a squirrel and the orchid....an animal-osified version of the satyam saga

Not so long ago......in fact just 5-6 years ago....there lived a squirrel in a parallel animal-ofied world.....It lived on a very simple,'not so exotic' tree but always dreamed big, ambitious of making an abode on a mango,apple or even appricot or cashew nut trees.

Its quest for more and more nuts and... may be success... one day took it to an orchard.....which was always there but somehow managed to evade its attention for so long. The speciality of the orchard was that it was laden with nuts to the brim.....one just had to be imaginative and adventurous enough to collect as many as one can....even more...and more...and then still more....because.....its caretaker...the reverred elephant... who was presumed to be very shrewd,fast and intelligent could actually be made to act as blind,dumb,deaf and ignorant with just the smell of a few banana leaves.

This secret once known to the squirrel equipped it with the world's best method to amass wealth .....i.e nuts. Not did it amassed for itself but also let the fortunes drizzle....no in fact... rain...shower on its relatives, friends, friends' relatives, relatives' friends, neighbours, neighbours' relatives, neighbours' friends, neighbours' relatives' friends ....and so on....

Because no one was allowed to enter the orchard....and the elephant whom the jungle trusted was made to believe that the orchard was flourishing, the whole jungle thought that it was wise to plant their seeds and invest their fertilisers and manure in the more fertile orchard rather than in their own vegetable garden.

Actually it so happened that the squirrel used all that seeds and manures entrusted to it in its own farmhouses, forests and greenlands and in the farmhouses, forests and greenlands of its relatives, friends, friends' relatives and relatives' friends, neighbours........instead of the orchard. From time to time the otherwise so wise elephant after being given its regular dose of smell of banana leaves would be given a tour of the real barren orchard, and since it was made momentarily blind, deaf and dumb it would come out and announce to the jungle that the orchard is all green and flourishing.....and the line of the junglites willing to see their sapplings growing in the orchard would swell to even more high proportions.

As the next stategic move....the squirrel befriended the lion...the king of the jungle. With all the farmhouses, forests and green cover it had....it was not difficult for it to get 'bread and butter' like acquaintance with all the high and mighty of the jungle...

And thus the squirrel lived happily ever after and all other junglites too lived happily.... the elephant continued to have its banana leaves and their mushy smells, the lion and other 'high and mighty' continued to get their parties and donations and gifts .....of course as a token of friendship from the squirrel..... and the junglites....they too were very happy.....after all their sapplings were growing (at least in their beliefs) on a more fertile land of the orchard under the learned supervision of the squirrel and its team.....and so the economy of the jungle too flourished......

So nice is the virtual world....the world of matrix. Amen

This is the theme, the Hollywood blockbuster Matrix team is basing their next plot on. This is a good reading and entertainment material...no guess.... but my heart goes all out for the poor junglites who are giving away all their lives savings in the hope of getting higher and better returns.....for it will take just a moments 'enlightenment' to the smart squirrel to declare that the famine or drought or earthquake or anything or something have taken a heavy toll on the orchard and.....but.....they will work on it again and make it greener and fresher and so on.....

The same would have happened....had it not been for the fear of the other distant jungles' governments' stringent policies....who too had invested with the squirrel....they smelt that something was fishy....because of whom the squirrel now pretends to come clean on its conscience....

but.... the story is not over yet....

The lion and his officers have their faithfulness pledged to the squirrel.... in return of the years of the acquaintances and the tokens received for it. Like a coconut shell they will save the squirrel....seemingly hard and thorny to the outside jungle but soft and mushy towards the inside... for the squirrel.

And the elephant.....what about the elephant????? what wrong has it done????? it was not its fault that the squirrel showed it the wrong side of the orchard....it simply announced to the jungle what it saw!!!! ...and whatever he said was in the form of an opinion only....and that too based on the material shown to it.....how can he be hold responsible for expressing an opinion on the basis of material shown to him.....Now if the clever squirrel.....fabricated the scenery.....or manipulated what was shown to it....how could it be expected to smell it.....how could it be held responsible..... this is not fair at all.....

So.....life in the jungle drags.....soon it will become normal as well. But what worries the intellectuals amonng the junglites is..... they still do not know how many such orchards....squirrels and elephants are there in their jungle.....But they don't have any way of finding it out.....especially with the same and similar elephants in charge as the custodians....