The Pujari and the Enormous Fish

An oral story from Darbhanga, Bihar, collected for The Story Birds

A pair of nesting pond herons were grumbling lovingly at each other. This year, too, along with a dozen other heron couples, they had built their large untidy nest of twigs in the big tamarind tree by the pond. The old tree was white with the droppings of generations of herons and their chicks, and bore their nests patiently upon its spreading branches.