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Babu and Sabu - Maya Khankhoje Maya Khankhoje is one of the talented new voices in the evolving literature of science fiction and fantasy. Long dominated by Western-centric technological positivists, speculative fiction has become more complex today --- it asks more difficult questions, takes less for granted and includes more diverse voices than ever before. However the so-called Third World is still under-represented in speculative fiction, not only in terms of setting and subject matter, but also in terms of writers and points of view that are unique to its many cultures. Maya Khankhoje's writings help fill a great void.

Babu and Sabu is based on a traditional folk tale from North India

Babu and Sabu were friends, very good friends. They loved each other like brothers, but Sabu was smarter than Babu and sometimes took advantage of him. Babu was a simple man who thought others were as kind as he was.

One day Sabu had a bright idea.

"Brother Babu", he said, "why don't we share everything we have. This way we will both have twice as much!"

"That is fine, brother Sabu", he agreed. "But I have a pear tree and a blanket and you have a cow. How can we share that?"

"Very simple", said Sabu, "you can use the blanket in the daytime and I use it at night. You can keep the roots and trunk of the tree and I can keep the branches."

"And what about your cow, Brother Sabu?" asked Babu, shaking his head.

"Simple enough! The front part of the cow is yours and the back part is mine!"

So Sabu and Babu settled down into a routine. Babu would water the tree and make sure the roots were not eaten up by little rodents. Sabu would climb on the branches and pick the pears to eat or to sell in the market. Babu would feed the cow and give her water. Sabu would milk the cow and drink plenty of milk every day. At night, Sabu would go to sleep under the blanket, while Babu huddled in a corner trying to keep warm.

It took a long time for Babu's simple mind to understand the injustice of the situation, but he did not know how to convince Sabu to change the arrangement. Sabu would always say:

"Sorry, Brother Babu, but a deal is a deal."

One day Babu was walking to the well to get some water to give to the cow, when he ran into a sadhu, one of those holy men who go around from village to village giving people advice.

"Revered sadhu", begged Babu, "please help me solve this problem with my Brother Sabu. I am very unhappy with his arrangement but I do not want to lose my friendship with him".

The sadhu patted Babu on the shoulder and said: "My son, follow my advice to the letter and all your problems will be solved."

The following morning Sabu was milking the cow when Babu came in and demanded to have some milk. Sabu reminded him that the back part of the cow was his and so was the milk. So Babu kicked the cow in the front legs, and that made her so angry that she kicked the milk bucket until it all spilled on the ground.

"Why have you done that, Babu!" exclaimed Sabu. Now I can't drink any milk."

"A deal is a deal", repeated Babu smiling. "I can do whatever I want with the front of the cow."

Later in the day Sabu climbed on the tree and started gathering some pears. Suddenly, Babu showed up with an axe and was ready to cut the tree down.

"What are you doing, Babu! You will kill the tree and then I won't have any pears to eat or to take to the market!" exclaimed Sabu.

"Brother Sabu, a deal is a deal" laughed Babu once again. "I own the bottom of the tree so I can do whatever I wish with it". He then changed his mind and decided not to cut down the tree.

That night it was very cold. Sabu asked Babu to hand him over the blanket.

"Here it is", said Babu.

"But it is completely wet!" Sabu exclaimed angrily.

"Well, a deal is a deal. I own the blanket in the daytime so I decided to wash it just before sunset".

That night Sabu slept very poorly. His stomach was growling because he had not drunk any milk in the morning, and he had not eaten any pears and had no pears left over to sell in the market, so he had no money to buy more food. On top of that, he was wet and cold because of Babu's behavior. So the thought and thought the whole night and in the morning, he decided to make a new deal with Babu.

As soon as the sun rose, Sabu woke Babu up.

"Come, brother Babu, come and drink some milk with me. From now on, we shall share and share alike. We can both take turns looking after the cow and we can both share the milk every morning. You and I will both water the tree and look after its roots and we will share whatever pears we can pick from its branches. And at night we can take turns using the blanket so that at least one of us is warm every other night."

Babu smiled at his old friend and silently thanked the sadhu for his advice. After that, Babu and Sabu were once again the best of friends. In fact, they were so close that people thought they were real brothers, because they always saw them helping each other out.

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