Roji had asked her mother and father for a new Dokhona. Her mother used to weave Dokhona and Gamsa at home since the old days. However, these days, their traditional wooden weaving shed (hisansali) has fallen into complete disrepair and broken down. She can no longer focus on weaving like she used to. Roji herself knows quite well how to weave cloth, but if the head of the household does not repair and set up the hisansali loom at home, how can she possibly weave any fabric? Since she cannot weave it to wear, and she doesn’t have the money to buy a machine-woven Dokhona from the market either, she made up her mind. Roji decided that come what may, she would buy a new Dokhona and a matching shawl (jwmgra) for the upcoming New Year by dedicating herself to rearing chickens and goats. She had been fond of raising chickens since childhood, and Rajia knew exactly how to take good care of them.
Currently, Roji is taking excellent care of the chickens and goats she is rearing at home. The chicks are growing up well, and the goats are growing beautifully too. Month after month, the little kids are playing and skipping around actively. Seeing this, some of the villagers have even become a bit envious. Hemani, a woman from the village, told Roji just yesterday:
“You must give me a pair of your chicks for breeding, Roji. I have truly fallen in love with your chicks.”
Roji replied:
“I will give them to you, Aunty (Madwi), but let them grow up just a little bit more.”
Urmila, who was an aunt (Bimadwi) from the same village, also came to Roji and jokingly asked for a chicken on credit/as a deposit, saying:
“Just give me a broody hen (jwkhli) as a deposit/advance, Roji!”
Hearing her say this, Hemani chimed in and replied:
“Is it even permitted to take livestock like chickens as a deposit within the same village? You might take it away today, but it will just run right back home tomorrow! Traditional custom forbids taking or giving chickens, pigs, or goats as an ‘adi’ (deposit/advancement swap) within the same village. The giver shouldn’t give, and the receiver shouldn’t take.”
“But why on earth is it forbidden to take village chickens as a deposit?”
Hemani countered:
“It is just forbidden, you mischievous girl!”
Hemani did not completely finish explaining the reasoning behind why it was forbidden. They continued chatting in this manner. As other topics of conversation were brought up, the answer to the question was left incomplete, and they moved on to discussing a completely different subject.
Over the last few days, crows (daukha), eagles (sila), and foxes (siyal) had been constantly lurking around. No one could tell at what exact moment they might sneakily swoop in and snatch away the livestock. Because keeping a constant eye on them had become absolutely vital, Roji was doing her best to watch over them vigilantly.
Right near Roji’s family home, a pair of crows had built a nest in a massive Khwisi tree. Ever since they set up their nest, crows were constantly arriving day after day. From morning until dusk, they would fly close to the house and caw loudly (“ga, ga”). Hearing the continuous cawing of the crows, Rwisumwi (the mother) felt a growing sense of dread and a headache coming on. She couldn’t help but worry that some misfortune was about to strike the household. The more she associated the cawing of the crows with an impending bad omen, the more alert she became. She took extra care of her children, warned them with various instructions to make sure nothing bad happened, and kept glancing anxiously out toward the fields where her husband was working.
She kept a careful eye out to see if any dangerous things were lying around the house or if any snakes and venomous creatures had crawled in. She also cleaned up the household trash and clutter as much as possible.
A few days later, the crow’s eggs hatched into chicks. To feed her young ones, the mother crow started searching for food constantly from morning till night. To raise her own chicks, the mother crow kept her eyes fixed intently on Roji’s small baby chicks. She secretly planned to swoop down, snatch them up, and carry them to her nest to tear them apart and feed them to her babies.
Using all sorts of cunning tricks, the mother crow repeatedly snatched Roji’s baby chicks away to feed her own young. Even though Roji tried her best to rescue her baby chicks from the mother crow, she couldn’t save them. She failed to protect them whenever the crow swooped down to steal them. Because of this, she would feel deeply saddened from time to time. Roji flew into a massive rage at the crow.
Today, Roji took her younger sister and brothers early in the morning to start a flower garden right near the edge of the house’s courtyard. Following her guidance and instructions, her siblings helped her out. They planted various plant saplings that they had gathered one by one from the villagers.
While they were busy planting the flowers, a villager named Swmkhwr happened to drop by. He stood there for a moment and asked:
“Sister, brothers, and sisters—what are you all doing gathered together like this?”
Roji looked up at him with a slight smile and replied:
“We are planting flowers, brother. What will you do with these flowers?”
Roji replied with the same gentle smile as before:
“We aren’t doing anything special with them, brother. We are just planting them for their beauty.”
Swmkhwr felt happy. Seeing their hard work filled him with a sense of satisfaction. He was someone who deeply loved flowers himself and maintained a flower garden at his own house. Noticing the children looking up at him, he spoke to them thoughtfully:
“Beautiful flowers serve as an inspiration for us to live well, live peacefully, and keep moving forward in life. They do not utter a single word, yet their beauty and blooming presence give us encouragement. If one can cultivate a flower garden, it brings immense benefits to both our mental and physical well-being.”
Alongbar chimed in, saying:
“So we must love flowers, brother?”
“Yes, everyone should love them. The true meaning of loving flowers is to love one’s own life. Anyone who does not love flowers cannot truly love their own life either.”
They all appreciated Swmkhwr’s words. While continuing to plant the saplings, Roji turned to her younger brothers and said:
“We are going to make our flower garden the most beautiful one in the entire village. However, someone’s goats or piglets might come and ruin our garden, so you must always keep a vigilant eye out.”
Nerswn responded firmly:
“If anyone’s goat comes to eat our flowers, I will hurl a stone at it and send it limping back!”
Alongbar spoke up next…
…Why just make it limp? If I catch it, I will outright kill it! Why should it come and eat the flowers we planted with so much hard work?”
Roji chided:
“Why on earth would you kill someone else’s goat? You shouldn’t kill it; just keep a proper eye out. They won’t be able to cause any damage.”
While they were busy planting their flowers nearby, a mother crow flew over and began cawing loudly (“ga, ga”). Unable to stand the noise, Alongbar hurled stones at it a couple of times. Yet, the mother crow kept swooping back repeatedly and continued to caw.
Finishing up their garden work and washing her hands and feet, Roji stood back and watched the crow intently. Around the mother hen, about twelve little chicks were actively scratching the dirt for food. Right at that exact moment, the crow craftily seized its chance, swooped down, and snatched up one of the baby chicks in its talons. Chirping frantically, the baby chick kicked its legs in desperation, but it couldn’t break free. The mother hen spread her wings wide and tried her best to intercept and peck at the crow, but she wasn’t fast enough. The poor mother hen failed to rescue her baby.
Witnessing her baby chick being stolen away, Roji immediately ran chasing after it. In a fierce rage, she tracked it all the way to the crow’s nesting tree and looked up to see exactly how high up the nest was built. Because the crow had repeatedly snatched away her baby chicks, Roji made up her mind to tear its nest down completely. She didn’t just stand there staring at the tree; fueled by anger, she began climbing right up. Roji’s brothers Alongbar and Nerswn, along with her sister, stood on the ground below, staring up in absolute awe. This time, none of them said a single word to stop or oppose their elder sister. They just watched silently, waiting to see what she was planning to do.
Reaching all the way to the very top branches, Roji completely ripped the crow’s nest apart and threw it crashing down to the ground. After climbing back down from the tree, Roji gathered up the crow’s chicks and brought them straight back home with her. The mother crow, perched on a branch…
…was cawing in a terribly distressed and piercing manner. The mother crow must have felt heartbroken seeing her babies taken away after her nest was completely destroyed.
The younger brothers and sisters could not comprehend what Roji would do with the baby crows now that she had brought them home. They simply followed closely behind their elder sister. What on earth will Roji do with these baby crows? Will they be roasted, or will they be crushed and thrown away? Will some neighborhood dog end up eating them, or will their own house cat feast on them?
Upon reaching home, out of sheer spite and anger, Roji roasted the baby crows over the fire and fed them directly to the house cat. Roji’s younger brothers and sisters watched her in absolute shock. They had never even imagined that their elder sister could climb such a massive, tall tree.
When the mother received the news that Roji had climbed the tree and destroyed the crow’s nest, she flew into a massive rage. However, she wasn’t sad or angry because Raji had torn down the nest or mistreated the baby crows; rather, her fury stemmed from the fact that Roji had climbed high up into a tree despite being a female. Rwisumwi felt a wave of intense fear just thinking about what would have happened if Roji had lost her footing and fallen from the tree. The mother scolded Roji quite harshly:
“Why do you refuse to listen when you are told something is forbidden? Even though you’ve been explicitly told that it is improper for women to climb trees, why do you ignore it? How many times do I have to repeat myself to you? What will the villagers think of you? No one will consider you to be of good character. When you grow up, we will find it incredibly difficult to arrange your marriage. If suitors come by and find out you possess such unrefined, uncharacteristic behavior, no young man will ever step forward to marry you!”
Hearing her mother’s words, Roji suddenly felt a surge of anger herself. The crow had single-handedly destroyed her poultry by snatching her baby chicks one by one. Roji had simply taken revenge for the immense grief the crow had caused her. Hearing her mother invoke the traditional prohibitions yet again, she sharply shot back…
“Why on earth is it forbidden? Your list of ‘forbidden’ things never ends, no matter what I do! If I were to follow every single one of your prohibitions, the losses in my life would never end.”
“But why did you have to be the one to climb the tree? Couldn’t you have asked someone else to do it?”
“Who else would climb it for me? The crow was snatching away my baby chicks one by one every single day—who else is going to feel that anger? Only the person who actually suffers the pain and bears the loss will feel the rage. Once the damage is already done, who is really going to come and help? I am tired of waiting around and relying on others. Some people might even be secretly happy to hear that the crow has been carrying off my little chicks!”
“Just you dare climb a tree one more time…!”
Rwisumwi threatened her daughter sternly. Yet, Roji couldn’t completely brush aside her mother’s strict prohibitions either. Whenever they wanted to make a spiced mango salad, she would climb up to pluck the mangoes that the pole couldn’t reach; when her mother wasn’t around and her father was out ploughing, she would carry hot rice out to the fields, dig soil to mend the mud ridges, climb on top of water buffaloes, and even try her hand at ploughing. No matter what his daughter did, her father never placed any restrictions or barriers on her. The father didn’t keep a very close watch on where the children went or what they were doing, but the mother constantly kept track of them from morning until they went to bed. Sometimes she would chase them down with a stick in her hand or give them a beating when necessary; her scolding and strictness were a constant presence, used whenever she felt it was required. However, her reprimands and warnings were never meant to harm her daughter—they were solely intended to correct her, teach her, and guide her onto the right path. To raise a person properly, maintaining firm reins of discipline is absolutely essential.
Rwisumwi always wished for the absolute best for her children. She deeply desired for all of them to possess excellent moral character. She knew that the ultimate way to live a happy, peaceful life and to progress successfully is to always keep one’s personal conduct and character upright.