Modern Fables

Here is one modern fable set with Indian background.....

The story with the traditional Moral: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.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The ' INDIAN ' version of the Story - in present Scenario :
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 sees that the Ant is warm and well fed in its house.He calls a press conference and demands to know why Ants should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. NDTV, BBC, CNN, Z-News– all show up to provide vivid and shocking 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 is it fair that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so ?
Arundhati Roy , Momta Banerjee - stages demonstrations 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 criticise 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 everlasting peace and true love and salary raises for prompt support, as againstterribly bad luck for non-compliance ). Chain Mails abound in support of the Grasshopper.Opposition MPs lead by Advani and his saffron brigade with mouth watering to pocket all the disgruntted voters ,stage their 361st walkout (for 2007-2008) in the Parliament of India in protest and call a well attended pressconference announcing free winter food and shelter to all grasshoppers of Bhartiyya origin if they come to power. It is rummored that they have paid heavily to reporters not to ask them the question as to why they did not enact this while they were in power and grasshoppers were dying all the same then.The NRi supporters have been asked to donate heavily to the media to show the press conference so many times in a day that the viewers dream of that alone and nothing else.
Left parties call for 'Bharat Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a judicial enquiry in the matter.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 rail coach to Grasshoppers on a new train - aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.Finally, the Judicial Committ ee 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 all educational institutions and 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, Z-TV etc ..Arundhati Roy & Mamata Banerjee calls it 'a triumph of justice'.Lalu calls it a victory of 'socialistic justice'.CPM calls it the 'Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden'
BR>Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Indians read about all these happenings in their daily newspapers and telecasts without emotion or reaction, and Life goes on as usual in India ...------------------------------------------------
Many years later …The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley. With a comfortable 12 bedroom house with a carpool and private airstrip, it has no intentions of returning to India..Hundreds of Grasshoppers still die of starvation in India
despite 'reservations' and despite all kinds of perks and privileges supposedly doled out by the Govt.As a result of losing most of our hard-working Ants to Europe, USA and Middle East, and due to our continuous feeding and supporting such useless Leeches & Grasshoppers ...
India still remains a ‘developing country’