The Ant and the Grasshopper

Got this mail from one of my friends. Couldn’t help but post it here. Just a continuation of few of my earlier blogs like ‘I am an upper caste, Hindu, Brahmin North Indian‘. Its a very interesting read – an old story with a new angle to it.

 

 Original
=======

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.

Indian Version
==========

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 calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

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..

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration 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 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 MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for ‘Bharat Bandh’ in West Bengal and Kerala 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.

Arjun Singh makes ‘Special Reservation ‘ for Grasshoppers in
Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

Many years later…

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley ..

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation
somewhere in India …And….

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
Grasshoppers, India is still a developing country !!!

 

I Don’t have Muslim friends!

 Last heard, we have had 7 blasts in the heart of our “Garden city”. Lately, Bangalore has become a prime target of some lunatics. As expected, initial reports suggest LeT and SIMI’s involvement. At times I wonder how can people commit such inhuman crimes? How can people plant a bomb knowing that it might kill an innocent child or a helpless woman? Where do such organizations get their people? I don’t have in-depth knowledge about these organizations nor am I an expert in religious outfits. But there is something which I’ve felt as an individual, growing up in a secular society -a social phenomenon which might be responsible for all these animal like killings by these religious outfits.

 

During my growing up years (and I’m talking about the time when I thought I was just an Indian – later I realized that I am an upper caste Brahmin, a Hindu and a Non Marathi North Indian), I had many friends from different sections of the society including the Muslims. Infact a couple of my best friends were Muslims.

 

At that point of time, I always thought that there was something fundamentally wrong with our system. This belief was based on my experience with my Muslim friends. They all were well educated young boys who would sit with me and watch India – Pakistan cricket match, and I never had any doubts which team they were supporting. I still remember watching an India Pakistan match at one of my Muslim friend’s house. We won (wins against Pakistan were rare those days) and we all (including his parents) were jumping with joy.

 

But with the passage of time, as I grew up, went to college, then to a B School and then I started working, I suddenly realized that I hardly know any Muslims. Its not that I don’t like them or I avoid them. The reason of me not having Muslim friends was very simple. I hardly met any at high school, or college, or B School or at work.

 

The point that I’m trying to make is (and it can be my assumption) that the total number of Muslims in high school and college reduced significantly as compared to the Basic school. And we are talking about a section which represents close to 15% of the total population of our country (compare this to around 2% of Christens and 1.8% Sikhs). So my chance of bumping into a Muslim is much more then that of meeting a Christen or a Sikh in a normal society (I would like to believe that I live in a normal society).

 

As mentioned earlier, it might be a personal observation but I very firmly believe that Muslims have been marginalized. They are no longer part of the mainstream life in India. And they are as responsible for this as anyone else. Is it a mere co incidence that I didn’t meet a single Muslim in my high school or in college? And if what I’m thinking is true (fewer number of Muslims attended high schools and colleges), then we know why I don’t have many Muslims working with me at my work place. Its a very simple equation – good education is directly proportional to good job which is directly proportional to your mainstream (read social) life.

 

I have nothing against religious faiths and beliefs. And to be very honest, I don’t have much idea what they teach at Madarsaas. But you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the Madarsaas have failed to keep up the pace with the this ever changing world.

 

No wonder young Muslim boys coming out of Madarsaa system have no basic knowledge required to stand on the same platform given to other young boys and girls who are the products of the modern education system in India.

 

No wonder the socio economic condition of Muslims in India is deteriorating. No wonder Muslims are suffering from social evils like unemployment, poverty and marginalization. No wonder, there is an alarming trend of increase in numbers of inhuman activities like the Mumbai and Bangalore serial blasts by Muslim terrorist organization like SIMI and Let.

 

Lets not forget that these organizations have stood up against the very foundation of our country and they do manage to carry out their inhuman activities against the whole Nation. And we all are responsible for it one way or the other. But something inside me says that the root cause of all this evil is the absence of Muslims around me – in colleges and at the work place. And nobody else but Muslims themselves are responsible for this because they themselves chose to marginalized themselves from the general education system.