When we say the shy is `angry’ we usually mean that the sky is full of dark thunderclouds. However the following story is adapted from an old tale called `why people park’.

The sky was very close to the ground at one time. It was no higher than the tallest person’s head. People reached up and broke off pieces of the tasty sky when they were hungry! No one had to work. All their food came from the sky. You could say it was like Munna.

This worked quite well for a while. Then the trouble started. Greedy people broke off more than they could eat sometimes. They threw the wasted sky food on the ground. these leftovers could not be eaten, not even by the animals. People felt that the sky was big enough for everyone. So what did it matter if they wasted some of it?

Although the people did not care, the sky did. It became very, very angry to see bits of itself lying on the ground half-eaten. The sky said, `I can not have this! You must stop! Your stomach growls with hunger and you break off a chunk. You take a bite and throw the rest away. You better stop, else I will so far away you will never reach me again!’

Well, at first people got the message. They were really scared. They made sure that whoever ate from the sky only took what they needed. But soon they forgot. That’s how people are. They have to be reminded to do right thing.

One day man came by. He broke off a huge chunk, enough to feed forty folk far a month. He took a nibble or two. He clicked it around the edges, the way one does with an ice –cream cone. Then he threw the rest on the ground. He walked off without looking back. The shy gave a roar, and a clap- of thunder shook the earth. It lifted itself way up, as high as it could soar, and that is really high. So high that we now call it `space’.

People saw what had happened. They wept. They cried. They sobbed. They sighed. Finally a delegation begged the sky to come back. The sky refused to answer. It kept silent. From time to time it permitted rain to fall. It did not want people to die of thirst.

After that people had to work to feed themselves. That’s why people work to this day.