Yama and Kama

There was a girl called Rishi, and she was the weirdest girl ever. She was twelve years old.

First thing in the morning, she would brush her teeth, take a shower, go to the loo, and then iron her own clothes, fold them, and keep them neatly in the cupboard. She would finish her homework before anything else.

When she came back from school, the first thing she would do was finish her homework. Her mummy would say, "Okay, come watch TV with me." But Rishi would reply, "Oh no, Mummy, I have so much work. I want to read some books instead of wasting time on TV."

If her mother gave her pasta, she would say, "No, no, I need to eat healthy food. I want leafy vegetables, spinach, and carrots. I don't want to eat unhealthy food."

Her parents said, "What is with this girl? She wants to eat healthy all the time and do all her homework on time—not one minute late!" Her teachers were amazed. "My God, she's impeccable," they said.

At seven o'clock every evening, she would take out all her books and tidily remove all the dog-ears, organize her timetable, and take notes. She would sleep at 7:30 PM and wake up at 5:30 AM. Her parents were like, "Wow, what is wrong with this girl? Are we sure there isn't some problem?"

Every day they would say, "Okay, Rishi, you work all day. Play for one hour." She would say, "No, no, no, I can't play. I have to work, work, work."

My God! Her parents were a little worried about her, and her friends said she was really weird. Everybody used to call her Weird Rishi. But she always came first in her class. No fun, all work—she was obsessed with it. Even if she did a little bit of fun sometimes, she would feel guilty about it. "Oh my God, I wasted so much time! I could have finished my math homework. I could have done some revision."

Her daddy used to say, "Come on, girl, have some fun! You should have balance between work and fun."

So one day she was out in the yard. Her dad said, "Go and play for some time." Reluctantly, reluctantly, she went out. Even then, she was still thinking about her math homework. "Oh my God, that problem—I took two minutes to solve it. Maybe if I revise it again and again, I can solve it in one minute."

Then suddenly, she saw this weird-looking person in the garden. She said, "Who are you?"

This guy was wearing very, very weird clothes—very puffy, puffy clothes. He had this really silly turban on his head, and the turban went up like the Taj Mahal. He had a sugar cane in his hand and these spectacles—one lens was green, one was red.

She said, "My God, who are you, you weird person?"

The person looked at her very surprised and said, "Who are you in my garden? You mean you can see me?"

She said, "Of course, you silly man! I can see you in your silly clothes, your silly turban, and your silly spectacles. Of course I can see you!"

He said, "Oh my God, you can see me? Okay, tell me, what color is my nose?"

She said, "Your color is brown, but your nose seems like black. Why?"

"Whoa! How can you see me? Nobody has ever seen me for the last five hundred years!"

She said, "Are you kidding me?"

He said, "You try." So she called out, "Mama, Mama, come out!"

Her mother came out. "What happened? What happened, Rishi?"

She said, "See, Mummy, this man in our garden!"

Her mother said, "Are you imagining things? That's why I tell you, don't work so hard and sleep on time. There is nobody in the garden. What are you imagining?"

So Rishi suddenly realized that there was somebody in the garden only she could see. Nobody else could see him.

Her mummy went inside. Rishi said, "Okay, I believe you. Who are you?"

He said, "I am—my name is Kama. I am Lord Kama. I am the Lord of Fun. I do things to people so that they can enjoy life and have fun. I have no discipline in life. And that is why God turned me invisible so that people don't see me. He feels I misguide people, but I am actually the Lord of Fun."

She said, "Really? Who are you? Why did they make you invisible?"

He said, "One day there was a boy. He was very, very serious, but I did magic on him. You know, I have this magical bow, which is made of flowers. I take an arrow which is made of flowers, and I shoot it at people. The flowers come and hit people, and then they get all sorts of funny, funny ideas. They become fun-loving and dreamers.

"So I had this boy. Once he was serious, I threw my arrow at him, and he became a dreamer. His name was Sheikh Chilli.

"One day his dad told him, 'Take this—we have extra milk from the cow. Why don't you go and sell it in the shop, in the market?' So he said, 'Okay.'

"He took one jar of milk and started dreaming. Because he had got the flowers in his head, he thought, 'Oh my God, I've got this milk. I'm going to go and sell it, and I'll make one gold coin. I'll save half of it. Tomorrow I'll sell two, then I'll make two coins. The day after, with these two, I'll be able to buy more milk and sell three, and I'll get three coins. Next week I can sell six. Next month I can sell ten. Then I can buy another cow. Then I can buy ten cows. Then I can have a big car and a big poultry farm!'

"He started dreaming, dreaming, dreaming. This silly Lord Kama had given him the power of dreaming. Suddenly, he was dreaming so much that he hit a stone because he was not looking in front. He fell down. He broke the tumbler, and all the milk spilled on the floor. He got really angry and said, 'You silly man, you made me a dreamer! You will be invisible!'

"So I've been carrying that curse since then because I created Sheikh Chilli."

Then suddenly, another God—another Lord—came behind Rishi and said, "Rishi, don't listen to this person. He's invisible. He is all trouble. He is just all fun, no work."

She said, "Who are you?"

He said, "I am Lord Yama. I am the Lord of discipline, work, hard work, dedication. I have captured your mind. That is why you are so hardworking. I do not let people like him around you."

She said, "Really? You have captured me? Yes, that's why I'm always doing homework, homework, homework, homework."

He said, "Yes."

So then the Lord of Fun said, "Do you know this Yama fellow? He has created so many people who are all work and have no brain. Why don't you tell her the story? Yama, why don't you tell the story of the boy you created called Mithika Madhava?"

Both Yama and Kama had told their stories to Rishi. Yama was full of discipline and had created people like Mithika Madhava and Gangu Teli—people who would just work, work, work and have no fun. And Kama could create dreamers and people who would have fun all day but have no discipline to do any work.

So she was very tempted. Where to go? Where to go?

And she said, "Both of you, I do not want either one of you! I want both of you to buzz off from my garden. Get out of my garden! I only want 50% of Yama and 50% of Kama."

"Oh, that's not possible! That's not possible!"

She said, "It's going to be possible. Please get out of my garden right now, otherwise—"

So both of them came together and blessed her. They gave her 50% of fun and games and 50% of discipline and hard work. And she became 50% Yama and 50% Kama.

And that's how you should be. You should not be so hardworking that you forget about fun. And you should not have so much fun that you forget about work.

So that is the moral of the story.