The Tiny Fish That Grew and Grew

A king saved a small fish. It kept growing. When the flood came, that fish saved everyone.

King Manu cupped his hands in the river one morning and a tiny fish swam in. It begged to be saved. He took it home in a little pot. By next morning the fish was too big for the pot. By the next, too big for a tank. The fish kept growing. By the time Manu realised who it really was, a great flood was on its way, and the world was about to need exactly this fish.

A King by the River

Long ago, by the soft brown waters of a river called the Kritamala, the sun was just coming up. A man stood waist-deep in the cold morning water with his eyes closed. His silk dhoti floated around him. His grey-streaked hair was wet at the ends. The pebbles under his feet were smooth and round.

He was a king. His name was Manu.

Every morning, before he did anything else, Manu came down to this river and did his sandhya. He cupped his hands, lifted water to the sun, and quietly said the names he had learned from his father.

This morning, when he cupped his hands, something small and silver swam into them.

The Fish in His Hands

It was a tiny fish. The size of his thumbnail. Two black eyes, no bigger than poppy seeds. It looked up at him.

And then, somehow, it spoke.

"Please, O King," the little fish said. "Do not put me back. The bigger fish in this river will eat me. Take me with you."

Manu blinked. He had been doing his sandhya every morning for forty years. Nothing like this had ever happened.

He was a kind king. He did not stop to argue. He gently lifted the tiny fish out of the river, walked back to the palace with it cupped in his hands, and dropped it into a small clay pot of water on his windowsill.

"You are safe now, little one," he whispered.

Bigger and Bigger

The next morning, Manu came to feed the fish.

The pot was too small.

The little fish from yesterday now filled the entire pot. Its tail was bent against the side. Its eyes were the size of his fingernails.

"O King," the fish said politely. "This pot is too small. Could you find me something bigger?"