1. The text in italics is the original email that I recieved
2. The part between "***********" and "Jai Hind" is my reply to the email
3. After "Jai Hind" is usually random visitors who I do not claim are well read or informed
The story of Grasshopper and the Ant
------------------------------------------------
OLD VERSION...
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MP's stage a walkout.Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.
Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services.
The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley.100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ...
As a result of loosing lot of hard working ants and feeding the grasshoppers India is still a developing country......
Mera Bharat Mahan
************************************************************************************
The following is my reply:
There are a few observations one can make reading the email. Here are a few that looked evident to me:
1. This extremely animated modern story has been undoubtedly crafted by an ant.
2. There is a clear stench of chauvinism
3. No prizes for guessing who the ants and the grasshoppers are in the Indian context realize that
4. Extremely urban view. The author clearly does not realize that a majority of kingdom animalia lives in rural areas of India and is not aware of the family, class, genus and species distinctions that exist there.
5. We observe that even today(read the tiny columns in local newspapers), the restrictions that have been posed on grasshoppers by the ruling ants in villages have forced a large number of grasshoppers to convert to locusts, crickets and cicadas.
6. Even today here are villages in which grasshoppers are not allowed to enter the places of worship, grasshoppers tied to trees and beaten(... again read the tiny columns in local newspapers; you'd say that the media is blowing it out of proportions. But anyone, like me, who has lived in non-urban places knows enough to say that these reports are not totally manufactured).
7. Every time there has been an attempt to improve the condition of grasshoppers, by informed, educated (I don't mean merely literate) ants and thinker ants, there has been a resistance from the majority ant community.
8. It is a myth that it is only the ants who make it big in life. 'Informed people of the human race', look around!. The gap has been bridging. It might take a little more than 60 years for all the grasshoppers become "civilized" and "competitive" in the true sense after they have been stamped upon for a few millennia.
I am not a supporter of the politicians misusing the grasshoppers as their political tool to gain votes. The problem is bigger than that. I understand that merely reservations, or increasing the number of seats will not solve problems. What I'd like to point out that it is not enough to take a one-dimensional view on the subject and keep ranting about it. The problem is deep and multi-dimensional and it will take sometime to repair centuries of damage.
Let us work constructively and help building a great nation that we ought to be without sending frivolous emails like the one we saw.
Jai Hind!
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MP's stage a walkout.Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.
Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services.
The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley.100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ...
As a result of loosing lot of hard working ants and feeding the grasshoppers India is still a developing country......
Mera Bharat Mahan
************************************************************************************
The following is my reply:
There are a few observations one can make reading the email. Here are a few that looked evident to me:
1. This extremely animated modern story has been undoubtedly crafted by an ant.
2. There is a clear stench of chauvinism
3. No prizes for guessing who the ants and the grasshoppers are in the Indian context realize that
4. Extremely urban view. The author clearly does not realize that a majority of kingdom animalia lives in rural areas of India and is not aware of the family, class, genus and species distinctions that exist there.
5. We observe that even today(read the tiny columns in local newspapers), the restrictions that have been posed on grasshoppers by the ruling ants in villages have forced a large number of grasshoppers to convert to locusts, crickets and cicadas.
6. Even today here are villages in which grasshoppers are not allowed to enter the places of worship, grasshoppers tied to trees and beaten(... again read the tiny columns in local newspapers; you'd say that the media is blowing it out of proportions. But anyone, like me, who has lived in non-urban places knows enough to say that these reports are not totally manufactured).
7. Every time there has been an attempt to improve the condition of grasshoppers, by informed, educated (I don't mean merely literate) ants and thinker ants, there has been a resistance from the majority ant community.
8. It is a myth that it is only the ants who make it big in life. 'Informed people of the human race', look around!. The gap has been bridging. It might take a little more than 60 years for all the grasshoppers become "civilized" and "competitive" in the true sense after they have been stamped upon for a few millennia.
I am not a supporter of the politicians misusing the grasshoppers as their political tool to gain votes. The problem is bigger than that. I understand that merely reservations, or increasing the number of seats will not solve problems. What I'd like to point out that it is not enough to take a one-dimensional view on the subject and keep ranting about it. The problem is deep and multi-dimensional and it will take sometime to repair centuries of damage.
Let us work constructively and help building a great nation that we ought to be without sending frivolous emails like the one we saw.
Jai Hind!
1 comments:
Here are my thoughts on your reply to the article - "Point wise"
1. I agree that the level of exaggeration is high, but is required, in my opinion, to make the writer's point evident.
It may be the case that he is an ant, but maybe he was a grasshopper once (with poverty as baseline ) and has worked his way through and hence realized whats going wrong. Where.
We never(would) know and are no one to comment unless sure.
2.Again, kindly refer point 1 for this.
3.Am assuming its the differences between the wealthy and the poor.
4.I sensed no flavor of Urban view on this article, except for the part where he speaks about setting up the Million (Or whatever ) dollar company abroad. The article is apt in my opinion to any grasshopper or ant from a rural area. i perceive both kinds of species in both kinds of scenario's.
5. The write in any sense doesn't speak about the ants "ruling " the grasshoppers in the villages. It is about the hardworking ants, the lazy grasshoppers and the attention craving citizens and to a large extent the politicians of India.
6."100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ..." this is the only place where the writer brings up a caste issue in the whole topic, but again it mentions no where about the hardworking ants imposing these restrictions or beating up the grasshoppers.The ones who do impose these are the illiterate, born rich caste chauvinists, etc. I agree with your point, but maybe under a different article.
7.Just to give an example -
i hope you would agree with me to consider Amir Khan and the whole Rang de basanti caste to be ants. A couple of successful actors and a successful director with a good movie in hand. Do you really think they deserved how they got treated for what they tried to do for the Sardar Sarovar project? I don't think Amir khan needs any more publicity than he already has. If its anybody that craves for attention, its the inane uneducated politicians who fuel the mob. I didn't see hardworking well established citizens / NRI's appose to what they did.
8.Again, its not the ants who stamp them. Remember that the ants were just like the grasshopper's to begin with.
The problem addressed by you doesn't seem very apt to this article. I agree that the problem is bigger and deeper, but again.. only if we understood WHO is causing the problems at the first place.
Post a Comment