Chapter 21: chapter 21

The Three Wasted WishesBebita and Momita were two sisters who lived in a village near the Sunderbans in West Bengal. They were often sent by their mother to the woods to collect firewood for dinner. The two sisters would take an axe, cut small branches off trees and collect as much wood as they could carry back home.One late afternoon, Bebita and Momita were trying to reach the branch of a huge sundari tree to cut it down, when they heard a voice from the top of the tree. It was a yakshi, a creature who protects forests with her magical powers. She appeared below the tree, a pretty form with a halo of light behind her.‘Please don’t cut my branches. It’s very painful. I will grant you three wishes if you don’t hurt me,’ she said.The sisters were excited to hear this. ‘You mean we can wish for anything under the sun?’ asked Bebita.‘You will grant us anything we ask for?’ asked Momita.The yakshi smiled. ‘Anything you would like. But think carefully. Ask for something that is useful for you. No matter what you ask for, your next three wishes will come true,’ she said before she disappeared into the forest mist.The two sisters picked up their axe and jumped up and down in excitement all the way home. Their minds were full of ideas of what they would ask for.Bebita looked at their small home as they approached it and said, ‘We could ask for a big house with many rooms and a deep well.’Momita looked at the two cows in their barn and said, ‘We could also ask for five or six sturdy cows who could give us a lot of milk. Then we could sell butter, cheese, milk and ghee and make some money.’The two sisters went to their mother and told her everything that had happened. Their mother was thrilled. For a long time, the three of them happily discussed what to wish for. When it was well past their dinner time, Bebita asked, ‘I’m starving. I haven’t had anything since lunchtime. What is there for dinner tonight?’Her mother answered, ‘Nothing. You girls told me about your news just as I was cleaning the dal and rice. I haven’t cooked our dinner yet.’‘How much time will it take? I’m famished,’ said Bebita.‘Oh, dinner will take some time. The dal has to be fully cooked. It will take an hour and a half,’ said her mother.Wound up and excited about the afternoon’s events, Bebita quickly became petulant. ‘But I’m hungry right now. I wish we had a lovely meal of fried fish, dal and rice,’ she remarked without thinking.And there, within a minute, her wish came true. There suddenly appeared three plates of hot, steaming dal, rice and fried rohu.‘Oh no! What have you done? You wasted one wish,’ panicked Momita. ‘You could have wished for a decade’s worth of daily meals. That could have given us comfortable lives. How could you be so foolish?’ she whined.‘Shucks, yes. I could have. You are right. I wasted one whole wish. I’m so stupid,’ admitted Bebita.But Momita and their mother had lost their tempers and had begun scolding Bebita. ‘Okay I got your point. I won’t waste another wish. Please keep quiet now,’ urged Bebita. But the two kept ranting.Irritated with both of them, Bebita finally shouted, ‘Oh, please. I don’t want to hear any more about this. I wish you guys would just shut up forever.’Immediately, Momita and their mother were struck dumb. Bebita’s second wish had also come true. Her mother and her sister couldn’t speak at all. Quick at the heels of that thought came the realisation that unless she did something about it, her mother and Momita may never speak again. Bebita was left with no choice but to invoke her third and final wish.So, with a lot of regret and remorse, Bebita said, ‘I wish my mum and Momita could talk again.’ Within minutes, they started talking. But this time, all three were subdued, feeling slightly silly for having wasted their three wishes on trivial things.