In a very small village named Ramolihat, there lived only six families. Among them was an elderly couple who had spent their entire lives together. The old lady and her husband, both around seventy years old, enjoyed each other’s company and would talk all day long. Their love for each other was evident in everything they did.

One particularly cold day, it drizzled continuously, adding to the chill. As the evening approached, the old man asked his wife, “Do we have any gram flour in the house?” The old lady, after checking, replied that there was just a little bit of gram flour left at the bottom of the container.

Hearing this, the old man mentioned that he felt like eating pakoras that day. Without hesitation, the old lady went ahead and made pakoras with the gram flour they had. After the pakoras were ready, the old man reminded her, “You know the tradition in the village. Whenever any good food is made, it must be shared with all the families. So we should distribute these pakoras.”

The old lady found herself in a dilemma. She realized there were only five pakoras, making it impossible to distribute them evenly among the other families. She then suggested to her husband that they could share the pakoras with the villagers another time.

Agreeing with her suggestion, the old man watched as the old lady placed three pakoras on his plate and kept two for herself. However, neither of them wanted to take the larger share. After some thought, the old man suggested cutting one pakora in half so they could each have two and a half pakoras. Yet, the old lady wasn’t in favour of breaking a pakora into pieces. Instead, they decided that whoever got up first in the morning would get the larger share.

As night fell, neither of them wanted to rise first, as their love for each other made them both unwilling to take the better portion. The next morning, the couple remained in bed, leading the other five families to believe that something was wrong. When the villagers noticed that the old lady and her husband were not awake, they assumed the worst—that the couple had passed away in their sleep. After some discussion, they decided to break open the door and enter the house.

Upon entering, the villagers began talking about taking the couple to the cremation ground. At that moment, the old man, finding it hard to stay silent any longer, suddenly blurted out, “All right, you eat only two. I will eat three.” Hearing this unexpected voice, the villagers panicked. They mistakenly believed that the couple were ghosts discussing eating the families of the village.

In a rush, they all fled back to their homes, scared out of their wits. Meanwhile, the old lady and her husband, now fully awake, enjoyed the pakoras as they had planned. Later, when the other villagers realized what had happened, they all had a hearty laugh, understanding why the old couple had been lying silently for hours.

A Folkstory from Himachal Pradesh sourced from Folktales of Himachal Pradesh compiled by Seethalakshmi, K. A.

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