Ant v/s Grasshopper

A forward I received a few days ago. Wonderful story. Whoever wrote it is brilliant. Not that I have a problem with the reservation system (I feel reservation should be purely based on financial ability). I feel I have a problem with the entire caste system itself. It ceases to make any sense to me anymore. Someone is Shudra just because it is written somewhere. Humanity should win....after all.... We are nothing in front of the Almighty. I feel the caste system is the root cause of all the problems around. Discrimination in case of caste, creed, language, borders, complexion etc. I wish to live in a world with no borders and no visa requirements; a world where you can go from USA to Turkey just for a cup of tea without having to go through the visa tiff. My heart pains to see the discrimination at times. My wish is soo never coming to reality.

P.S: Purely what I feel.

Here goes the forward.

OLD STORY:

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.

RESERVATION 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. Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities. Amnesty International, UN, EU and World Human Rights Organisations criticize 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 ' Bengal 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. Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter. Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV. Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'. Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '. CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '. Ban Ki Moon invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
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 losing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers,
India is still a developing country!!!

Just Another Forward

Something I received.. Don't know how much of it Is true.
Masterpiece on economics..

One day a tourist comes to the only hotel in a debt ridden town in a country. He lays a 100 dollar note on the table & goes to inspect the rooms. Hotel owner takes the note & rushes to pay his debt to the butcher. Butcher runs to pay the pig farmer. Pig farmer runs to pay the feed supplier. Supplier runs to pay the prostitute, who in these hard times gave her services on credit. Prostitute then runs to pay off her debt to the hotel owner for the rooms she rented for her clients. Hotel owner then lays the 100 dollar note back on the counter. The tourist comes down, takes his money & leaves as he did not like the rooms.
No one earned anything. But the town is now without debt & looks to the future with a lot of optimism.
And that is how the world is doing business today!

Of Love and Letters...

We all know how difficult writing love letters can be. I've seen some love letters starting with -
'Hey,

I am trying to write this love letter to you....'
and ending with -
'I hope you know how much I love you...'

The gist is the same... 'I love you'.. But it is pretty amazing how a few words can mean a whole world; how love can be engulfed in a few sentences. I was going through a few love letters online and found a few good ones on a single site. You can find them below.

Yes..this post has been inspired by Sex and the City - the movie. (Carrie asks BIG to write a letter for her..)

When I stole Money from ME...

Finally ME HOME! After enjoying my freedom for 2 and half years I am finally home (before my next stint). Love happens and so do greeting cards. I don’t believe in being completely open about my life to my parents and so I have always had this secret drawer in which I kept all the things meant to be *hidden*. As soon as I touched home I went straight to my room to hide some important stuff :p . I had even forgotten how it looked like. And I opened it… only to see surprises!

               

There were tickets to the movies, greeting cards, Cadbury wrappers, gift wrappers and wallets. I had totally forgotten about this part of my life (which is a very good thing because it was PAST). I was wondering why I had kept the crap in my life so long. And then I realized that I have come a long way…and the fact that I have changed is TRUE!

I longed for someone…then miracles happened…and then disappeared…I cried…begged…and the cycle repeated… but I only emerged stronger. The old ME would have kept all this….but the new ME simply picked it up, tore it into pieces, threw it into the dustbin and made space for new beginnings. I realized I did the right thing. It takes courage to leave the past and move on to take on the future.

Also…I never knew I had so many wallets! Jokes apart!! I never knew I had money saved! Considering I couldn’t save a penny in the past 2.5 years this seemed like a miracle to me. I couldn’t count the money (not because there was a lot of money because there was not….but because I am very weak at maths!). I decided to take a few bucks from that…but I started feeling guilty. That was my wardrobe and my wallet and my secretly saved money (which BTW I am very proud of!)… But still I felt guilty. It felt as if I was stealing money from someone I once knew. And that someone was ME! Just the old ME!

Nevertheless, I took the money… and felt guilty for quite some time...but the old Me was understanding so I am sure she would understand.