By Vivek Chandra Katragadda, Grade VII

High above the clouds of India, were the heavens. These heavens were inhabited by a divine, serene and  powerful race called Gods. Their leader was the strongest of all and created humans. He was as old as the Earth itself and went by the name Vishnu.

Vishnu was the God of the sky. He was as smart as a fox and as strong as an elephant. He brandished a weapon known as ‘Chakravarthya’, which he used for mass destruction and creation. If he wanted to, Vishnu could grow as big as a hill. He had a brother called Varuna, who controlled the rain and the oceans. He brandished a wicked ‘Scythe’. Varuna was very generous and made it rain whenever the people asked.

One day, Vishnu decided to check on the village of the people. He transformed into an eerie, enormous eagle and flew towards the village. He was furious upon reaching the village as the streets were clogged with water. The people were joyfully talking, while not even paying attention to the free flow of water. They were acting as blind as a bat in the morning! The village smelled like rotten sewers. Vishnu was infuriated with Varuna for carelessly giving water to the humans.

He flew back to the heavens and summoned Varuna. When Varuna entered the royal court of Vishnu and saw how angry Vishnu was, he asked, “What is the matter, brother? Have you lost ‘Chakravarthya’ again?”.  

Vishnu boomed as his winged weapon magically appeared in his hand, “No, I have not! I am angry because of you being as careless as a human!”.

“What have I done, brother?” questioned Varuna calmly. Then, Vishnu roared as loud as a lion, “You have carelessly given the humans water and rain, whenever they asked. Now, look at the streets, waterlogged and smelling like garbage. Varuna, you should fix this soon or there will be consequences.”   

“I wi…will” stuttered Varuna nervously and zoomed back to his palace. He decided that to stop the problem he would talk to the humans.

Back at the village, the humans suddenly heard a hoarse voice from the sky saying, “My humans, it is me, Varuna. I have given you an endless amount of rain and water whenever you asked, but you have wasted it. That is why I have decided to punish you. From now on, whenever you waste water again, I will send floods to destroy you. But, when you need water, you shall pray to me and save water. This is my order and if you don’t follow, there will be consequences.”

The humans learned their lesson for the cost of exhaustion of precious resources and decided to follow the words of Varuna and behaved as ordered.