Ants and Grasshoppers -An Allegorical Story

This is a allegorical story written by ALN of cypress folks in response in E- Mail to a story carrying the same title forwarded by his sis-in-law Bhavani. I have taken the liberty of blogging it as a "Short Story" to make this title in the blog much more broad based; we have stories by Dhruv, Shruti, and the latest is Dr Suresh. It's my hope that others will join this bandwagon and enrich this space. Amen. The Story follows..... Enjoy folks..... Vichu 

ALN's Story:

Once there were these condemned hard working ants(chwa-a modified species) who saw that there was this wily grasshopper(wgh-again a modified species) who maneuvered his safe keeping for the winter too from the chwa's hard earned reserves  through a self declared community leadership status for himself with its special entitlements.

One of those was that the wgh does not work,the ants of the community work for him and for an elite few some of whom took on the "onus"of governing and "protectjng"the kingdom and some others ran its commerce.  He in turn was to impart "knowledge and wisdom"to all his fellow beings,  except the chwas whose only purpose of life was to serve all others and provide for themselves too. Chwas had no right or claim to wgh's and the elite's treasure.

The wgh divided the chwas into several categories depending on their occupations such as tilling the land,milking cows,constructing houses,weaving cloth,stitching shoes and services such as giving haircuts,sweeping,hand-pulling people in carts,cremating the dead and CLEANING THE NIGHT SOIL of the living!!! 

The division was unbreakable and for all time as it was determined by birth.This social dispensation was accepted by the chwas without protest  though they multiplied the divisions further between themselves so that they too could derive some fun from their dreary lives out of the principle of exclusion.

Centuries passed. Over this time the wghs grew on their knowledge and indisputably contributed to society's overall wellbeing and progress. Arithmetic and astronomy,architecture and ayurveda,music and dance,literature and philosophy-the wghs were behind all human progress. They matured to a stature where their leadership was acknowledged as deserved. No one however felt impelled to question their holding a monopoly on knowledge, intentionally or otherwise,which gave them an  
enormous advantage in terms of importance to society and the attendant previleges.

Enter a foreign species.The wghs and the chwas alike found themselves exposed to this super wily species which  cynically exploited the glaring divisions prevailing in this "ancient" land to fulfill its ambitions of conquest of the world. They would reward the educated and the accomplished among the natives while letting the under-privileged majority plough their ways.

The wghs found themselves perfectly positioned to take full advantage of the new opportunities, quickly jettisoned duties enjoined on them by their "shastras"and took charge of new responsibilities on behalf of the new species,readily grabbing previleges hitherto not existing. Diwandoms,English education in their land and in the land of the new rulers, university postings,govt.employment et al.

The chwas were seeing all this and then soon enough some of them started voicing their doubts about the fairness of the earlier order. A few from the wgh side joined them in what quickly turned out to be a societal revolution. The era of exclusivity sanctioned by religion came to an end. Simultaneously the occupiers were packed off too. The wghs were left high and dry stripped of both their shastrik as well as their secular previleges. The ants had taken over in their land. The pendulam swung wildly to the other end where it has got nailed. For a few decades it all seemed to be over for the wghs.

Then came Globalization, the fall of communist and socialist ideologies or their deliberate decimation by the west, particularly the US. In keeping with their short but successful history the US welcomed immigrants from all over the world with open arms the only qualifying mark being merit.

The country was looking for youngsters who possessed a sound modern education specially in science and technology,superior analytical skills, management perspective and above all, good knowledge of English. With their fortunate inheritance of proprietary knowledge appropriated over centuries and the advantage of english education in recent times the new generation of wghs or may we say the present day deserving ghs saw themselves as the perfect fit for the American need. And they were. 

They started migrating in thousands without having to carry any guilt because they were being persecuted by the liberated chwas in their native land for no fault of theirs but that of their forefathers. The wghs observed that in their new homeland,there were no chwas and that they had to work hard themselves at work and at home. It wasn't a grind however as the ants had it back home because one that put in work in the new land had assured entitlements. The wghs and incidentally many chwas are now the happy and celebrated diaspora.

Back home again, the liberated chwas won't relent from their "we will get even" agenda. Get even with whom? The wghs from whom they sware they will grab their space thru reservations aren't fighting for the space anymore. They are being adopted by someone who has no reservations about anyone in a literal sense. Alas what the wghs did in the past the chwas are replaying now.

Those were lazy, liesurely times. The loss to the community was not palpable. We are a changed world today. The losses resulting from misguided social conduct will be enormous.Many "advanced civilisations" who thought they knew it all doubt their past actions in private. As a culture we are a humble and forgiving people.May God help the chwas and wghs bury their pasts and build their future together.

May God Bless -ALN

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