SWEET & SOUR

Ant, grasshopper
Old version


The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant’s a fool and 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.


Modern version

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant’s a fool and 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.

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast demanding that the grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Kofi Annan criticise the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. Left parties call for “Bharat bundh” in West Bengal and Kerala. CPM in Kerala passes a law preventing ants from working hard so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers. 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 grasshopper in educational and government service.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony. Arundhati Roy calls it “a triumph of justice”. CPM calls it the “revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden”. 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... Losing a lot of hard working ants and feeding grasshoppers, India is still a “developing” country.



(Courtesy: Vipin Bucksey, New Delhi)
Appeared in Deccan Herald March 2, 2007