In a village, there lived a husband and wife who were very happy together. They had a beautiful baby girl. But they hadn't even given her a name yet - because they were too busy fighting with each other. Even though the baby was just six months old, the couple decided to separate.
Then came another fight: who would raise the baby?
"You take care of her!" said the husband.
"No! You're the one who should!" said the wife.
As they kept fighting over that, one day, the husband got a phone call. A friend reminded him,
"There's an old grandmother who's our distant relative, living on a mountain near your village. My mom's been asking for a long time to buy her two sarees. I'm sending you the money. Can you please buy and deliver them to her?"
The husband, who received the money, was very happy. He thought to himself that he could go to that village and maybe go somewhere else from there.
The wife, on the other hand, grew suspicious.
"What if he leaves me and runs away? I'll be left alone with the baby!"
So she, too, decided to go along. She said, "Let's all go together, why should only you go?"
So, they both bought the sarees and went to the nearby village and climbed up the mountain to visit the grandmother. They gave her the sarees, groceries, and food items. They were chatting happily with her.
Then the husband said he had to take a phone call and walked away. The wife, too, left under another excuse. Both had secretly planned to leave - and they did.
They left the six-month-old baby with the old woman and vanished.
The baby was now left with the grandmother. But the grandmother couldn't speak - she was mute.
Some people from the nearby village came and asked her,
"What are you going to do with this baby, grandma? Where are her parents?"
The grandmother pointed to where they were last seen and indicated that they were missing.
They told her, "Fine… a baby can't stay without a mother or father. They'll definitely return. Just wait for a few days."
And so, they waited… and waited… but the parents never came back.
The baby started to grow little by little, always looking at the grandmother.
Whoever came by - to buy vegetables or collect firewood from the mountain - would sometimes scold the child:
"Your parents used this poor old woman to leave you here and ran off!"
Because of that, the words "mother" and "father" became upsetting to the girl.
And she couldn't speak - after all, how could she learn to speak if there was no one to teach her?
Visitors would come and go - a few words here and there, then they'd leave.
The little girl would always be near a neem tree next to the house.
So, the people in the village started calling her "Vembu" (which means Neem in Tamil).
Time passed. The people who had once tricked the grandmother now started tricking Vembu too.
Eventually, the grandmother grew too old and passed away.
Now, Vembu was completely alone in that forest village house.
Because she had spent a few years with her grandmother, she had learned how to cook a bit, take care of herself, grow vegetables, and harvest them.
Her hands were considered lucky - anything she planted would grow well and healthily.
So, people in the village would give her some small items or snacks and, in return, take 1 or 2 kilos of vegetables from her.
But while they had only mildly taken advantage of the grandmother, they started fully exploiting Vembu.
But Vembu didn't understand whether she was being tricked or treated kindly - because she didn't know how to identify those emotions.
No one was around to teach her.
Some more time passed.
One day, a parrot that lived nearby kept watching Vembu.
One day, Vembu was trying to plant a tree, but she didn't notice a pit nearby.
Just then, a rabbit jumped past her, and as she turned to look, she tripped and almost fell into the pit.
The parrot screeched,
"Watch out! Don't fall!"
Somehow, Vembu managed to regain her balance and avoided falling in.
She was shocked - the parrot spoke!
She looked at the parrot and wondered,
"Can you really speak?"
"I can speak very well!" said the parrot proudly.
Vembu was very happy.
"Will you teach me to speak?" she asked.
"Of course!" said the parrot.
"Okay," said Vembu.
"First, say Amma (Mother), then Appa (Father)," the parrot began.
But the moment she heard those two words, Vembu's face darkened.
She got angry. Without saying a word, she went inside the house.
The parrot was confused.
"What did I say wrong? Why did she get so angry?"
It didn't understand.
Still, the parrot stayed close by, circling around Vembu's home, waiting for her to come back.
But Vembu stayed angry.
Later that day, a woman who came to collect firewood saw Vembu and started scolding her.
She shouted,
"Because of you, that poor old grandma lost her life! First, your parents disappeared, then the grandma too!"
Vembu didn't understand everything the woman said - just that she was being scolded.
She didn't know the meaning, but she felt sad and tears started rolling down her cheeks.
The parrot saw this and suddenly understood.
"Oh! So this little girl was abandoned by her parents.
That's why she gets angry when she hears the words Amma and Appa!"
The parrot gently flew nearby with a flower in its beak and said,
"I'm so sorry… I didn't know your situation.
Please forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just wanted to be your friend."
Hearing that, Vembu felt a little better.
She was happy to have a friend.
As Vembu felt comforted by the parrot, a monkey who had been watching everything nearby came forward and asked,
"Hey! Why didn't you accept me as your friend too?"
The parrot understood what the monkey said, but Vembu didn't. Still, she felt the monkey's friendliness.
Now, the three of them - Vembu, the parrot, and the monkey - became friends.
The parrot brought its whole flock to meet Vembu, and the monkey brought all its monkey friends too. Even an elephant came to say hello!
One by one, the forest animals started becoming close to Vembu.
One day, they all had a meeting.
They said,
"This poor girl Vembu is being tricked by everyone! People just come and take her vegetables and leave."
They all started joking about it and laughing.
Vembu didn't understand what they were laughing about - but seeing them happy, she laughed along too.
Then the parrot thought seriously,
"No, we can't let her keep getting tricked. She's our friend now. We must protect her."
So it said,
"You must study! If you study, no one can ever cheat you again!"
Everyone was stunned.
Then all the animals agreed,
"Yes, yes! The parrot is right. You must study. Only then will you become clever and strong."
Vembu nodded - she was ready to learn!
The parrot started writing letters on the ground with its claws: A… B… C…
But the wet mud on the ground made it hard to see the letters clearly.
So the parrot called some ants over.
The ants formed straight lines to shape each alphabet letter - and now the letters looked bright and clear!
The parrot began teaching:
"This is A. This is B."
But after a while, the ants got tired.
So the monkey said,
"What if the elephant becomes the blackboard?"
The elephant agreed.
"But what do we write with?"
They thought of going to a school nearby - because in school, they use chalk pieces and slates, right?
So the next day, the monkey snuck into the school and brought back a white chalk piece.
Vembu then began practising writing on the elephant's back!
But there was a problem.
The elephant couldn't stay for long - because the animals had made a strict rule:
"Vembu's studies must remain a secret. No humans should find out she's learning."
So the elephant could only visit when no people were around. Because of that, Vembu's learning was slow, and the parrot and monkey started feeling frustrated.
They thought,
"If it continues like this, how many years will it take for her to learn properly?"
Then they had an idea.
"Let's go back to the school and get more materials!"
They planned to visit the school when no one was around and collect anything useful - papers, notebooks, pens...
So the monkey and the parrot snuck into the school.
At the same time, a boy named Siva, a smart but mischievous student, was in school.
He was first in class but often got into trouble. That day, he had done some prank and got sent out of the classroom.
Coincidentally, it was also P.T.E. period for the neighbouring class, so all the kids had gone to the playground. The classroom was empty.
From where he stood, Siva saw a monkey and a parrot enter the classroom!
They were collecting items - notebooks, pencils, erasers, sharpeners - one by one.
The monkey carried most of the things, and the parrot kept watch to ensure no one came.
Siva watched in shock.
"Why would a monkey and a parrot need school supplies?" he wondered.
He decided to follow them.
He quickly made up a story.
"Sir, I have a stomachache! I need to go home."
With permission, he left school and secretly followed the monkey and parrot through the forest - jumping, dodging, and hiding as he went.
Finally, he reached a hidden spot and saw something incredible:
The monkey was giving all the items to a girl - Vembu!
She was confused, looking at the objects, not knowing how to use them.
"What's this for? What do I do with these?" she asked.
Even the parrot and monkey were unsure how to explain.
That's when Siva slowly stepped out from behind a tree and said gently,
"I know how to use all of that. Can I help?"
But the moment Vembu saw him, she panicked and ran inside to hide.
The monkey and parrot also got scared and vanished into the trees.
"Wait, wait! I want to help you! Please don't be scared!" Siva called out many times.
But no one came out.
Feeling sad, Siva returned home.
But that night, he couldn't stop thinking about Vembu.
He wanted to go back and help her, no matter what.
The next day, Siva woke up early with a plan.
He remembered what the parrot and monkey liked to eat.
So he packedd a small bag with tasty treats:
Chili nuts for the parrot,
Bananas for the monkey,
And even a few sweets he had saved for himself.
With all these goodies, he went back to the forest and left the food in front of Vembu's house.
The parrot and monkey spotted the food first.
"Bananas! Chili nuts! This must be for us!" they said and happily started eating.
Then they wondered,
"Who brought this?"
That's when Siva stepped out and said,
"It was me."
"Hey! You again? You shouldn't be here!" the parrot warned.
But Siva replied gently,
"I just want to help. You're all trying to help Vembu, right?
I can help you teach her."
The parrot and monkey looked at each other.
They thought for a moment and said,
"Okay. We accept you as our friend. But understand - Vembu has no parents. She has no one in this world. Everyone cheats her. She doesn't trust humans."
Siva listened carefully and said,
"Then let me prove myself. Let me teach her with love. Slowly, she will trust me too."
So the monkey and parrot took Siva to meet Vembu again.
But as soon as Vembu saw him, she shook her head and backed away.
"I don't trust humans," her eyes said clearly.
Siva replied,
"Okay, don't trust me. But let me teach them" - he pointed at the parrot and monkey -
"Then they can teach you!"
That made sense to her. She allowed it.
Siva opened the notebook and pencil.
"This is a pencil. This is an eraser. This is a sharpener. When the pencil gets short, use this to sharpen it."
He taught the parrot and monkey first.
Vembu hid behind a tree and watched everything curiously.
Sometimes, when the monkey didn't hold the pencil properly, Siva would guide its hands and make everyone laugh. Even Vembu started giggling from behind the tree.
Gradually, she started trusting Siva - and joined the lessons herself.
Siva taught her lovingly and patiently.
But he said,
"I can only come here on Saturdays and Sundays. On other days, I'll be at school. But during the week, you can practice everything I've taught you."
Vembu nodded.
Though Siva went back to school, his mind was full of Vembu - he wanted her to speak fluently and be confident.