From Gondi Folklore
Raja Risal and his Rani lived in Siliguri. One day, as they were walking in the garden, they saw some birds talking to each other in a tree. The Rani said, “What are those birds?” “They are eagles,” replied the Raja. “No,” said the Rani, “They are geese.” They began to quarrel and at last they made this bargain: the Raja said, “If those birds are not eagles, I will collect scraps of cloth from twelve villages and make myself a cloak and will go to wander outside my kingdom.” The Rani said, “Well, if those birds are not geese, I will collect the pubic cloths from the women of twelve villages and stitch them into a Sari and will go to wander outside my kingdom.
The next day they sent four chaprassis; two for the Raja and two for the Rani, to examine the tree and report what birds they really were. The chaprassis went and said, “Brothers, what bird-caste do you belong to?” The birds replied, “We are geese.” So the Rani’s chaprassis were very pleased and they began to return home. But on the way, the Rani’s chaprassis felt very hungry and their food was finished. They asked the Raja’s chaprassis to give them something to sea, but they said, “We will only give if you promise that when you get back you will say that the birds were eagles.” The men were so hungry that they agreed, and when they returned all four chaprassis declared that the birds were eagles. The Raja had won his bargain and he proclaimed the banishment of the Rani. She collected the pubic cloths from the women of twelve villages and stitched them into a sari and went to wander outside her kingdom.
The Rani was pregnant and after a time a son was born to her in the jungle. There came to that place a hunter. He was very thirst and approached the Rani for water to drink. She told him to go and ask her son. The boy said, “If you will take us home and look after us, I will give you some.” The hunter, who was a rich landlord, agreed. Then the boy cried very loudly and beat the ground with his foot and at once water sprang up. They drank and bathed in the stream and the hunter took the mother and child home. The villagers said, “Our landlord has brought a jungle maid as wife,” and they greeted her with great honor.
But presently the Rani fell ill and as she was about to die she cursed the birds saying, “As you caused me to be turned out of my home and made me wander from place to place, so now you will have to fly in the air and you will never live in houses, but will always be going restlessly from place to place.”
Since then birds have begun to fly and are never able to get proper rest.
Source:
Chapter 10, Myths of Middle India, Verrier Elwin, 1949
Kotharian Lightning 