Titli's Great Flight to America

There was a beautiful butterfly named Titli. What was her name? Titli. She used to live in Singapore. She was a big butterfly with nice yellow wings that had beautiful patterns of unicorns on them. She was a big, sturdy butterfly. All day long, she used to fly from one flower to another, collecting nectar and pollen, and she was very happy.

But she was getting bored of just going from flower to flower. Her family never left the garden they lived in. Then somebody told her that America is a beautiful country. "Singapore is better," she knew, "but I want to visit America, not stay there."

So she told her daddy, "I want to go to America." Daddy said, "How are you going to go to America? No airplane will allow a butterfly inside." She said, "No, I want to fly to America."

Daddy said, "But darling, butterflies can only fly about 100 meters, and America is very, very far away. If you start flying, it will take you one month to get there." She said, "I really want to fly. I want to be the butterfly who flew the largest distance. I want to break the record, maybe even the Olympics record!"

Daddy said, "You can, but you have to practice a lot and plan a lot."

So Titli started practicing. Every day in Singapore, she flew rounds of the island, trying to fly as much as she could—hundreds of kilometers. Then she would go down, have water and nectar.

Her daddy gave her a map from Singapore to America. He asked, "How are you going to fly? Where are you going to stop for food and drinks? How are you going to stay safe? There could be big birds and eagles on the way that could eat you up. You have to be very careful."

She said, "Okay, Daddy, I'll be very careful. If a bird comes, I'll quickly go down to the ground and hide." Daddy still thought it wasn't a very good idea, but she insisted, "I want to go see America and come back. I want to fly very, very far away."

So she practiced and practiced. She worked hard to strengthen her wings. Finally, the day came. She had a nice meal, some drinks, said bye to her friends and family, and started flying towards America.

From Singapore, she flew all the way to Hong Kong first. That's about seven hours of flying for a butterfly. She flew and flew and got very tired. She knew she could fly for about four hours, so on the way, she stopped in Vietnam. She found a nice garden, had some nectar and water, rested for the night, and then flew to Hong Kong.

There were many birds flying on the way, but none of them troubled her. The next day, she rested and then flew from Hong Kong to Korea. Again, there were eagles, but she stayed very careful. She flew at a low height so she wouldn't attract attention. Whenever she found food on the ground, she would go down, eat, and stay very silent.

Like that, she kept flying. But the biggest challenge was from Korea to America. There was no place to land because it was all sea, and it was a 20-hour flight for a butterfly. Daddy had said, "Wherever you find a small island, go and stay there."

So she flew and flew. Whenever she found a small island, she would go down. One day, a large eagle started chasing her because he was hungry. Titli was very fast because she had practiced. She zoomed down and hid under a large flower. The eagle looked for her but couldn't find her and went away. She ate an insect, had some water, and flew again.

She was feeling very, very tired, but there was nowhere to stay—no island, no land, just sea. She thought she was going to collapse into the water, but she told herself, "I cannot collapse. I will keep going, keep going, keep going."

Then she saw a piece of land! But when she landed on it, it was actually the back of a whale! She got very scared. But she was so tired she couldn't do anything. She waited there for a minute and then flew again.

Luckily, she found a small island. She sat there and rested for 2-3 days to recover her strength. Then she flew again and finally reached America! "Wow!" she said. She was so happy to reach America.

She went to a butterfly colony in a garden where there were hundreds of butterflies. They asked, "Wow, where have you come from? You don't look like us." She said, "I've come from Singapore." "Why have you come all the way from Singapore? America is not such a good place. We want to go to Singapore!"

She said, "Wow, I'll take you back to Singapore with me." They said, "We don't have the strength to fly all the way back." She said, "Okay, I will teach you how to fly."

So she trained them. They practiced with her, developed strength in their wings, and trained for a month. During this time, Titli also saw some parts of America—the Statue of Liberty, San Francisco, Chicago. She was happy she visited, but she wanted to go back home because she believed Singapore is the best country in the world.

She took about a dozen butterflies with her and flew back the same way she came. She knew exactly where to stop, where to eat, and how to avoid the eagles and snakes. Slowly, she flew back to Singapore and met her mummy and daddy. They were very happy to see her.

She had brought so many other butterflies with her. She said, "Daddy, now I have seen the whole world. And Singapore is still the best country in the world."