One of the many email forwards which came to me. With all the shit of reservations going on, thought this would sum up the entire story.
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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 alongwith 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 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..
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 die of starvation somewhere in India..
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Its Christmas again!!!
Its Christmas time again. Every year during this time I go down memory lane and indulge in a bit of nostalgia. For me Christmas typically signifies winters. Having spent the major part of my life including all of my childhood in Jabalpur, I miss the winters the most in Bombay.
Christmas vacations would normally start from the 19th or the 20th and schools would reopen around 2nd or 3rd of Jan. And boy did we enjoy those days!!! The day used to begin around 9 in the morning. We attired in our sweaters or jackets would go to the cricket field. And a good 3 hours of batting, bowling & fielding. We had to return home by 12.15 max since 12.30 was the time when everybody's dad would come home for lunch. So u had to get your bath and be ready for lunch with dad. And Dads were never interested in how many runs you scored that day. The question from them would be about the Maths homework he had assigned for the holidays :-). Afternoons used to be typically out there in the garden. Every house had a garden where moms would assemble in the afternoons for their round table conference and to bask in the winter sun. The best memories of those days are of women with knitting wool and needles and other accesories and discussing how a particular design would be done. I've never seen women with the knitting needles in Bombay ever. Every year I used to have atleast 1 new sweater with the latest design from the Hindi magazine Manorama woven exclusively by mom. Thanks so much mom. I now realise how much I miss those sweaters. I still have them safely stacked up inside my cupboards. Sadly I dont need those in Bombay .
Christmas Day reminds of picnics. Every year on this day people would go out in groups of 20-30 to some beautiful place close to the city and spend the day there. Food used to be cooked using firewood. Oh how much the taste of that delicious food still lingers. And the day after Christmas our visits to our teachers' house would begin. Studying in a missionary school had its advantages. Most of the teachers were Catholics and we would choose one teacher to visit everyday for Christmas. Wow, what amazing goodies they used to serve us. But I remember Miss D'Souza the most. She had a glass of home made ginger wine for us every Christmas. But she never gave us a refill. We were too young to have a second one she used to say:). And who would forget the goodies which we used to get at home from neighbours who were Christians.
But now things are different. I live in a city where time and money are more valuable than emotions. Christmas just flies by without me even realising. Probably thats how life is!
How I wish that I could turn back the clock and go back to those days when completing the homework was the biggest responsibility that we had in life. When winning a cricket match against the team from the other colony used to be reason enough to be happy for days together. When playing cricket with friends in the evening used to be the biggest priority in life. When discussing about our crushes used to make us blush so much. When television had not invaded our lives so much. When sleeping inside the quilt with the mercury around 4 degrees outside was the biggest comfort in life. When being forced to get up in the morning during winters was the only grief we had. When Christmas & New Year meant going to each house and wishing them. When life was so simple yet so great! How I wish those days were back again!!
Christmas vacations would normally start from the 19th or the 20th and schools would reopen around 2nd or 3rd of Jan. And boy did we enjoy those days!!! The day used to begin around 9 in the morning. We attired in our sweaters or jackets would go to the cricket field. And a good 3 hours of batting, bowling & fielding. We had to return home by 12.15 max since 12.30 was the time when everybody's dad would come home for lunch. So u had to get your bath and be ready for lunch with dad. And Dads were never interested in how many runs you scored that day. The question from them would be about the Maths homework he had assigned for the holidays :-). Afternoons used to be typically out there in the garden. Every house had a garden where moms would assemble in the afternoons for their round table conference and to bask in the winter sun. The best memories of those days are of women with knitting wool and needles and other accesories and discussing how a particular design would be done. I've never seen women with the knitting needles in Bombay ever. Every year I used to have atleast 1 new sweater with the latest design from the Hindi magazine Manorama woven exclusively by mom. Thanks so much mom. I now realise how much I miss those sweaters. I still have them safely stacked up inside my cupboards. Sadly I dont need those in Bombay .
Christmas Day reminds of picnics. Every year on this day people would go out in groups of 20-30 to some beautiful place close to the city and spend the day there. Food used to be cooked using firewood. Oh how much the taste of that delicious food still lingers. And the day after Christmas our visits to our teachers' house would begin. Studying in a missionary school had its advantages. Most of the teachers were Catholics and we would choose one teacher to visit everyday for Christmas. Wow, what amazing goodies they used to serve us. But I remember Miss D'Souza the most. She had a glass of home made ginger wine for us every Christmas. But she never gave us a refill. We were too young to have a second one she used to say:). And who would forget the goodies which we used to get at home from neighbours who were Christians.
But now things are different. I live in a city where time and money are more valuable than emotions. Christmas just flies by without me even realising. Probably thats how life is!
How I wish that I could turn back the clock and go back to those days when completing the homework was the biggest responsibility that we had in life. When winning a cricket match against the team from the other colony used to be reason enough to be happy for days together. When playing cricket with friends in the evening used to be the biggest priority in life. When discussing about our crushes used to make us blush so much. When television had not invaded our lives so much. When sleeping inside the quilt with the mercury around 4 degrees outside was the biggest comfort in life. When being forced to get up in the morning during winters was the only grief we had. When Christmas & New Year meant going to each house and wishing them. When life was so simple yet so great! How I wish those days were back again!!
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