We have lots of great ideas for Sikh themed stories, but we needed a simple "test" story project in order to experiment with various options for visual story telling. Given that we are not-for-profit and have a limited budget, it is important for us to keep the production time and costs down and still keep our children's content highly entertaining for kids.
Here is the story of how this story came to be:
Harijot Singh, who creates the children’s stories, proposed that SikhNet retell an old classic story, titled "The Little Red Hen". In the original story, the Hen and her chicks do a lot of work to plant the seeds, harvest and grind the wheat, and knead and cook dough to make bread. At every step, the Hen invites the other farm animals to help with the work. However, the other farm animals are lazy and and don’t help. But when the bread is baked, all the other animals want to eat it. The Red Hen and her chicks reprimand the other animals and say, “You didn’t agree to help so you can’t expect to get eat any bread.”
Everyone on the SikhNet team felt this was not a message we believe in as Sikhs. Our way is not to work hard and then deny others the fruits of our labors. Our way is to work hard and then share the fruits with everyone. So we decided to remake this classic story with a new Sikh twist. "Mother Hen and the Wheat" is the result. We feel that the animals, along with their voices and pictures, will be fun for children and it will also impart a good lesson! |