grandma’s house, and fell asleep.

She was not alone there.

The Grandma, as she was engrossed in making payasam, had forgotten to give any straw or other fodder to the cow which was anxiously waiting in the shed for her food.

When the cow saw the straw stuck at the back of the sparrow, she did not think twice before pulling at it and gobbling it up.

The stomach of the sparrow was now without any stopper, and the huge mass of water came out in torrent

deluging all things around

and carrying the cow and the shed along with the flow.

The grandma’s house, the furniture, the utensils and all were carried away by the waters..

However,

once the water flowed out,

the sparrow felt light,

spread her wings

and flew away.