The Tale of a Tail .............................. Once upon a time in a planet far far away - we have not discovered it yet – there lived aliens. Yup real aliens! They were as weird as aliens can get – had 3 legs, 15 eyes (some were in the feet as well) and 1 detachable tail. They had no nose or arms or ears… As a human, I cannot of course fathom how they lived – but they lived. Anyway the interesting feature about these aliens was their skin color. All the VIBGYOR shades existed (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange & red) – that is why perhaps the name of the planet was VIBGYOR! Hmmm... I didn’t notice that till yet. Anyway, despite these stark differences, these aliens lived in most ways like us. They usually liked to live with their own kind though intercolor marriages were quite frequent (& often produced really weird looking children!). There were poor & rich amongst them (rich were few & were way too rich). They biggest similarity with us humans was that they also had rulers. These rulers were called “fongs”. Fongs were selected through a very sophisticated process. Every wannabe vibgyorian put his tail in a hat, it was then swirled at the speed of 1000km/hour. The owner of the last tail to remain in the hat used to be named the fong of that tribe (you can imagine how tails were the most precious item at Vibgyor… in fact quite regularly the really strong tails went missing at night from their rightful owners!). These selected fongs then repeated the same process to choose their “xing” who was the overall ruler. He governed Vibgyor with the help of the chosen fongs. Every 1000 years new fongs & a new xing was selected – for it was said that “a true xing is born in a 1000 years”! 1000 years was a fair enough time for vibgyorians, for they lived really long – average age of a common vibgyorian was around 10000 years at the very least. One day in the age of the tulip era, the xing & the fongs sat down & decided to write down on a stone - where the first xing had been born - all the rules. These included how the fongs/xing would be selected; how the planet would be governed; in case aliens landed what to do (they were extremely afraid of the aliens btw); what to eat & not to eat; how to dress; how to interact with one another; how to conduct business; how to manage fazingoo (their currency – it was in the form of liquid) and the list was quite endless. The wise xing & the fongs called these rules & the fateful day that occurred in a 1000 years (when the hat & the tails made their decisions) collectively “tututu” (they did not believe in having a lot of vocabulary!). Thus tututu came into being after 743 years of hard work. Did it change the life of the common vibgyorian? No… not really! It was never meant to. The poor vibgyorian continued to become poorer & the rich continued to become richer. However, the rules had been recorded. It was a great achievement. And thus the vibgyorians lived in the dawn of the new era – I would not say happily or smoothly – but they lived & their generations lived. In the sunflower era, tututu day arrived once again. There were many celebrations conducted amongst the vibgyorians (vibgyorians usually used to get bored with the same fongs & the same xing – besides they were quite a hopeful bunch – everytime they very strongly believed that perhaps this new set of fongs & xing may solve their issues). All the vibgyorians gathered. Tails went into the hat and the new fongs were chosen among many cheers. These fongs put in their tails & the great hat selected the new xing of the sunflower era. He was a red fat xing with a green tail. He had far too many eyes on his tummy & very few on his head. Vibgyorians were ok to see him (not at all handsome by their standards but who cares!) & so the routine of living day to day lives started while the fongs & the xing went about their work of governing Vibgyor. One day a fong (quite a handsome one) with the xing and a few fongs was discussing how to measure fazingoo in buckets & distribute it equally among the vibgyorians. The xing was sitting in a high backed chair looking out the window. He was yawning, his tail was continuously scratching his chin and he was thinking about his own fazingoo & how to add these buckets of fazingoo to his fazingoo. The few fongs sitting there were also really not buying the idea. They all believed that the handsome fong was an idealist – or in other words a “foolish”. The handsome fong while presenting his stats & figures, looked up & noticed something very peculiar. He cleaned all his 15 eyes one by one & concentrated again. Lo & behold! The tail of the xing was a bit loose! (Now the tail of a vibgyorian though detachable fits like a glove on the real owner. A tail is never loose – never!) The handsome fong was stunned. He thought about what to do for many days. Finally he decided to meet the tututu commission to register his findings and ask them to conduct the tututu again for it was clear that the green tail did not belong to the red fat xing. The tututu commission noted his request but told him very politely that his turn would come at number 541526 for they had yet to deal with 541525 more significant issues. And so the tututu commission resumed its work on the biggest issue in the list: that of finding the prettiest hat in the land of Vibgyor for the upcoming tututu day (yes it was 999 years away but still…). The handsome fong though hugely disappointed was a courageous vibgyorian – he would not give up that easily! He decided that it was time to take other fongs into confidence & tell them about his shocking discovery. He gathered them all in the great green hall of the castle & slowly eased the news. To his utter surprise most of the fongs already knew!!! They advised him to wait. One year was already gone by & only 999 years were left till the next tututu day. It was not easy to conduct tututu just like that. The new hat had not been selected yet & the vibgyorians would also not be happy with wasting of a new day for the tututu. (In reality though the fongs themselves did not want a new tututu to be held for there was no guarantee that in the next tututu their tails would be selected - besides most of them had tails that were on loan too!) In the meantime, xing got the wind of how the handsome fong was running a propaganda campaign against him & his beloved tail. He never liked the handsome fong anyway. Xing summoned him & gave full vent to his wrath. He mocked the handsome fong at the weakness of his 15 eyes. All the other fongs reveled in the scene. The handsome fong however stood his ground & refused to back out from his claims till finally he was thrown out of the sunflower palace stripped of his fong status. No, the handsome fong did not roam in jungles lamenting his fate. He did not loose his mind either. He was very strong willed. He would not give up that easily. In fact, he went to all the corners of Vibgyor & told the vibgyorians about how a corrupt xing had moved into the sunflower palace for it was not his tail that had won the tututu. The vibgyorians were appalled. They could not believe what they saw (for they could not hear – they had no ears… remember? But if they touched each other’s feet they could see everything). The handsome fong was of the opinion that they could not let the sunflower palace be disgraced in such a way. Only & only a rightful xing should occupy the palace. The vibgyorians agreed. The handsome fong & quite a number of vibgyorians went to the sunflower palace to protest & demand that the xing leave (not all went – for some of them thought it was futile & some just did not care while some were the beneficiaries). First they stood beyond the sunflower fields & protested. The xing & the fongs went about their business. Then they moved into the sunflower fields & destroyed all the sunflowers. The xing & the fongs were a little upset but not enough to hear their pleas. Finally one day the patience of the vibgyorians reached its limit. The handsome fong & the vibgyorians went to the gates of the castle. They banged the gate with their tails & yelled at the top of their voices. For days the denizens of the castle still did not care. However when it became cumbersome for the royal clan to move between the castle & the nearby forests, the fongs with the xing in all their glory came out to the front balcony of the castle. The fongs addressed the vibgyorians & declared that they would resolve this issue today to the satisfaction of the crowd. They held a meeting in front of the general public right there on the balcony to ensure transparency. The xing continued to stand there too right in the middle of the balcony. He had a silent smile on his face & all his 15 eyes twinkled while the scene was played out before his eyes. In the meeting the fongs saw everything the handsome fong had recorded. The fongs agreed that the xing was not the rightful owner of the palace. A loud cheer came from the crowd! The xing was still smiling though. The fongs silenced the crowd & further stated that however, the great tututu is to be respected at all costs. It was enacted by their noble ancestors. It is a holy script. If it is violated, wrath of their ancestors would come upon them. In short it would be simply criminal to go against it! As such all the fongs with a lot of pain have decided to sacrifice themselves for the common vibgyorians & have decided to continue to extend their support to the great xing for the next 999 years! --- Pin drop silence followed --- The xing followed by all his fongs waved at the crowd & left the balcony. --- Still pin drop silence --- All the vibgyorians stood there for a couple of minutes. Then they started to leave one by one. A few were confused. They did not get how removing a xing was going against tututu or was the demand in fact trying to protect it. But since tututu had been declared holy nobody wanted to say anything blasphemous. In a few hours all the sunflower fields & the fields beyond it & the area around the gates of the castle; it all emptied out. The fongs & the xing went about their business of governing Vibgyor & making more fazingoo. The tututu commission celebrated that same very day the finding of the perfect hat for the next tututu (it was a record breaking re-tweeted tweet – yes they had twitter! & it was named twitter too!). In short everything went back to normal. And frankly vibgyorians realized they loved “the normal”. Except for the handsome fong! For him life could not go back to normal. He did not understand his fellow fongs, he could not comprehend his fellow vibgyorians… he just sat there in front of the castle gate… For days & days All alone Till one day He turned to stone… ……………………… This story is around 100, 000, 000 years old. The sunflower castle and its remains have all vanished over the ages. The statue of the handsome fong still remains. It is surrounded in the sunflower fields. He is sitting on his knees & is looking at the horizon. Every year a festival is held in the fields in the name of the handsome fong. Uncountable number of poor vibgyorians from all the corners of Vibgyor come to pay their respects & lament their fate. In the recent commemoration, the present-day xing was there too for he greatly admires the story of the handsome fong. The current xing who is rumored to have fazingoo which can fill ten lakes, inhabits the rose castle, is of blue descent & is believed to have a weak tail…
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 13:26:58 +0000
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