Sura Loses his Way[i]

Sura and his family had fallen on bad times. They had finished all the produce of their fields and it was not yet time to gather the year’s harvest. They pondered for a long time what they should do. Now, there was a very large earthenware vessel in the house of which they were very proud of. But now because their poverty, they decided to sell their valuable vessel in order to buy rice.

The next morning, Sura prepared to set off to the nearest village, which was a one day’s journey from his village and to try to sell the vessel there. Before he left, his wife warned him to be very careful with the vessel and told him that he was not to put it on the ground at all, for fear of breaking it. To avoid setting it down, he was to just change shoulders when he got tired.

Sura went off very early, carrying the huge vessel on his right shoulder. His load was heavy, but as he had been so carefully warned not to risk breaking the pot, he did not dare to halt on the way for a rest, and put the pot on the ground. So, when he had gone about half-way, his right shoulder began to ache very badly and he decided to make a change. It was at that moment that he remembered what his wife had told him. He wondered and scratched his head on how he could get it to the other side without putting the pot on the ground. He was indeed very puzzled about the matter. After thinking intensely for some time, he hit upon an idea. So, he turned himself around and said to himself, “There! The pot is on the other side now” and went on walking. Sura thoroughly prided himself on his cleverness but what he did not realize was that by turning around, he was going back to his own village. Without realizing what he had done, he went on until the shadows grew very long.

Finally, he reached his own village but he thought it was the place towards which he had set out in the morning. When his little children saw and called out to him, “Father! Father! How glad we are that you have come home”, Sura merely mused to himself, “What nice and friendly little children in this village. They are calling me father. I am glad I have reached such a warm friendly place at the end of my long day’s journey.” He did not recognize that they were his own children. Incidentally he put up in the house next to his own house. In amazement, surprise and incredulousity, the children informed their mother ‘Father is next door trying to sell the vessel’. Their mother was shocked and surprised and replied, ‘What? Go and ask him to come home’. The children did, but Sura remained adamant and when his wife came to the house to call him, he calmly replied, “Oh, you think that I am your husband, no I’ve got my own wife in my village and I cannot marry another’.

  

Such was Sura, a man so loyal to his wife.

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[i] Laltluangliana Khiangte’s edited “Mizo Songs and Folk Tales”, published by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 2002 was heavily referred while translating this tale from Hmar to English.