AMMA SAYS - STORIES & JOKES

[Guest guest]

OM AMRITESWARYAI NAMAH

 

AMMA SAYS - JOKE

 

Mother in-law's Parrot

 

You are all familiar with the classical mother-in-law / daughter-in-

law conflict. The mother-in-law always starts arguments with her

daughter-in-law over petty household matters. There was one such

mother-in-law who would always curse her daughter-in-law,

yelling, "Get lost! Drop dead!".

 

Now, it so happened that this mother-in-law had a pet parakeet.

Constantly overhearing the mother-in-law's curses towards the

daughter-in-law, it had cleverly picked up the same demeaning

phrases. It would always repeat after the mother-in-law, rebuking

the daughter-in-law, squarwking, "Get lost! Drop dead!" It got to a

point where even when the mother-in-law was not around, the parrot,

on it own, would squawk, "Get lost! Drop dead!" at the son's wife.

 

She was of course getting quite fed up with all of this. It was bad

enough that the mother was cursing her, but to have a parrot

screaming at her all the time was just too much to bear. So one day,

when the mother-in-law was out, the daughter-in-law decided to get

rid of the parrot, once and for all. She took it to her friend's

house and told her to keep it.

 

The girlfriend knew of a certain very scholarly and pious man living

nearby. This man also owned a parrot. So she thought it would be a

good idea to give the mother-in-law's parrot to this scholar. Then

the two birds could have company. So she gave the parrot away. Now,

the scholar's parrot, from having lived in the scholar's ashram-like

home, had learnt to repeat very pious and kind words. Just as the

scholar would bless his visitors, saying, "O God, listen to his

prayer and bless him," the parrot would say the same thing.

 

The scholar put the two parrots in the same cage. Now, whenever

visitors came to his house, the two feathery friends would bless

them accordingly. The scholar's parrot would of course say "O God,

listen to his prayer and bless him!." But the mother-in-law's parrot

would jump forward and say, "Get lost! Drop dead!".

 

"Children, deeply rooted are our past tendencies and habits.

Changing circumstances is not enough; to overcome them requires

great effort."

::

AMMA SHARANAM