Story 2: Dasagriva the greedy.

Dasagriva the greedy.

It was three months into first grade, and Kubera had made what he believed to be his best friend for centuries, Dasagriva. They always did everything together; played in the sand box at recess together, recite the alphabet together, and share all of their cool things together. One day, there was a contest for who could draw the best dragon. The boys were super excited because dragons were their favorite “animal”. They both entered the contest. The prize was a box of 64 “metalized” (metallic version of regular colors) crayons. Kubera came in first, and Dasagriva was happy for him. Kubera told Dasagriva that anytime he wanted, he could use the crayons and did not need to ask for permission. Dasagriva was excited, and used the crayons all the time. Eventually, everyone asked Dasagriva if the crayons were his, he hated to say no. Dasagriva knew that he could borrow the crayons all the time, but he wanted them for himself. After telling Kubera how he felt, Kubera told him they could trade off every other week on who can get the crayons. Dasagriva was overjoyed, but started to believe the crayons were his. Each week he had the crayons, he began lending them to other children for favors in return. Kubera was disappointed in him. Kubera hated the fact that people had to give something in return just to borrow a crayon. Kubera told Dasagriva that he shouldn’t make others work for the crayons, he should just share them just as he was doing with Dasagriva. Dasagriva became angry, he didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. He believed it was a fair trade. Time passed and Dasagriva didn’t listen to Kubera, so Kubera decided to take his crayons back. Dasagriva was not willing to give them up. They both began to fight, and the teacher put both kids in timeout. After sitting out for 30 minutes Kubera felt more hurt than angry by Dasagriva. He couldn’t believe that Dasagriva wanted to choose crayons over his best friend. After they were done with timeout, Kubera made an offering to Dasagriva; he said he would give Dasagriva the crayons to keep but they wouldn’t be friends anymore. Dasagriva without thinking took the crayons from Kubera’s hands. Kubera began to cry. A boy named Rama approached him and asked what was wrong. Kubera explained to him that Dasagriva picked to have crayons over being friends with him. Rama felt bad for him, and told him that if Dasagriva could not see how much he hurt Kubera, Rama would make him see it. Rama came up with a plan to become friends with Dasagriva, and do to him what he did to Kubera. Kubera told him his plan would never work since Dasagriva was stingy with the crayons. Rama explained to Kubera that it would be easy to trick someone who was as careless as Dasagriva. As time progressed, Dasagriva grew fond of Rama, and didn’t mind giving him the crayons to borrow every now and then. Rama knew it was not that he would have to “borrow” the crayons and return them to Kubera. Without hesitation Dasagriva gave the crayons to Rama. Rama brought them to Kubera, and his face lit up. He was so thankful of Rama and the justice he brought to Dasagriva. Dasagriva was angry that he now had no crayons, and no friends.

 

Rama killing Dasagriva. Photo Credits: Ramayana

Author’s Notes:

I took a different approach to the story of Kubera and the land of Lanka that was given to him by his grandfather. I decided to change the land into the crayons in this story. Dasagriva instead of being his brother, was actually his best friend. In the story there was a great battle between Dasagriva and Kubera, which ended with Kubera loosing his home. After many years, Rama battled the reincarnation of Dasagriva (Ravana) for Lanka. Rama won the battle and returned the land to Kubera. Since this story is based in an elementary school setting, I didn’t want make the two actually fight. I decided to have Rama trick Dasagriva into thinking he was his friend, and then take the crayons and give them back to Kubera.  

Bibliography:

Nimmy Chacko. Kubera The Lord of Wealth. Link to Reading Notes