Author: Clifford Sawhney
Publisher: Unicorn Books
This great book for children is a collection of 140 hilarious, though thought-provoking tales of the highly popular trickster, Mullah Nasruddin (Nasruddin Hodja), has been meticulously collected and retold by journalist Clifford Sawhney. The lively Nasruddin dons diverse roles in these tales – while he is the wise man in some, he appears as a fool in others, he also features alternately as prankster and a victim!
On one occasion, Mullah Nasruddin is about to fall into a pond, but is saved in the nick of the moment by a passer-by. However, this turns out to be a bane of his life, as his saviour keeps reminding him of the favour he has done him. Harassed beyond endurance, the Mullah finally rids himself of the obligation in his own, inimitable fashion – by taking him to the pool and jumping into it in full public view, and then calling out to him, "I’m now as wet as I would have been if you had not saved me (that day)…now just leave me alone!"
Most of the stories are the popular ones that can be found on the Internet. They read more like anecdotes or Internet jokes rather than authentic Hodja stories, as some of them feature characters like the Pope and Rabbi Mashe apart from Nasruddin. The usage of the Hindi/ Urdu expressions for a Turkish character (Mullah) raises doubts about the extent of research done by the author. He has given his own interpretation as a post-script to each tale.
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