Character Sura and Baya (Storytelling)

A long time ago in East Java, there were two animals, Sura and Baya. Sura was a shark and Baya was a crocodile. They lived in the sea.

Actually, they were friends. But when they were hungry, they were very greedy.They did not want to share their food, they would fight for it and never stop fighting until one of them gave up.

It was a very hot day. Sura and Baya are looking for some food. Suddenly, Baya saw a goat.

Baya : “Yummy… this is my lunch.”

Sura : “NO WAY this is my lunch. You’re greedy! I hadn’t eaten for two days.”

Then Sura and Baya fought again. After several hours, they were very tired. Sura had a plan to stop their bad behavior.

Sura : “I’m tired of fighting, Baya.”

Baya : “Me too. What should we fighting? Do you have any
idea?”

Sura : “Yes I do. Let’s share our territory. I live in the water, so I look for food in the sea. And you live in the land, right? So you look for the food also on the land. The border is the beach, so we will never meet again. Do you agree?”

Baya : “Hmm… let me think about it. OK. I agree. From today, I will never go to the sea again. My place is on the land.” Then, they both lived in the different places.

But one day, Sura went to the land and looked for some food in the river. He was very hungry and there was not much food in the sea. Baya was very angry when he knew that Sura broke the promise.

Baya : “Hey, what are you doing here? This is my place. Your place is in the sea!”

Sura : “But there is water in the river, right? So, this is also my place!”

Then Sura and Baya fought again. They both hit each other, Sura bit Baya’s tail. Baya did the same thing to Sura. He bit very hard until Sura finally gave up. He went back to the sea. Baya was very happy. He had his place again.

The place where they were fighting was a mess. Blood was everywhere. People then always talked about the fight between Sura and Baya. They then named the place of the fight as Surabaya, it’s from Sura the shark and Baya the crocodile. People also put their war as the symbol of Surabaya city.

Moral message : This story gives us a moral message that greed will only cause us misery. And what is no less important is that we must keep the promises we make.
(storyteller/Fatimah)