tenali Raman Story

Many years ago, the kingdom of vijayanagara was ruled by a king calleg krishnadevaraya. Tenali is a small village in that kingdom. There lived a youth called Rama in the village Tenali.Rama was a very lazy guy , never helped his mother and would always find lame excuses to escape from working. He just idled the time away doing nothing. There was a period when the peaople faced a heavy draught in that kingdom.For about one whole year, the rivers dried up and the crops drooped under the sun. There arrived a saint one day to that kingdom of krishnadevaraya. Then it began to rain at once and the whole town was flourished back again. All the people believed that it was because if the saint's arrival. But Rama strongly thought it was foolish and even passed out some funny comments infront of the saint. The saint, inspite of Rama's critiscism , was humble as it was a saint's characteristic feature. But there emerged a thought in the saint's mind and he called Rama. He explained to Rama that he needs to pass over his preachings to someone , as he was already getting old. Therefore he taught Rama a special chanting to call the Goddess Mahakaali. He asked Rama to utter this chanting 1000 times , and that the Goddess will appear the moment he finishes the chanting and hence he can ask for a boon to the GOddess.Rama on hearing to the saint's speech, acted accordingly. And the goddess mahakaali also appeared infront of Rama. As soon as Rama saw Mahakaali with multiple heads and multiple hands, he was laughing out loudly instead of getting scared. Goddess wondered why? Rama answered the funny thought that came into his mind:" I find it real hard when i get cold and running nose with my single nose. How will the goddess manage with her multiple noses?" This made him laugh. The goddess got inspired by his fun and smiled. The goddess blessed him with the gift of making people to laugh.Goddess said " you shall be called a VIKATAKAVI, or a jesting poet''''a good word wich you can read both ways-vi-ka-ta-ka-vi!''RAMA EXCLAMIED.''BUT,MOTHER,IT WONT REALLY GIVE ME ANYTHING!.''H'h!'' the goddess nodded. ''i'll grant you anotherboon.here are two cups. the golden cup in my hand has the milk of learning and thesilver cup in myleft hand has the curds of wealth.choose whichever cup you want!''mahakali said.''i musthave both cups because one won,t be of use to me without the other'',rama thought to him self.he scratched his head as if he was puzzled.''oh, mother !how can t choose without first tasting each cup?''he asked.'' thats, true!''the goddessagreed and held out both hands. in a flash, rama drank the content of two cups!.the goddess was angry when she found that rama had tricked her. ''i'm sorry, mother'', ramasaid humbly.''but,i had to have bouth cups because what is the comfort of wealth?.''what you say is fair. but, rama your vit and prosperitu will win you both frinds and enemies.sobecareful in future!''the goddess mahakali blessed rama and vanished.