OLD VERSION OF THE STORY...
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. BBC, CNN, EURO-NEWS, NDTV, FOX NEWS 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. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper. NDTV starts an SMS campaign for the grasshopper (if you are for the grass hopper SMS Y for yes, if not N to 6388,charges 6 Rs. per SMS)
Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Samajwadi Party calls it anti-minority and claims that the grasshopper is being victimised as it is green in colour!
Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.
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 BBC,CNN, AAJ TAK and NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". (But this time Aamir Khan chooses to stay mum!!)
Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly...
After a few weeks the ant is forgotten and dies in the cold !!!
My humble attempt and musing to grow up and hopefully be a better human being during this life time. I plan to share some of the books, writings, poems that have helped me grow up so far. Of course the journey continues till the last day. I would love to hear from the readers which books, writings, poems, anything else which have influenced them in their lives. ~~ I get lots of nice "forwarded" emails. The blog also serves as collecting pot of these selected stories & writings.
Friday, November 12, 2010
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