Once upon a time, there were four parrots-Beauty, Riches, Power and Lazy were their names.
As their names stand, so they are in the their characters. They have their daily conversations in the afternoon in the banyan tree at the center of their town. The conversations invariably center on each of their desires and how they are targeting them.
As usual, it was a nice summer afternoon and the conversation just began...
Beauty: Hey people, noticed my beak...(with a proud twitch of the neck) I have applied a new shiner on it...and now, Beauty has the shiniest beak!!!
Riches and Power acknowledged that it was indeed splendid lest they should attract another round trumpet blowing from Beauty. It was their tact to acknowledge Beauty even if the reality was otherwise as Beauty feels offended if her beauty is not praised.
Riches: Folks, I think this is the last day I will be meeting you people. I have made all arrangements to move to the next province. Their province has given me the permissions to settle their and as an incentive, they have also given me a nest loaded with yummy cashew nuts.
Beauty,Power: Ahh...really!!!!That sounds great. Well, you were earning 3 cherries a day here for cleaning the termites...What are you going to earn there?
Riches: I am as caluclative as ever, folks. Wouldn't I thought about it? Well...I am goin to clean the termites there as well....but I am getting 3 cahsew nuts instead of cherries....yippeeeeee.....All of you should be knowing a cashew is worth 50 cherries...
(Riches' eyes were flashing cashew nuts...)
Power: (To Riches)Yeah...indeed
(To himself)Cashews are the only edibles available there...(smirking)"Poor Riches"...
Riches: What about you powers...are you still going to stay in this province eating these cheap berries, cherries and nuts? You have to go out to see places yaar...
Power: As you all know, I am planning to become the next ruler of our province. I have already imbibed enough information on the current politics. I have started preparing my manifesto for the upcoming elections. Do you people know...the strongest propaganda from my side will be to give free nuts to every parrot in this province so that all their hunger is satiated in the most nutritious way.
Beauty: Ahh....that's a really great proposal...
Riches: Indeed, that would satisfy the common masses...But for the intellectuals and high-born like me, the next province promises more...
As they were talking they hear a flutter...Lazy, who had slept after the mid-day meal, had, as usual, come late to the meeting and was beginning to settle when, all of a sudden, a huge maze of twains fell on them....
"ahhhhhhh..............ohhhhhhhhhhhh.....scrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeechhhh...
crrrrrrrrrrr..scrrrrrreeeeeee.........
oh god........................helppppppppppppppppppppp..........."
"A good catch for the day", the bird catcher said to his wife!
Presently,
Beauty hardly ever makes her up nor does she boast any more of her beauty. She was staring at the only person in the house, her master, a blind old rich man...
Power is speaking the same words repeatedly every day..."Hey folks, welcome to the Bingo Circus!!!!!" to earn his single 'nut'.
Riches is longingly looking at the plate of the bird catcher if he could get another crumb of bread.
(The bird catcher's son wanted one!)
And Lazy, who escaped the net of the bird catcher, is here, narrating the story of 4 parrots to the whole world!
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3 years ago
5 comments:
I love such short stories. Hope to see more of these in ur blog. Great one. I feel that fans of The Road Less Traveled (including me) will identify Laziness with the Original Sin. This story comes as an exception :-)
The allegory makes a lot of sense. I believe the 'lazy' here doesn't go with the negative connotation as the name sugggest. This is just because riches, power and beauty are so named because they themself think that they are so.(Which brings us to interesting point. which is truth is it wht you think you are or what others think you are?) So by the standards of their own thought they are named. What strikes me most is that lazy did manage to be a little active. The 'laziness' exhibited by 'lazy' might just be an act of not expending energy on some pointless drivel. Thats how I see it.
Another thing that comes to my mind when I heard the first few lines of the story is
When you want to conquer someone ... just concentrate on their weakness. It is more easier that way. In ethir neechchal, a famous film of yestertime, director K. Balachandar conveys it through "maadi veettu Nayar" character with the dialogue thats goes
Aanavam pudichchanvanai uyarthi pesi madakkanum...
" praises are weapons to defeat vanity ". I thought the story will go further explaining this point. Happy that it turned the other way!!
-VijayRaghavan
Dei...somehow somewhere i hit upon ur blog...how r u??..my id is ram2k_11@yahoo.com...so,mail or message me in yshoo messenger....
-
Ramji
Dei machan....very confusing story da.....though it seems to be straight....
Just like Mariappan Sir used to say "Inerface and Abstract classes are same and not same".
Would just like to tell something though.... What is more important is what we think about
ourselves, how much we brace our selves and our thoughts and not what others think about
us.....But this is true only when what we think about ourselves are good to both - us and
the society we are living in.
Another thing..... The story could have had another ending too..... The bird catcher throws the net towards the birds.... the three birds not being "lazy", see the net and fly away... where as the lazy bird gets caught in the net... :).... isnt this an happy ending as it brings faith in the names of the birds.... (note :: this ending was thought by another lazy friend of mine... :) )
great stories yar......
Work From Home India
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