ORIGINAL 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.
Indian 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 .
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 & Everlasting Peace for prompt support as
against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .
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..
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, it’s home is confiscated by the Government and
handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV, BBC, CNN.
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 ,
..AND
As a result of losing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
grasshoppers, India is still a developing country.!!
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P.S: I have no idea whose creative mind this has come out from, but this
piece is awesome!
