Little Babaji – adapted

Once there was a little boy called Babaji, he lived with Mamaji and Papaji.
One day, Mamaji decided to make him a beautiful little red coat and blue trousers. Papaji
went and bought him a pair of purple shoes and gave him a green umbrella.

Babaji put on his red coat, blue trousers, purple shoes and carried his green umbrella -
wasn’t he grand!
Babaji decided to go for a walk in the jungle in his new beautiful clothes. ‘Grrrr, grrr’ he
hears from behind some grass. It’s a tiger! ‘Little Babaji, I’m going to eat you up!’, he says.
Babaji says, ‘Oh no! Please Mr Tiger, don’t eat me up and I’ll give you my beautiful red coat.’
‘Ok,’ the Tiger says, I won’t eat you but you must give me your beautiful little read coat.’
So the Tiger took poor Little Babaji’s beautiful little read coat and walked away saying ‘I’m
the grandest Tiger in the Jungle!’

Little Babaji walked on, he heard another ‘Grrr, grrrr’

It’s another tiger! ‘Little Babaji, I’m going to eat you up!’, he says.
Babaji says, ‘Oh no! Please Mr Tiger, don’t eat me up and I’ll give you my beautiful little blue
trousers.’
‘Hmmmm, ok,’ the Tiger says, I won’t eat you but you must give me your beautiful little blue
trousers.’
So the Tiger took poor Little Babaji’s beautiful little blue trousers and walked away saying
‘I’m the grandest Tiger in the Jungle!’

Little Babaji walked on, he heard another ‘Grrr, grrrr’

It’s another tiger! ‘Little Babaji, I’m going to eat you up!’, he says.
Babaji says, ‘Oh no! Please Mr Tiger, don’t eat me up and I’ll give you my little purple shoes’
The Tiger says, ‘I don’t want your shoes! I have 4 feet and you have 2, you haven’t got
enough shoes for me’
But Little Babaji said, ‘You can wear them on your ears’

‘So I could,’ the Tiger says, ‘ok Babaji I won’t eat you up but you must give me your little
purple shoes.’
So the Tiger took poor Little Babaji’s beautiful little purple shoes and walked away with
them on his ears saying ‘Now I’m the grandest Tiger in the Jungle!’

So Little Babaji walked on in the jungle, he heard another ‘Grrr, grrrr’

It’s another tiger! ‘Little Babaji, I’m going to eat you up!’, he says.
Babaji says, ‘Oh no! Please Mr Tiger, don’t eat me up and I’ll give you my beautiful green
umbrella.’
‘But how can I carry an umbrella,’ the Tiger says, ‘when I need all 4 of my paws to walk
with?’
‘You could carry it with your tail,’ Babaji says.
‘So I could,’ the Tiger says, ‘ok Babaji I won’t eat you up but you must give me your beautiful
green umbrella.’
So the Tiger took poor Little Babaji’s beautiful green umbrella and walked away saying ‘Now
I’m the grandest Tiger in the Jungle!’

Poor little Babaji lost all of his beautiful clothes, he went away crying.
But then, he heard a horrible noise ‘G-r-r-r-r-r-r—rrrrrrrrr’ and it got louder, and louder and
louder.
‘Oh no’ says Little Babaji. ‘All the tigers are coming to eat me up.’ He hid behind a tree to
see what was happening.
He saw all 4 tigers fighting ‘No I’m the grandest Tiger’
‘No I am!’ they were saying.
They got so angry they took off all the beautiful clothes and starting to bite each other with
their big teeth.
Little Babaji jumped quickly out of the way and took back all of his nice clothes. The tigers
had taken hold of each other’s tails and would not let go. ‘Oh Tigers!’ Babaji says, ‘you’ve
taken off all of your fine clothes, if you want them just say so, or I’ll take them away!’
All the tigers could say was ‘Grrrrrr’ because they would not let go.
So little Babaji put on all of his beautiful clothes again and walked off.

The Tigers were very very very angry and would not let go, they started to circle a tree,
getting faster and faster and faster and faster! They went so fast, tumbling and whirring that
you couldn’t see tigers anymore, just orange.
They spun and whirred until there was nothing left but a great big pool of melted butter
around the tree.

Now Papaji was walking through the jungle on his way home, he saw the butter and put it in
a big brass pot. He brought it home to Mamaji to cook with.
When Mamaji saw the butter she was pleased! ‘Now’ she said ‘we’ll have pancakes for
supper!’
So she got flour and eggs and milk and sugar and butter and she made a giant plate of lovely
pancakes. She cooked them in the butter the tigers had made, and they were just as yellow
and brown as little tigers.
So then Mamaji, Papaji and Little Babaji sat down for dinner. Mamaji ate 27 pancakes,
Papaji ate 55 but Little Babaju ate 169 because he was so hungry.