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WISE FOOLS: TALES OF NASRUDDIN, BIRBAL AND OTHER JESTERS







FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020


PDF: WITTY TALES OF NASRUDDIN AND BIRBAL


This blog has happened a bit by accident: for National Novel Writing Month in
November, I decided to create a book of Nasruddin jokes for my dad as a
Christmas present. This is the result: 50,000 words (that's how NaNoWriMo
works), all about Nasruddin, the famous "wise fool" of the Middle East, along
with Birbal, a court jester of India. Please feel free to download and read! I'm
going to do a revised version for my dad's birthday in August, and your feedback
would be very welcome. 


Here's the book to download, plus a feedback form. I hope you will like it! Yes,
it was done in haste for NaNoWriMo and is no doubt full of errors and things to
fix/improve; I've got an errata list here, and I'll do a corrected PDF after
I've accumulated a big bunch of items to correct. 

Witty Tales of Nasruddin and Birbal (PDF)





You can also get a printed copy (print on demand) from Lulu.com; it's $5.99
there, plus shipping. Lulu does a great job with the printing; I've used them
for some self-published Latin books in the past.





In this first version, the book contains 176 stories about Nasruddin and about
Birbal; it was really fun to combine the Nasruddin and Birbal traditions
together like this. There are so many stories I want to add; this is just what I
got done during the month of November for NaNoWriMo.


So, my goal here for this blog is to keep accumulating more stories that I might
consider adding to the book, and also to work on revising and editing the
stories that appear in this "first draft" of the book. 


My long-term goal is probably two books: I'll keep working on this fictional
Nasruddin-Birbal project, but in a larger sense I want to do an annotated
anthology of these stories where I can include notes, analyses, variants, etc.
That's the kind of material that I can start to develop here!

I also want to create something like a "Story Finder" that will allow people to
discover which stories appear in which books and, in particular, which stories
are told about multiple characters. Instead of trying to use traditional tale
types, I am coming up with my own typology system here. I'll be using those type
numbers as labels here at the blog to try to help keep things organized. I've
got about 600 story types so far; here is a partial listing: Story Types. You
can put one of those T numbers in the search box and see if there is a blog post
for it yet. 




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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2019


ERRATA (SO FAR...)


Glossary: for some reason page  numbers did not print.
not sure why extra blank pages in back of book (there should just be one blank
page)
I should replace all the straight quotation marks with smart-quotes.
I forgot to explain why I start calling Nasruddin "Mullah Nasruddin" in the
final chapters of the book. Argh!

TYPOS:
As Naruddin's reputation for wisdom spread
I did not come to your for advice.






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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2019


FEEDBACK FORM: NASRUDDIN AND BIRBAL, VERSION 1


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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2002


WITTY TALES. SCHOOL AND SWIMMING


During the summers, Nasruddin sometimes worked as a ferryman, taking people back
and forth across a wide river in his very small boat. "Come, Birbal," he said
enthusiastically, "and I will teach you about life on the river!"

One day, it was their honor to ferry an illustrious scholar across the river.
The scholar's fame reached far and wide, and Nasruddin was eager to engage him
in conversation, hoping to learn from the renowned gentleman. Birbal, too, had
heard of this great man, and he was sure that the scholar could enlighten them
both with his insight and wisdom.

"Good sir," said Nasruddin, "perhaps you could explain to my friend Birbal and I
the most important lessons you have learned in your travels."

The scholar only scoffed. "To my friend Birbal and ME," he said in an
exasperated tone; "me, objective form, complement of the preposition, to. In
other words: to me; to my friend Birbal and ME." The scholar then gave Nasruddin
a withering look. "Have you studied no grammar at all, sir?"

"No, sir, I haven't studied no grammar at all." When Nasruddin thought about
school, the only thing he could remember was the taste of baklava. So much so
that his mouth began to water. The honey sweetness, the delicate pastry...

The scholar's words interrupted Nasruddin's reverie. "Not any grammar at all. I
see. Indeed."

Nasruddin glumly looked down at his feet, afraid to say anything to the great
man lest he be rebuked once again.

"I venture to say," continued the scholar, "that your whole life has been
wasted. What a pity."

And with that, the scholar turned away and gazed out at the river's expanse.

Nasruddin, now feeling quite dejected, adjusted the sails in silence, hoping to
reach the other side of the river as quickly as possible. Birbal, too, felt
dismayed.

Then, without warning, a great storm began to blow. The winds and waves tossed
his little boat back and forth, and the boat began to fill with water. There was
no hope for it: the ship was going to sink; they would have to swim for shore!

Birbal had already leaped into the water and was swimming quickly away from the
sinking ship when Nasruddin turned to the scholar. "Good sir," Nasruddin
shouted, struggling to make his voice heard above the wind and the waves, "I
must sadly inform you that our little boat is now sinking. Have you studied how
to swim?"

The scholar shouted back, "No! I haven't studied swimming at all!"

"Well then," replied Nasruddin as he jumped into the river, "I would say that
your whole life is about to be wasted. What a pity."

Nasruddin and Birbal reached the shore together, wetter and wiser. As for the
scholar, he was never seen again.

What a pity.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes: I included this story in Witty Tales, version 1 (December 2019): 58.
School and Swimming.





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WITTY TALES. TIGERS


Nasruddin was pacing in concentric circles around his house, throwing handfuls
of breadcrumbs as he walked. He made one circuit around the house, and then
another, and then another.

Eventually Birbal could not suppress his curiosity and had to ask, "Nasruddin,
what are you doing?"

"I am scattering breadcrumbs all around our house."

"I can see that," Birbal replied. "But WHY are you scattering breadcrumbs all
around our house?"

"Well," said Nasruddin, "if you wanted to know why, you should have said so. I
am doing this in order to keep the tigers away."

"Tigers?" said Birbal, more than mildly alarmed. He had actually seen tigers
back home in India, and he knew how dangerous they could be. "What tigers? I
don't see any tigers!"

"Indeed," replied Nasruddin. "It works very well, doesn't it?"



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes: I included this story in Witty Tales, version 1 (December 2019): 34.
Tigers.





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This is a new website (as of December 2019) where I will be sharing tales of
Nasruddin, Birbal, and other wise jesters of the world. Thank you for visiting!

Easy-to-remember URL:
Tales.LauraGibbs.net



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RANDOM STORY

Sharing the Load
Nasruddin had gone into the forest to chop wood. He bundled up the wood but,
instead of putting the bundle on the donkey, he put the bundle on his own head.
He then clambered up on the donkey and rode into town.
"Nasruddin!" shouted one of his friends. "Why are you carrying that bundle of
wood up on your head? Doesn't it hurt?"
"It does hurt," Nasruddin admitted, "but I wanted to help share the load."
"I don't understand," said Nasruddin's friend, looking puzzled.
"This way the donkey is carrying me," explained Nasruddin, "but I'm carrying the
wood."
(Find out more here: T0266)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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LATEST POSTS

 * The Milkman's Donkey
 * T0303. My Wife Told Me to Eat It!
 * T0385. News of Nasruddin's Death
 * T0465. A Hungry Audience
 * T0384. Which Road Goes to Agra?




CONTENTS

 * Bibliography (2)
 * Errata (1)
 * Story (7)
 * Type (448)
 * Widget (1)




WITTY TALES PDF

The very rough first version of Witty Tales of Nasruddin and Birbal is available
as a free PDF download.






ABOUT ME

Laura Gibbs Dedicatedly digital! I recently retired from teaching online courses
in mythology and folklore. Now... I write blogs and books. Find out more:
LauraGibbs.net. View my complete profile



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