BE GOOD AND POLITE!

Karuna was a beautiful girl. When she was twelve, her mother died. Her father married again and with her stepmother came two girls, Radha and Laxmi. Karuna was very sad when her mother died but she tried her best to welcome her stepmother and her two stepsisters. They did not like Karuna because she was so pretty and had long pointed fingers. They also felt unhappy because they thought that their new father would love his own daughter more than them.

Every morning when Karuna got up, she went to her parents and said 'Namaste' to them. She said 'hello' to her sisters but they scoffed at her and teased her. Radha and Laxmi were cruel to Karuna. They did no housework. They ate up all the food in the house. Karuna had to wash the utensils, scrub the floors, sweep the court- yard, collect firewood and fetch water. She had to cook lunch and breakfast before eight o'clock and then take the cows out to the meadow be- yond the river. Since she had a lot of work to do and not enough food to eat she soon became weak and thin.

Yet she never complained, she continued to greet her mother and sisters cheerfully every morning. She thanked her stepmother for the food she ate. Even if they teased and mocked her, she never behaved unkindly to her stepsisters. Her stepmother often pushed her or beat her and sometimes she was so badly hurt she found it difficult to move around. She was reluctant to tell her father of this treatment for fear it would hurt him.

One day the stepmother had given Karuna the job of husking the wheat and grinding it into flour. The two stepsisters were given the less tiring job of taking the cows out to graze that day. The neighbours saw Karuna hard at work and felt sorry for her, and offered to do the work for her. They gave her milk and fruit to cat and gave her the job of looking after their babies instead. When the work was done Karuna thanked them and carried the flour home. They were very impressed with Karuna's gentleness and politeness.

Radha and Laxmi, on the other hand, were not popular with the villagefolk. They were rude and did not bother to wish or greet their elders. They often made fun of the village children and the old people. Karuna just ignored them and continued with her good work.

One day the stepmother took the three girls to the river. She ordered Karuna to wash the clothes, while her two daughters swam and played in the water. All of a sudden a swift current carried the two girls away with it. They did not know how to swim and were washed away.

Their mother screamed and shouted for help. But it was to no avail, in her fury she pushed Karuna into the water, saying, "You are a good swimmer, go and save my children. Do not come back without them."

Karuna tried to find her sisters but they were lost in deep water. She made efforts to return to the river bank but her stepmother pushed her away from the shore. Realising that she was getting tired and would soon be in danger of drowning herself, Karuna swam to the opposite bank.

A wealthy couple from a village there adopted her, as they had no children of their own. Karuna realised that there was no use trying to go back to her old home as her stepmother would only treat her worse than before. She stayed on in her new home and brought joy to it with her kind and courteous ways.

Think Awhile

Courtesy means greeting people politely. It implies tolerance. It costs nothing. yet it gives others a lot of pleasure. A bright smile and a decent word will lighten the heart. By making others happy, you make yourself happier as well.