Flying carpets

They were very proud of the new clothes and chikan embroidery they were wearing. Mehrunnisa’s kurta was deep pink and Kehrunnisa’s, pale green. Their father Ashok was a mat maker. But for some reason not many people bought carpets from him.

He had counted. Only ten or eleven people had bought his carpets. Suddenly, one day, his wife Nisha’s mother was ill. The bad part was that she was out of station.

So poor Ashok had no choice but to send his wife and children to their grandmother. And so he did. But it cost him all the money he had. After they said their farewells and were off, it got worse.

Not one person would even come near the shop even though Ashok spent all his time making beautiful carpets.

One night, he had made a mistake in one of the carpets. But it wasn’t bad. It just looked like an old dial. So he said to himself, “I will keep this carpet because it looks a little shabbier than the others. Nobody is buying my carpets anyway.” And so he kept the carpet.

One night, he fell off his bed and noticed it was morning. He lay flat on his carpet. He saw the old dial-like shape and ran his finger around it seven times. Then the carpet started vibrating. Ashok thought it was a dream and shut his eyes. When he opened them, he was soaring high in the sky on his carpet.

He had a brilliant idea. If he made carpets with dials on them, they would fly! And somehow he managed to steer the carpet back home and noticed his family would arrive in an hour’s time. As soon as they got back home, he told them the whole story and taught them how to make carpets. Soon they were a rich family and lived happily ever after.