Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Ant and Grasshopper story -(An indian context then and now)

It’s an old e mail that someone had forwarded me. Of late I have feeling despair. So much that I ended up writing a few lines about being in despair. Looks like it’s a part of a deeper cleansing process due to 2 attunements in teramai reiki and seichem teacher ship. May be sometime later I may post the poem too, however this story really gives us some food for thought.

Ant & Grasshopper

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.

Modern Version
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'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 criticizes 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 MPs 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 Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive
taxes; its 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.

4 comments:

Devi said...

I loved this! We even have the ants and grasshoppers here...but they are called mexican illegal immigrants and the ppl who don't want them here but don't want to do the work either! Something along those lines anyway...and the govt is in it, protestors, etc. Very good story.

Devi said...

I think the Mexican immigrants are the ants here bec they are willing to do more work...that is what I mean. The labor jobs that really need to be done and we have the other ppl who complain and moan about it but don't want to do the work.

Chicky said...

Really cool story! Loved it!

But u take care of urself... will send some healing tonite. hope it helps. Take care...

Shreesh said...

yes thanks ...today only i had some major healing crises of sorts..and it also gave me one of the strangest experiences. I was shown soome information in a way i hadnt seen b4..so i will really accept all healing with gratidude and honour.