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A Baby Lion Learns To Roar

By Indu Rana; Illustrations by Gurmeet Singh; Published by National Book Trust, India

Once upon a time, in a faraway jungle, there lived a Papa Lion with his son, a cute and cuddly Little baby Lion. Papa Lion loved him very much. But he was also very worried. The baby Lion had still not learnt to roar. For that matter he could not even growl.

One day Papa Lion decided to appoint a tutor to teach his son how to roar. He asked Jackknife, the Jackal, to be his son’s tutor. The next morning Mr. Jackknife bathed, shaved, dressed up smartly and came over to the lion’s cave. The baby Lion had never seen such an interesting tutor.

Mr. Jackknife opened the lesson. "This is how to do it," he said,

"Watch me." He turned towards the sky and whined "ooo-woo, oooh-wooo".

"Ooo-wooo, Oooh-wooo", said the baby Lion. That was simple.

They both went proudly over to Papa Lion. Papa Lion asked his son: "What have you learnt?"

The baby Lion turned towards the sky and said, "Ooo-wooo, Wooo-Oooh."

Papa Lion became furious. "You call that a roar?" he asked and roared angrily.

Mr. Jackknife was terribly frightened and ran away.

Next day, Papa Lion hired a new tutor – the elephant. Mr. Hophop was a strict teacher. He put the Baby Lion on his back and took him to the river side. "I understand that all you do all day long is to roam around and chat with birds and butterflies," said Mr. Hophop very seriously," and that you come here to catch fish every day."

"Oh yes, Sir," said the baby Lion. "Mr. White, the rabbit, and I enjoy it very much."

The baby Lion was delighted. He thought maybe they were now going to catch fish instead of studying. But Mr Hophop said sternly: "All that is very well but you must pay attention to your studies.I shall teach you how to roar."

Saint Longbeak, the crane, was standing in the river, meditating with his eyes closed, waiting for a fish to come by.

He opened an eye and said, "Well, if you gentlemen are going to roar around here you will scare away my fish." The baby Lion began to laugh.

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