The Merciless King

Sultan Rehimur was a great king but he was very finicky. If he would wear a crown, the crown had to fit exactly up to half of his forehead. If the craftsmen made any crown bigger or smaller he would shave half their moustache off and make them wear skirts and half-cut blouses in public. If his palate had more than the right amount of saltiness he would make the cook eat ten hot mirchis. If that made the cook's eyes water, Sultan Rehimur would make his royal cook eat neem leaves for a whole month.

But secretly Sultan was not to be blamed for these measures. This was because the king was quite bald and the crown had to be the right size to hide his clean head. The punishment of the cook was recommended if you knew Rehimur could not enjoy spicy food. A rich cuisine made him fart in court and that made all the beautiful ladies giggle.

But there was no other greater fault in the king than his vanity. He loved to dress up in the evening and go for horse riding on a black shiny stead named fondly by him as Talwar. That was because the stead was really fast and made good time.

One day, Rehimur followed with his retinue of servants came to the local bazaar to show off his new king's robe to the public gathered there at large. Now the evening bazaar was teeming with vendors selling sweets, fruits, Persian rugs and liquor. There were flies moving around and some of the flies caught the scent of the horse and started to buzz around it. The horse started stepping forward and backwards and tossing its great head. Many of the servants rushed forward to take hold of the horse's rein. Sultan Rehimur seeing flies on the horse's mane swung his sword to strike down the flies but the flies only flew away but Talwar jumped at being swung at with a sword. In the commotion, no one saw a blind man crossing the road. He was directly behind Sultan Rehimur's horse and Talwar's swishing tail caught the beggar in the face. "Oh, a beautiful damsel you are!" exclaimed the beggar and raised his hand to stroke the horse's tail. The horse which was already agitated kicked at the old beggar who let out a curse and fell into a fruit stall.

The beggar exclaimed, "Bari nakhrewali hay" which means "what a diva you are!"

Now a young street urchin looked up at the Sultan's face and pointing at the king jeered," Mucchar Nakhrewali!" which means," a moustached diva". Some of the lady customers started chuckling and some tried best to suppress their giggles behind their burkas. The King was red in the face and called the guards to arrest the old, blind beggar.

The next day the beggar was produced in the court before the Jahapana and his courtiers. The scribe of the royal court stood up and demanded silence. When all had stopped whispering and pointing, he cleared his throat and spoke," do you old man know why you have been brought before this court?"

The beggar held his head high and whimpered," it's because of jealousy."

The Sultan spoke up," what do you mean?" the king demanded to know.

The beggar fixed his blind eyes on the king and sang," oh what is to be my fate, I have incurred the king's hate, because I love nakrewali."

The king blushed crimson and tried to lower his face into his high collared coat.

"What are you ranting about you old fool?", screamed the scribe.

"I am saying that the king is jealous that I love his horse more than Jahapanha"

Sultan spoke again," whom did you call nakrewali yesterday in full view of public?"

The beggar shook his head and cried," Jahapanha, I fell in love with your magnificent horse and was admiring his silk tail when he gave me a kick. That is why I called him nakrewali."

Sultan Rehimur was silent, closed his eyes, prayed, then suddenly laughed," what an ass I have been! This man has made a donkey out of me."

He motioned to the guards who came forward," release this old man and give nakrewali, I mean talwar two lumps of sugar."

Soon the story of the old beggar and nakrewali spread all throughout the kingdom and it became a custom to call a kicking mane nakrewali.