Kelchawngi
Long ago, there lived a young girl called Kelchawngi. One day, as her parents were about to leave for the fields, her mother said,
“Kelchawng, cook the pumpkin today.”
“Did you say cook my little sister?”
Kelchawngi asked. Thinking she spoke in jest, her mother left without giving it a second thought.
But Kelchawngi believed her mother asked her to cook her sister (for the Mizo word for pumpkin is ‘mai’ and younger sibling is ‘nau’ which sounds fairly similar when heard from a distance), so she took the mortar and asked her sister to put her hand in it promising not to hurt her. At first, the little girl refused. Then Kelchawngi pleaded with her sister and this time she asked her to place her head in the mortar. Finally, her sister agreed. Soon as she placed her head in the mortar, Kelchawngi hit her sister with the pestle and killed her, then proceeded to cook her for dinner.
In the evening, her parents returned from the field and asked, “Kelchawng, where is your sister?”. Not knowing what to say, “She’s gone to see the neighbour’s sial (Indian bison)”, she replied. As the little sister did not return home, her parents asked her again where she was. “She’s fetching water”, Kelchawngi answered. Later, Kelchawngi said she had gone to collect firewood and came up with every other excuse she could think of. Even when all those working in the fields returned home, the sister was nowhere to be seen and her parents got quite worried.
By and by, her parents said, “Serve the pumpkin you have cooked.” Then, Kelchawngi ladled out her sister’s head and arm from the pot. At this, her parents were horrified and exclaimed, “Isn’t this your sister’s head? Are these not her limbs?” But Kelchawngi replied,
“Not at all, this is the head, the head of wild game my grandfather shot long ago,
The limb, the limb of wild game my grandfather shot long ago.”
The limb, the limb of wild game my grandfather shot long ago.”
“Ni suh e. Hmana ka pu sa kah lu lu a ni,
Hmana ka pu sa kah ban ban a ni.”
Hmana ka pu sa kah ban ban a ni.”
Realizing she had cooked her sister, her parents were sorely grieved and very angry.
One day, her parents asked Kelchawngi to dry some tobacco on the roof. They lifted her up to the rooftop. Once her task was done, the parents refused to take her down. Crying, she begged her parents, “Mother, take me down, father take me down”, but her parents lent a deaf ear to her pleas and said, “This is for cooking your sister.”
In despair, Kelchawngi looked up to the skies and cried to Pu Vana, the god of the heavens,
“Old Father Sky, please lower your woven ropes,
So I may climb up to the sky.”
So I may climb up to the sky.”
On hearing her pleas, Pu Vana gently lowered his woven ropes. Kelchawngi caught the ropes and went up to live in the heavens.
Pu Vana dressed her in the finest garments and ornaments – necklaces, bangles, exquisite raiment. Clad in these fineries, Kelchawngi lowered herself onto the roof of her house again. As she did so, her bangles and jewels made a merry sound. On hearing the sound, her parents asked, “Who is on top of our roof?”. “It is I, the child you did not want”, replied Kelchawngi. “Of course, we do want you. Come, let us lower you from the roof”, said her parents. But Kelchawngi refused and once more, she climbed up to the sky. It is said she still lives there today in great comfort.