Once in a great kingdom, a famous but proud king lived. He was called Taneshwar. In fact, he was remarkably brilliant and was very suitable to be the king. His wisdom always helped his people. As time passed by, he ascended the throne. In that kingdom, however, the rule was that an unmarried person cannot rule the Kingdom. So, he married Anurudha. She was the daughter of a well-known merchant. She was skilled in everything and extremely intelligent. Only after a month of their marriage, she noticed how proud Taneswar was. She decided to solve this problem because if enemies try to take advantage of this, using clever tricks, who would save them?
As the queen, she was in charge of the treasury. She thought a lot and came up with a plan. She checked every ring in the treasury and found that there was no red ring there. So, she put her plan into action the very next morning.
The next day, she came into the breakfast hall looking a little worried on purpose. ‘What happened?’, the King asked the queen. ‘I was just thinking about the ring of pride,’ said the queen. Curious, Taneshwar asked ‘What is that?’. So, Anurudha began her tale. ‘My late uncle was a great businessman. His family was well and happy. But one day, he found a pretty red ring. He loved it and wore it every day. At the time, he didn’t know that this was the ring of pride. It made him very proud and people started to cheat him. They became poor and his family of five died of starvation. As he was transferred to another country, the food we sent him didn’t reach him on time’, she sighed and announced after a grave silence, ‘I think I saw a similar ring in the treasury’. The King’s hunger vanished into thin air. He pushed the plate of food he was eating and ordered the treasury guards to collect all the rings in the treasury. The confused guards did as told. Soon, all the rings were presented before him. In the midst of the glittering gems, not one red ring was to be found. There were blue ones, green ones and even black ones, but no red ring. King went to his wife. He told her that there was no red ring. She made herself look more worried than ever. ‘What happened?’ asked Taneshwar. ‘Well,’ said Anurudha, ‘ As the legend of this ring goes, If someone saw the ring but the next day it didn’t appear, the person who wanted to look for it has summoned the ring.’ The king froze in horror. ‘what’, He stammered, ‘Wha-what can I do to prevent its evils..?’ Anurudha said, ‘There is only one way. I must give you a special lesson each day for 6 months.’ So, Anuradha gave Taneshwar a lesson on humbleness for six months. On the day of the last lesson, he asked his queen, ‘Am I free from the Ring’s evil curse?’ Anurudha laughed and told him, ‘There is no ring of pride. I wanted you to realize it’s important not to be too proud of oneself. If I had said that straight out, would you have listened to me?’ The King learnt his lesson and understood his wife’s words. They lived a happy life together.
June, 2025
