MEENA KI KAHANI


Meena ki Kahani is a very inspirational series of cartoons for children. Its first episode was published in 1993 on Bangladesh Television in Dhaka. It was directed under UN Children’s Emergency Fund. The main purpose behind this series was to educate the people of South Asia. Main The character of this cartoon series is Meena, who is a little girl from a small village. The stories of this cartoon series highlight the issues of third world countries especially, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This cartoon series was quite famous during its time. The creativity and stories are phenomenal. One of the best things in this series is that it doesn’t highlight the culture of a particular country or a nation, it highlights issues of all the South Asian countries without any division or discrimination. Its fame indicates, that it is a symbol of unity and humanity.

The story revolves around a little girl whose aim is to eliminate negativity and bad things from society. The story begins in a small house in a village. It's night, Meena and her brother Raju are sitting around their Grand Mother and she is telling them the story of Aladdin and his Magic Lamp. Grandmother told them that Aladdin had a magic lamp and a magic carpet. There was a Jinny in the lamp. Jinni was to fulfill any three wished of Aladdin. Grandmother told them that Aladdin wished to become a prince. Whereas Meena replayed to her grandmother that she will wish for the health of everyone in the village so that everyone will live a happy life. On the other hand, Raju wished to become a prince like Aladdin. It was night so both of them when to sleep after listing the story.

Meena in her dream saw that she is flying on the magic carpet. Raju and Parrot are also enjoying the ride. They are flying over different places like the Taj Mahal, Badshahi Masjid, etc. In the end, they saw a village where a small child was sitting beside a lake and he was having loose motions and Urination. All the germs were traveling to the lake where other children were swimming and taking bath. Meena took her lamp out and wished to have a bathroom in every home of the village so that people do not pollute water and get the disease. In the next view, she saw a woman taking some water to drink from a nearby lake. The water is full of germs that would affect the whole family. In her second wish, Meena wished to have pure and clean water for everyone in the village. so that no one gets disease from the water. The Jinni was amazed by the wishes of the little girl. Jinni requested to wish for diamonds, gold, jewels and to become a princess of Castle but Meena replayed that these things are least important as compared to the happiness of people. In her third wish, she demanded soap so that people should wash their hands after getting free from the toilet and washing babies.

In the morning when she woke up, she shared her dream with her brother Raju and Parrot. She planned to make her dream true. For this purpose, she asked her father to build washrooms in the village on the low coast. All other villagers helped in building low coast washrooms. The first wish of Meena was fulfilled and everyone started to use a washroom in the village. Her next task was to provide clean water to the villagers. For this purpose, she gathered all women who were taking water from the nearby lake and asked them to go tube well to acquire fresh water to drink. Everyone in the village followed her and when to the tube well. Her tired and last wish was to prove soap or ash to the villages so that they should wash their hands with it to kill all the germs from the hands. In the end, all her wishes were fulfilled and the whole village was free from disease. All of them celebrated in the end.

Overall, the story was very interesting and educating. The story was with a very strong message. I personally liked it because its targeted audience was children and through children, this series was conveying a positive message to the masses.