55. AN OLD STORY RETOLD ...

An Old Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is 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.


The following Indian version of the Old Story has been made by some sick mind and so it has to be corrected (உண்மைகள் அப்டின்னு ஒண்ணு இருக்குல்ல ) and retold:
(The “original’ is in blue colour and the corrections are in red)

Indian Version retold:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.(Long long ago .. so long ago .. the ants proclaimed from the tops of temples that they had come straight from gods’ some vital anatomical parts and hence they were more than normal humans; and prescribed that the destiny of all grasshoppers is only to serve the ants. They sapped all the fruits of grasshoppers’ labour and enriched themselves for millennia. The grasshoppers were forbidden from any type of learning for long by the ants… a real great strategy – to keep their work force in absolute ignorance. At the end of this story you will find the ants continuing this strategy still to this day!)

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. (No, instead, for long the poor, illiterate and enslaved grasshoppers toil and suffer, never even knowing their rightful place as ‘human beings’ in this society. Such was the way the ‘mantra of ants’ worked on the lives of the grasshoppers.)

Come winter, (Some great souls like Ambedkar, Mahatma Jotirao Phule, Periyar ... appear on the scene and infuse some sense of decency and rebellious mood into the grasshoppers.) 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.(The voice of grasshoppers is slowly getting noticed.)

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up (It should have been so different if these agencies do such a balanced act. But these agencies invariably run for and run by the ants project grasshoppers with least esteem. Who would forget the way these channels show cased the AIIMS issue? ) To provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. (அடப் பாவிகளா! ) 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. ( They don’t spare even this lady! Anybody who cares for the downtrodden grasshoppers would become a laughing stock for these ants. Their only concern is their supremacy is never questioned and they always remain at the top of helm.)

Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.

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.) (On the other hand grasshoppers have been always tutored that they can get ‘moksha’ only if they serve ants.)

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal 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. (If such things really happened the fate of grasshoppers would have improved a lot by now. முழுப்பூசணிக்காயை இப்படி மறைப்பதற்கும் ஒரு திறமை வேண்டும். இந்தத் திறமை antsகளிடம்தான் கொட்டிக் கிடக்குதே..)

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services. (அப்படி வாங்கப்பா antsகளா வாங்க .. இதுக்குத்தான் வருவீங்கன்னு தெரியுமே! This is what was said in the beginning – the ancient and very original strategy of ants to forbid the grasshoppers from any type of learning – is continuing to this day. When this scheme is threatened the ants feel that their ‘supremacy’ is at stake and rise as one against such proactive measures. நல்லா இருங்க’டே!)

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it’s home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.(ஒரு புரட்சி வந்து இப்படி நடந்திருந்தா, வேணுகோபால் & Co.வை வீட்டுக்கு அனுப்பியிருக்கலாம். Ants strongly feel that the higher institutions are meant only for them, the chosen and ‘meritorious’ ones. )

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. (Ha! Didn’t the erstwhile B.J.P. government obstruct the issue of dalits to be taken to U.N.?)
Many years later... ( இப்படியெல்லாம் நடந்தா நல்லாத்தான் இருந்திருக்கும்; நடக்கலையே)
The Ant has since migrated to the US (you mean, deserter, preferring greener pastures? could be .. it is always said that they were afterall a nomadic group.)and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley,

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India, (ha..ha… Hi dear ant! Have you not looked around you of late? It was true many ants migrated and became rich in the land of plenty. But of late the ants are outsmarted, outclassed and outnumbered by a variety of grasshoppers in that land proving that ants are in no way better than grasshoppers!! Why go for onshore examples? Even in our motherland it is being proved time and again. Any doubt? Better see this It is just the tip of the iceberg…It is not the end; not even the beginning of the end; but just the end of the beginning for things to come.)
AND
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
grasshoppers, (Is it not the other way round all these times?)
.
India is still a developing country…!!!(Sadly it is true .. majority are the grasshoppers… and still a great number of them are to be lifted up from the murky depths into which they were thrown; they are to be shown a new humane way of life as equal to any other human being .. a lot to be done. But the major stumbling block is the ant and its விஷமத்தனம், மேட்டிமைத்தனம், ஆங்காரம் etc..etc..)
But the days are not far off ……



you need to see this post of Dr. Bruno also: a reality .. A POOR GRASSHOPPER .. help her

54. AN OPEN LETTER

This open letter is meant to one Mr Eric in response to his article in Wall Street Journal.

SEE MY TAMIL POST ON THIS HERE.

Mr. Eric,
Happened to come to your article in WSJ - - from the columns of P.Sainath, the winner of the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts in The Hindu dated 18.01.’08 -

It made an interesting read!

Just wanted to make few comments:

- From your title I understand that you say that the Brahmins WERE at least once the fortunate lot and that has reversed now.

- From the data in the table given by you and from the corrigendum to your article those ‘misfortunate’ lot are the RICHEST lot (65% and 50% respectively)

- I understand that for your case study you have taken a poor teacher from the RICHEST group.

- I request that you may consider to compare this poor teacher with another poor from the POOREST group, some one from the 91%. I am sure it would give some very interesting points for your future columns.

- Since your name sounds different I take it that you are from a different culture. If so, I would like to request you to first understand the ground realities before you make your valuable comments in a journal of any kind.

- There is a saying in my mother tongue, Tamil: “Some cry for sugar for their daily milk; while there are many who cry for salt for their sporadic gruel”. Your article was about an unfortunate from the former. Why not try to know somebody from the latter. Try. No harm.