Savita and Kavita are neighbors. They go to same school and they are in the same class. In their class, there are some non-local students, who speak different mother tongues. There is one Guajarati girl, two Tamil girls, three Bihar girl, and four kanada girls.
Savita loves to learn languages. She also understands that people feel happy if you speak to them in their language. She made friends with the non-local students and tried to pick-up some words, phrases and simple sentences from their languages. She frequently surprises them by greeting them in their in their language. Her friends feel very happy. Encouraged by Savita’s attitude, her friends too start leaning one another’s language.
Kavita is very good at studies. She is a wonderful girl too. But she had little appreciation for other languages. She makes fun of the non-local girls and their language.
One day their teacher happened to notice Kavita’s behavior, and she developed concern, as Kavita was her favorite student. She also thought there may be more girls in the class with the same attitude. She decided to check it immediately. To begin with, she told them a story of Birbal and Akbar, as her students loved them.
Once a traveler, who could speak numerable languages came to the court of Emperor Akbar and said, `I challenge you to find out what my mother tongue is. If you fall to do so, you will have to accept defeat.’ The traveler gave Akbar seven day’s time and Akbar accepted the challenge. Akbar passed on the job to his courtiers. They asked the traveler many questions in different languages.
The traveler answered the entire question in their respective languages. He spoke all the languages as fluently as one speaks one’s mother tongue. Six days passed and the courtiers could not find out what the traveler’s mother tongue was.
On the seventh day when Birbal came to know about the traveler’s challenge, he told Akbar that by the next day he would find out what the traveler’s mother tongue is. Akbar wondered how he would do it, because the traveler spoke all languages fluently.
The traveler was staying at an inn in the city. That night when he was fast asleep, Birbal quietly entered his room. He tickled the traveler’s ear with a blade or dry grass. The traveler was disturbed, but he went off to sleep again. Birbal tickled his ear again. This time the traveler was wide awake and he shouted angrily in Guajarati, `hey! Who is it/ who is disturbing me/’ he looked around, but Birbal hid behind the curtain and the traveler did not see him. The traveler they went back to asleep.
On the seventh day, when the court assembled, the traveler arrived. Birbal spoke to him in different languages. He then said to Akbar, `your majesty, this traveler is mother tongue is Gujarati’. The traveler was surprise. He accepted defeated and left the court.
Later Akbar Birbal how he could find out what the traveler’s mother tongue is. Birbal answered, `very simple, your majesty! A man speaks his mother tongue, when he is in distress or when he is suddenly woken up from deep sleep. Also when I spoke to him in different languages, I noticed a glow in his eyes when he spoke Gujarati.’ When the teacher finished the story, she saw that the students were motivated.