The 'Clown Prince' (A short story in homage to the earthquake in Nepal)

Everyone knew the ‘Clown Prince’. He was brave,  there was no doubt about it. He was resilient and everyone knew it.  There were no border he could not conquer and no horizons that he had not driven into.

He was funny because he believed that he was the greatest of them all. He would laugh at people who suggested that there had been men greater than him on earth before.  He would mock at people who challenged him, he grimaced when he sensed a challenger, but it gave him a sadistic pleasure to fight and win, and win he did every time. His confidence turned into contempt for people less able. The frail he detested, the old he disrespected and the sick he ordered thrown to the lion.  People came to know of him as the ‘Clown Prince’.

So large was his ego, that he had scant regard even for the elements.  He would shoot arrows through the fiercest wind,  endure a journey through the hottest desserts. He would climb the highest of the mountains, swim through the fastest currents. There was no beast he had not fought  nor any demon that he had not vanquished. The news of his feats spread far and wide, so did the news of his arrogance. People came to see him, bow before him, kiss his outspread hand and swear allegiance to him.

One day the breeze was blowing gently, the prince was trying to light a candle. Every time he would show flame to the candle, the breeze would blow it out. The prince tried to light the candle thrice, every time with little success. On the fourth attempt he became furious. “Stop you stupid wind” he yelled. But the wind kept blowing gently as it would. By now he was in a rage. He took out his bows and showered a thousand arrows into the walls around. The arrows covered every little opening into the palace, blocking the wind.  The air inside the palace became still and finally the candle was lit. Not content with having stalled the wind, he bellowed at the wind, “ that will teach you a lesson ‘O Wind’, now you cant enter  without my permission”  he gleefully shrieked. Insulted the wind turned away, to blow in another direction.

On a fishing expedition one fine day, he was trying to catch a fish. He was hungry and irritated. After a long wait, there came a school of fish. He was delighted. “At least I wont die of hunger” he said to himself. He picked up his spear and was about to pounce upon a large fish when a sudden gush of the stream carried the fish into safety.”Oh no “ he exclaimed, and targeted another large one he saw nearby, and again a gush of water pushed this one too to safety. The hunger gnawed at his stomach. “O stream” he yelled, “let me catch my food”. But the stream gurgled along happily, unmindfully. The ‘Clown Prince’ grew furious. “Oh idiotic stream”, don’t you know who is out fishing here, have you not heard of my powers, how  dare you disrespect me ! Let me teach you a lesson”, with these words he asked his men to build a large dam to hold the stream some kilometres away. Soon his whole kingdom was put to the task of building the largest of all dams.  The stream was quelled, but its ego hurt. The dam was too large for it to fill up or drown, it gushed and it rushed, but could not fill the dam, leave alone drown it. Subdued it filled up the dam as much as it could.

One by one,  he antagonised all the elements.  “Clouds” you are banished  from my kingdom, he foolishly retorted one day,  when they soaked his new clothes.

In the meanwhile the people of his kingdom became equally arrogant. They were sure that their prince was the greatest of them all, the news about how he commanded the elements became the talk of the town.  Even the kingdoms which united with his, became arrogant of their powers.

 Time passed, the world was tired of the ‘Clown Prince’ but they had no one to turn to.

 By now the elements conspired. The wind called for a meeting. All the elements turned up.

What shall we do friends ? the wind appealed.   We should all go to Mother Earth and ask for a redemption from this funny prince, replied the Cloud.  Yes they all agreed, and so they all went to Mother earth.

Mother Earth was lazily spinning around one bright young morning, when all the elements knocked on her door.

Dear Mother, we are tired of the ‘Clown Prince’, they cried.

What happened ‘O Dear ones’ exclaimed Mother Earth.

Oh Dear Mother!  they wailed in unison, and told her all about the prince.

Mother Earth smiled. ”Don’t you worry dear ones,  no one can disturb the elements without dire consequences”  replied Mother Earth, “be bound by your nature and do what you must do, and leave the rest to me”, she added,  “and  as of this day make sure that you leave that kingdom  and disappear northwards into the mountains beyond”, she whispered.

So the clouds, the steam, the wind and the elements disappeared into the mountains to the north of the kingdom.

The news reached the prince, that all the elements had disappeared from his kingdom and gone into the mountains.  He was furious and took his army against the mountain.  ‘O Mightly mountain’, he yelled,  having reached the foot of the mountain, let me pass, I want to take back all the elements back to my kingdom.   “Sorry prince”,  the mountain replied,  they have come of their choice and they will leave of their choice no one can bind the elements,  said the Mountain.

O Mighty Mountain, you do not know my powers,  I had bound the elements in my kingdom. They do as I please, someone has conspired to take them away from my land, they would not dare defy me”, replied the prince.

“Think again, O Prince”, replied the mountain. “You cant take them against their wishes, the cloud is heavy with sorrow and may burst anytime, the wind is angry and is howling in pain, the stream has swelled with rain and is about to rush down, but all of them are happy being in my land, so return to your kingdom O Prince”, the mountain replied.

“I have thought this through,  you stupid mountain, now don’t waste my time, and let me pass or I will raze you to the ground”,  thundered the prince.

 “ ‘O Prince’’, I am a man of honour, people bow before me, and I do not get ordered around. I think you are in a hurry to get past me,  you only have to ask for my permission and I shall make way for you to pass”  said the mountain.

“I don’t have time to manage your ego, you idiotic mountain, just shift an feet and I will pass through”  saying this the prince kicked the mountain hard.

The moment he did this, he regretted it. “As you wish” the mountain smilingly shifted just a little,  few inches perhaps, not more not less, and the whole earth moved.

The elements who were tied down in the mountains also slipped from their place, the wind gushed out in anger,  the cloud now pregnant to its full term, burst in its fury and in a gush joined the stream, who rushed down the mountain in a trail of destruction. Was it the  fear or the contempt for the prince,  no one knows,  but they rushed straight down to the kingdom below.  Now their inertia was out of control, the earth shook ,  the wind howled, tonnes of snow,  mountains of rocks, all rolled down, taking along all that came in their way, innocents paid the price along with the guilty, and all became one with nature, and nature became innocent in its fury.  No one was a by-stander, they were all party to the crime, the crime of disregarding nature, of thinking that they had overcome the elements, so they had to pay for it.

It was time to purge.  When purging happens, its not just the dirt which gets washed away, the holy purging takes along a lot of sweat,  rivers of blood, and lot of flesh . Pointless it all seems, but just like the stalk which wither after giving birth to the grain, the good must go, to make way for the new, that is the law of nature, a cycle which has been going on for ages.

Nature has a job to do, and it bows before no one.  Human pain as we know it, is only part of the truth, the larger truth remains, ‘The Creation’ is supreme, rest of us are mere specks in the universe.  

The Ujaad ( A short story)

Once upon a time there was a barren land. Every body had written off the land as useless. People used to pass by it daily, but none noticed it. They used to call it ‘Ujaad’ (Barren). The land felt out of place, dejected and depressed. It hated the name ‘Ujaad’. 

One day a mice tried digging a burrow, but the ground was so hard that it abandoned the project midway. Time passed, one day a squirrel brought some fruits from the Peepal tree. It tasted the fruit, did not find it appealing and dropped the fruit which rolled down the burrow dug up by the mice.

Come rains the burrow filled up with water, the Peepal  seeds in the burrow germinated and took roots. Peepal has the habit of surviving in the hardest of conditions. It grew with time into a young tree, casting it's cool shadow on the barren land. People suddenly noticed the tree and started resting under the tree.

Time passed. One day a Mahatma (a sage) passed by and decided to rest under the tree. He was tired and quite liked the place. He meditated under the tree.

Years passed and he stayed transfixed at the place in deep meditation.  People were amazed by his steadfastness. They used to offer food for the Mahatma which remained untouched. Birds and little creatures devoured the food instead. Yet the Mahatma would not open his eyes. People started flocking in great numbers, to have a glimpse of the great man.

One fine day the Mahatma opened his eyes, and cast a glance all around. His aura cast a glow all around, illuminating the ‘Ujaad’ even during night. He spoke great words, gathered a huge following and delivered scriptures after scriptures sitting under the tree.

Finally he became old, one fine day he asked people to dig up hole in the place for him to attain Samadhi (Salvation). In the middle of the night he entered the pit. Thirty one days passed. People got curious and entered the pit. The Mahatma was nowhere to be seen, they found a heap of roses where the Mahatma had rested.

The story spread all over the world, people came from far and near to pay their respects. The area got highlighted on the map and a large city developed around the barren land. The land continued to be called as the '‘Ujaad’'. But the fruits it now bore were the sweetest of them all,  by no stretch of imagination was it barren any more.

Nature's evolution is an unending process. It makes, destroys and rebuilds again. Nothing is constant. Nothing is useless, everything finds it's own utility over a period of time.

Names may be misleading, it may not depict a true picture of that the name denotes. A sure shot reason for people not to go by a name. If the world calls you names don't be affected by it, time proves most things wrong.

Salvation is a guaranteed process, as matter gets converted from one form to the other, salvation is certain.

No single person is responsible for your salvation . The universe orchestrates. The mice brought the seed, the land gave it roots, the rain made it grow, the Mahatma found peace under the tree and finally he rested upon the place to bring glory to the ‘Ujaad’.

Life is a multiple act play, just play your part and keep faith on the provider who shall deliver through his myriad ways.

The Rock - A short Story

A little girl went up the hill on a vacation, accompanied by her  parents. The road trailed  a river flowing  down the hills. Further and further they drove along the narrow road, As they went along, the river became narrower and faster. The traffic became rarer and the gradients steeper.  The naughty gurgling of the river,  replacing the sounds of traffic.  Clear water eagerly seeking it's destination downstream.

As their car stopped for a break the little girl ventured tenaciously, ankle deep into the water. The floor of the river was covered by small pebbles and rocks, all of them rounded perfectly into oval and circular shapes, small and large, some a bit flat, some perfectly round. But all of them rubbed smoother than the little girl’s skin. They lay there uncounted and unrecognised multitudes of them in various shapes. Some of them goaded by the river to continue their roll down the river, others resting firmly on the river bed, only till the time the river again gets impatient and angry to keep them moving downstream.

The rocks came in all colours, pale yellow, snow white, amber, grey and black, contended they lay there in shallow water wet as though from perspiration from their hard journey.

The little girl picked up a few small pebbles and carefully put them her pocket. Then she saw a unique rounded rock. Larger than the others,  this one looked different, looked royal for a stone, part of it translucent, rest of it white as a lily. Rounded like a smiley, it had dimples too.  It was large for her pocket. Something she would have to lift up with both hands. With great effort she lifted it up and carried it back to the car trunk, she knew her father would never allow her to carry home such a large rock, so quietly she hid the rock behind some rags in the boot.

Soon the rock was out of her mind. Back in town, a few days later, her father was driving home through a desolate stretch, when the car got a flat tyre. He started to take out the spare tyre when he discovered the rock. Oh! He exclaimed.  “Where did this come from ?”. Not know for his sensibilities for finer things in life, he could not find anything unique in the rock, he flung the rock into the wasted terrain.

There the rock lay, among other boulders, different from the rest shining in the moonlight, feeling oh! so out of place. It had felt so suffocated sitting in the trunk, and breathed easy now under the moonlit sky. It was about to doze off when a nudge woke it up. Hey wake up! came a voice. The rock opened its eyes, it was the large boulder lying next to it. "Where did you come here from, how come you are so beautiful and fair, shining in the moonlight like no one I have seen doing. You have dimples on your face too, who made you so beautiful, tell us, how can we too become extraordinary like you" exclaimed the boulder.

"Hey large one" replied the rock, the shine that you see in my face is not a shine but a fatigue which has come from years of getting my face rubbed against sand and water, my fairness due to repeated bruises to my face,  the rounded profile that you see is the result of long years of journey from high up in the hills, tumbling down to unknown lands not knowing where the next moment will take me to. I am small because I started out as large as you, but years of giving back to nature, has made me small and shrivelled.  The sheen that you see is something which has come from great turmoil and tempest. The joy you behold is because I know I escaped the stone crusher down stream who collects us all to prepare gravel for the  roads. The contentment is knowing the fact that it can't get worse than this.

Oh! Sighed the boulder. "You mean to say one can succeed only with turmoil? "

No, each one has his own path, exclaimed the rock. "But success comes after great perseverance and entails as much giving away as it denotes acquisition. The journey is defined, successes assured for someone who stays on and believes in oneself. The sheen comes naturally, because it is the sign of the journey. So hey large one, don't lose heart. You look dark, but you are a  strong granite, someone will come to chisel you, convert you into a god figure. People shall worship you, people will repose their faith upon you. They will never realise the tough path you have endured to attain godliness, the pain of being chiselled with an iron, the turmoil of being shaped like the way the world wants to see you.

So bide your time hey large one, such is the journey of Life " whispered the rock.

Brands

Brand,  usually register in our minds for the status enhancement, aspirational  value, or gets into our good books for CSR activities. But there are some brands which get entwined in our life and become part of us, capture our hearts, and give us immense pleasure at nominal cost. Let me cite an personal example.

Cadbury's Milk Chocolate. A bar of chocolate wrapped in a silver foil sliding out effortlessly out of a royal blue sleeve. The mesmerising texture of the blue pack, and the crisp foil unfolding to reveal the rows of chocolate pieces neatly perforated. I used to remember way back in the sixties, as a child my mama ji gifting me one, on pay days every month.  I remember opening the pack excitedly and gasping salivating  at contents unpacked. Eating one whole  was a luxury , all items used to be neatly cut into pieces to be distributed equally in the household.  More than monetary, the reason was of thrift. (a family could in those days sustain for month on what is thrown away in a week nowadays)  hence eating a full bar of chocolate was blasphemy in those days. So as expected we used to get one tiny piece to be relished in leisure. The time taken for the chocolate to melt in the mouth would seem like an eternity, the taste lingering in ones mouth till the next month, awaiting Mamaji's pay check.  That taste still lingers in ones mouth, the brand managers for the chocolate trying hard to capture those moments on film but hardly making it there.

Such is the brand affection if I may call it so,  for cadbury’s . The association so impersonal yet so endearing. Yes there was an aspirational value to the pack of chocolate,  not because they were priced high (used to buy one for Rs.1 if I remember correctly), or one wanted to be counted among the wannabe by using it, but because  FMCG and consumer goods were literally non existent those days, earnings were sparse, and spending even more so, reliance was on home  made stuff, at least for the palate.

The  Brand evokes memories unfathomable Memories, try as they might the brand managers at Cadburry’s can never recreate those emotions in their ads. the association so impersonal yet so endearing

Today when I want to splurge I do so on the likes of Toblerone...but when we think of think of chocolate we come home to Cadbury's Dairy milk.

I wish we could create such brands, horses for long hauls, unaffected by the ups and downs of wall Street, not wanting to scalp you for the pedigree that they proclaim themselves to be, those who remain there for ages to come, and there are examples galore..Bata,(my grandpa used to wear one) Amrutanjan (my grandma used to smell of one) Cherry blossom(i used to polish my dad's shoes as a child) brands part of your life...not fleecing you, not  in a hurry to make a fast buck, but just there as a part of you, .... for life.

Good Morning V Arun Kumar