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 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 long, building his 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 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.....
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. Barkha dath emotionally tells the world the tale of "two worlds".....The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grass hopper is allowed to suffer so? CNN IBN conducts a sting operation and celebrates for a week...Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house (her booker money kept safe in the Bank of London)....Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.......
Amnesty International and Ban ki Moon, the eighth Secretary General of the UN, 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 stages walkout.....Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala ( if for saddam Hussein, why not for this?) 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 Grasshopperson all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as theGrasshopper Rath.....
Finally, a Parliamentary Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", witheffect 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 confiscated and it send out, covered live byNDTV. Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it "true socialism" and CPM terms it 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' .....Ban ki Moon invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly....
The outcome Many years later...
The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley .1000 s of grasshoppers die of starvation in India...... Arundathi Roy has got another booker for her novel "the devil of stupic things"....
Thread from a good old friend Sumesh and the rest from me......
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