The Old ‘‘Panta (Cold Rice Soaked in Water)’’ Lady

            Once there was an old lady who was very fond of cold rice and so she ate cold rice everyday for breakfast.

  

Cooked rice soaked in water overnight is called cold rice or ‘panta’ in Bangladesh, and is a popular food in breakfast for the rural people. The people in the village called the old lady ‘panta lady’.

            One day, the old lady woke up to find that someone had been in her kitchen and finished with the pot of cold rice. Furious at not having panta for breakfast, the old lady spent a troubled day. The next day, too, she found her rice pot empty and unable to bear it any longer, she set out for the king’s palace to complain about the rice thief.

            On her way, she passed by a tree bearing ripe wood apples. One of the fruit spoke out, ‘old lady, where are you going in such a hurry?’ The old lady answered, ‘I am going to tell the king about a rice thief who is stealing my rice for breakfast’. Then the fruit spoke,’ on your way back home, you could pick one fruit, perhaps it can be of some help to you’. ‘Very well’ answered the old lady’ and resumed her journey.

            Pretty soon she came across a cow grazing. The cow lifted her head and asked where she was going. The old lady told her about the rice thief and where she was going. Then the cow said, ‘I will save some cow dung, on your way back home you can take it, it could be of some help to you’. The old lady thanked her and started to walk. On her way towards the palace, she had to cross a brook, and a fish called ‘shingy’ lifted her head and said, ‘old lady where are you going? Again she told the fish where she was going and why. Then the fish said, ‘I will be waiting for you, perhaps you could pick me up on your way back home. I could be of some help to you’. The old lady thanked the fish and started to walk.

            When she reached the king’s palace at the end of the day, she was disappointed to learn that the king had left for hunting with his men and would not be back for several days. She decided not to wait and so started to walk back home.

            As she passed by the brook, she picked up the fish and put it inside a bag. Then she neared the meadow where the cow was grazing. The cow gave her the cow dung, which she wrapped in a banana leaf. When she came near the wood apple tree, she picked a fruit and thanked the free and started to walk.

On reaching her house, she put the cow dung on the door steps, the fish inside the rice pot and the wood apple in the earthen hearth. Then she put some hot charcoal in the hearth and went to sleep.

          

          Late that night, the thief came, and went near the rice pot as usual. As soon as he put his hand inside the pot, the fish stung his hand with its sharp fins. Groaning with pain, he ran towards the blazing hearth to warm his hand when the roasted wood apple burst out, sending pieces of hot chunks over his face and body. All this noise awoke the old lady and when she saw the thief, she let out a loud cry. The thief, frightened out of his wit’s end, ran towards the door and stepping on the cow dung, slipped and fell with a loud bump. But he managed to get up and run never to steal the old lady’s rice. Thus the old panta lady got rid of the thief.