Once upon a time, a poor mother lived with her two daughters. The mother did odd jobs to make ends meet. Although the girls wanted to go out and work, the mother didn’t allow them to.
Even so, the two daughters realized that it was their responsibility to make some money so they could all lead better lives. However, the eldest daughter wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. The second daughter, Pushpa, was very sharp and came up with a plan. She told her sister that they could collect and sell fragrant flowers to make money.
When the elder sister asked how they would get such flowers in the first place, Pushpa described the various steps involved in the process. The elder sister first needed to clean the house. Next, she had to fetch two pitchers of water. She then had to pour out the first pitcher of water on her younger sister without letting the water touch her fingernails. The younger sister would then transform into a tree laden with flowers. Without breaking any branches or plucking leaves from the tree, she had to pick the flowers. She then had to pour the water in the second pitcher so the younger sister would change back to her human form.
While the elder sister didn’t believe this story, she meticulously cleaned the house and poured the first pitcher of water on her younger sister. Pushpa immediately transformed into a tree with fragrant flowers. The elder sister then collected as many flowers as she could and poured the second pitcher of water on the tree, restoring it to its original human form.
The sweet-smelling flowers looked beautiful. The elder sister took the flowers to the area where the rich folks lived. As she was walking down the road, the Queen crossed her path and bought some flowers from her. Impressed with the enchanting perfume of the flowers, the Queen gave her ten gold coins. The two sisters decided to keep this a secret from their mother.
Meanwhile, the Queen gave those flowers to her daughter, Nirdayi. The aromatic flowers drew the Prince’s attention as well. He decided to find out where the Queen got those flowers from. The Prince followed the elder sister and found how Pushpa turned into a flowering tree and then came back to being Pushpa. When he told the Queen that he wanted to marry Pushpa, the Queen agreed, albeit reluctantly.
Nirdayi, too, wanted to discover Pushpa’s secret. She asked her sister-in-law to join them on their picnic in the nearby royal garden. In the garden, she requested Pushpa to show how she could metamorphose into a flowering tree. Pushpa obliged. Excited to see the magical tree, Nirdayi and her friends plucked the tree leaves. They even broke several branches in their excitement to gather as many flowers as they could. They left Pushpa in the garden, badly wounded.
Luckily, some palace maids took Pushpa back to the palace. The Prince threw water from the pitcher on her and then applied medicine to the wounded leaves and branches. As the Prince poured water from the second pitcher on her, Pushpa transformed back into a healthy human being. From that day onward, she decided not to turn into the blossoming tree ever again.
Kalai is passionate about reading and reinterpreting folk tales from all over the country. Write to her at kalai.muse@gmail.com to know more about her.
Folk tale adopted and abridged from Sfipodcast.