Reading Notes: The Giant Grab and Other Tales from Old India

The not so good wolf (Image Source).

The story that I chose to read for part one of this week comes from The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India. I chose to read The Pious Wolf because I have yet to read a story about a wolf or any other animal that is directly related to a dog so I was excited to embark on reading this story this week.

• The wolf was trapped by a flood on the rock where he was sleeping, when he woke up he realized that he had been trapped by the high waters that surrounded him. 
• When he realized that he was trapped it then crossed his mind that he would have no way of getting food, which seemed to be a problem except for the fact that it was Friday. The wolf thought about participating in a fast. He even proceeded to cross his paws and pray to appear holy. This was funny to me that he thought if he crossed his paws and prayed he would appear good.
• A fairy, this was a new character to see in these types of stories. This made the story appear to be super whimsical and exciting. The fairy wanted to test the wolf and disguised herself as a kid.  The wolf tried and tried to get the kid but the fairy would not let the wolf get to her. 
• She called the wolf out for being a fraud and for only pretending to be good and not actually being good. She punished the wolf by forcing him to stay on the rock for a whole week with no food, he would participate in a week long fast. 
• If only the wolf had been good and he only would have had to fast for one day but instead the fairy felt the wolf needed to be punished, which that appeared to be true since he could not be good and holy. 
• I liked the cheekiness in this story. I also enjoyed the incorporation of characters that I have never seen in an Indian story before. The fairy was a super interesting character that I would like to include in one of my upcoming stories.