The story of Mr Horse

Once it so happened that in a certain farm the laborers started demanding more money. Their masters tried to fend off their demands as long as they could, but finally convened a meeting. This is what happened there.

People present Mr Pig, Mr Dog, Mr Fox, Mr Bat, Mr Grasshopper, Mr Donkey and Mr Horse, labor representative. Mr Pig being the highest authority said, look Mr Horse your demands for more money is completely unfair. We do know that the government has sanctioned more money for laborers but we feel that you and your kind don't deserve any more than what you are getting. Secondly the farm doesn't have any money to be distributed among laborers. We have to take care of the managers and Mr Dog will tell you laborers are our last priority on the welfare list. First the managers, then the low level managers, then the still low level managers, then the workers and then the laborers. At this point Mr Horse interrupted, but sir the government has sanctioned the money for us. Then it has to be given to us, it can't be spent on anything else.

"Shut up! Mr Horse" shouted Mr Fox, "You have no right to tell us how we are going to spend the money we receive from the government."

"We have told you there is no money left for the laborers then you should go back and tell your friends there won't be any money" added Mr Bat, "It is your responsibility to convince your fellow laborers that your demands are unfair and above all where is the proof that government has taken a decision to give you scums more money"

Mr Horse having no proof listened to all the insults showered on him and his kind without a word. But he was determined to get the proof.

After this meeting all other people except Mr Horse again called a meeting to discuss the issue since they new someday Horse is going to get the proof and then they will have to face the music.

Again Mr Pig started "Look people once they have the proof we might have to pay them the money. We all know that the money has been spent on the new constructions in the farm and we all have benefited from it explicitly and implicitly. Now we have to think of ways to put down this rebellion before it blows out of proportion."

At this point Mr Grasshopper said "Look Mr Pig, the market forces are against us. There are more lucrative avenues then working in a farm. We are falling short of good laborers. We must do something about it and money looks to be the most lucrative option"

"What good laborers?" shouted Mr Donkey, "Good laborers means, more brain and more demands, demand for equality, demand for respect, think Mr Hopper, how will we be able to make them our slaves then? Who will butter us day in and day out? The point is we don't need just laborers we need slaves. Even you don't pay much to your privately hired laborers. And I hope you see things the same way I do."

Everybody present in the meeting echoed there support for Mr Donkey. But the fact remained that something needs to be done, the billion dollar question, what exactly? The meeting went on for few more hours over numerous cups of coffee and tea with cutlets and cashew nuts and other dry fruits brought in once Horse had left.

When the people were busy making a strategy Mr Horse wrote to his friend Mr Mule in another farm to get him a copy of the letter from where he saw the government decision. Mr Mule was swift and the next pigeon to the farm brought the required proof and then again Mr Horse went to the council and this time on seeing the proof they had a different song to sing. Mr Pig as usual started and said look Mr Horse we have given a thought to your proposal and we think you scums deserve more money though I should say when I was a laborer I faced lot of hardship.

Mr Horse listened to all this but thought what can I do about your hardship, I or my friends are not responsible we were not even born at that time. He was not even listening to Pig. Horse sat through the grueling session when all the people one by one pointed out how hard it was for them as a laborer and even they laughed on their silly jokes like the fodder in their time were sliced a little larger then it is done today making their meal less tasty. They even pointed out how automated tail wagging machine had to be bought from the market so that they could keep their managers happy all time because for people not accustomed to wagging tail it was really hard to do it all the time. At this time Mr Pig and Mr Hopper had the sympathy of all other people present since Pig's tail is short and twisted which was really unfit for wagging even by automated tail wagger and Hopper had to surgically place a tail at its end which till today keeps wagging. Well lots said about their woes in their labor days Mr Horse waited for them to announce something. Only when the matter of money came up he became attentive. But this time it was Mr Fox talking. Then Mr Fox started "Well Mr Horse we have decided that starting from this month laborers will receive the new rates fixed by the government. You should understand that it is not possible for us to give the new rates as from the day formulated by government as we have already spent all the money in improving the infrastructure of the farm. You should understand that it is the greatness of Mr Pig and this council that you would be receiving the new rates. I think we should consider the matter closed henceforth"

At this point Mr Horse simply said "Ok then the matter is closed for this council I think I should write to Mr Lion about the farm and let him know how things are running here. Even Mr Rabbit and Mr Zebra would be happy to print this matter as to how the council is forcing the best of the laborers to abandon government run farms and go to privately owned farms. I think Mr Fox, government do spend a lot of money to keep this place running and looking at the constructions going on in the farm Mr Hound will be happy to pay a visit and sniff around a little. Anyway good day my good sirs"

Saying this, the horse left quietly and the council was as silent as a grave for the next few minutes. Horse having said this Mr Pig convened a meeting of all laborers the very next day.

The meeting started around 10 in the morning and Mr Pig went up to the elevated platform to address the crowd. And thus began a well rehearsed symphony of lies and deceits. The meeting ended with Mr Pig being showered with rotten egg and tomatoes. He was escorted out by his faithful guards led by one Mr Mole. That very day Horse met Mr Lion and told him the about the going ons of the place.

The day after Mr Lion himself came to the place and met Mr Pig. They were closeted in the meet for several hours and then Mr Lion came out and made the announcement that he was convinced with Mr Pig and his friends that laborers are scums and they don't deserve more money. Hence the government withdraws its order for increment. Now you scums of this blessed lace go back to work or you will face my music. Everybody looked around but could not understand this sudden change.

"But Sir you had said you will fix the issue" said Mr Horse to Mr Lion

"Shut up Horse! Or I will have you skinned alive" shouted Mr Lion to Mr Horse.

Few days after this event Mr Horse and his friends disappeared from the farm. Rumor has it that they were taken and skinned alive as said by Mr Lion. The visit of Mr Lion still remains a mystery, rumormongers say that probably Mr Pig was not sending the Lion's share at the proper place.

French fries and hamburgers

It’s a beautiful morning in Boston city. Arun is busying towards his fast food joint ‘The Eldorado’. Today he is doing an extra shift. With New Year round the corner ‘The Eldorado’ is doing some extra business. Arun is pursuing a PhD in physics at the University in Boston. His supervisor is on leave so he has got some extra time for his eldorado. Well the owner is nice guy, and as it turned out this guys grandfather migrated to US. And he hails from the same village as Arun. Though Arun hardly remembers anything of his village from the back waters of Kerala so does the owner. When Arun came to America with his big American dream he never realized a sarcastic remark in his MSc years by his teacher Tanmoy Chatterjee or TC in short could hold the key to his eldorado. `French fries and Hamburger’ yes that’s what he said.

Arun grew up in conservative family. His father worked for MNC so money was not a problem for him but his father still insisted that he should learn to earn his own money. After all for his father having your own money earns you self respect in this world. So, one fine day he announced he wanted to be a scientist. Hearing this, his father was elated.

“Very good Arun, it is very nice that you have decided to become a scientist. I think if you do engineering from computer science from IIT Kanpur and then go to MIT for your further studies it would be excellent.” was his father’s first statement on hearing his good intentions.

“No no!” protested Arun. “You don’t get it; I want to be a physicist not an engineer”

These words fell on his father’s ears like a sound of a 19th century canon fired inches from his ears. He had no words to express his feelings it was like he had frozen with shock, gone deaf and turned blind.

“Dad! Dad!” Arun tried to shake his father out of his momentary state of astonishment. He couldn’t believe his only son didn’t want to be an engineer. When he was back to his senses what he said will puzzle Arun for the rest of his life.

“OK. If you want to be a knuckleheaded ape for the rest of your life I don’t have a problem but officially I don’t like the idea.”

But still against his father’s wishes he came to Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) in New Delhi to join an elite program which went by the name MSc integrated. After grueling exams and interviews he was one of the eight people selected for the program. His first day at IAS was uneventful. The first class taken by Prof Tripathi, a guy in his fifties. The way he carried himself around looked like his existence was a burden on him. Then the very next class was taken by somebody who jumped around the class like a Chinese crazy ball. Then it occurred to him it is the IAS you should expect such varieties. But the most interesting part came only in his fourth year when he had to take a course under Prof Tanmoy Chatterjee.

In short he was known was TC or transfer certificate. You can fall in the bad books of any guy in the institute but not TC. He was a transfer certificate walking around the campus ready to hand himself out to anyone who happened to be in his bad books. So what was he teaching Arun? The theory of condensed matter. Well apart from the theory he was good at swearing at his students.

“You guys are ungrateful mere mortals who don’t know how to respect people.” This would come if you fail to wish him in the corridors of IAS. But the quote of the century was yet to come. It was near the end of his semester that Arun decided to appear for Graduate Record Examinations to get into graduate school in America.

One fine morning he hurried off to passport office for his passport application. He made a mental calculation to be back in two hours for TC’s class or he might end up getting a TC. But then there is always Murphy’s Law and Indian bureaucracy. Put together what you have is disaster. So the inevitable happened. It took Arun five hours running from pillar to post to submit his passport application. The consequence TC is probably cleaning his rifle by now to put Arun in front of his one man firing squad.

Come next day 10’o clock Arun seated his usual last bench. Enter TC with his sarcastic smile and a beaming face.

“Well, Well who do we have here? Ah! Mr. Arun. What a pleasant surprise. After all you have found time to come to my class? May I pray to your highness for your forgiveness on account of my audacity to enquire about your whereabouts during my class yesterday?” were the first few sentences that came out of the beaming round face of TC. Arun was dumbfounded by such overtures from TC and he kept mum.

“Answer me Arun!” barked TC at the top of his voice. “Do you know whose class it is? It is my class. TC’s class. Nobody is supposed to miss it. So kindly let me know where you were at the allotted hour?”

“Sir! I went to passport office”

“What for?” barked TC again.

“For selling onions and carrots. After all passport office is a place to sell onions and carrots.” thought Arun guessing probably TC does something else other than doing something for his passport at the passport office.

“To submit my passport application sir”

“Passport application? Are you going out somewhere this summer? I thought you were doing summer project with Prof Ayyar in summer.” enquired TC with suspicion.

“No sir, I am taking the GRE this year. For that I need the passport”

“Ah! I see! You are taking ‘the exam`. ‘The exam` to move to so called greener pastures probably in search of Holy Grail or something of that sort. But guess what, I know what most of you mere ungrateful mortals end up doing there. Sell hamburgers and French fries. Yes! that’s what you do” the words poured out of TC like a declaration from almighty God telling Arun his fate when he lands up at some grad school in America.

“Well! Since you have not missed a single class other than that of yesterday I will excuse you this time or you could have seen your American dreams jettisoned in a matter of minutes. Don’t worry in your last semester at IAS I will be taking your advanced course on condensed matter which for you guys is being made compulsory. So don’t miss a class or you might end up getting the beautiful english letter ‘F` meaning ‘fail` or in your case 'forget your dreams`.” declared TC. For the rest of the class TC was in a jubilant mood for he had released the floodgates of his dam of sarcasm which was overfull for want of victim.

But the class and the remarks were an eye opener for Arun. After all the McDonalds sell hamburgers and fries all over the world and make a filthy some of money each day. So there is nothing wrong in selling them if you can get rich by doing so. Probably this guy TC at the end of the day walks to a McDonald to buy fries and burgers for his son. And then the question popped in his mind

“If no body sold any burgers, how the hell we get to eat one?” making this mental note he was waiting eagerly for the end of the class. The end soon came and he rushed out of the class chasing TC and screaming at the top pf his voice

“Sir I have a question?” said Arun

“OK go ahead” said TC thinking he had disciplined the kid.

“Sir, if no one sold hamburgers and French fries how would we get to eat one? After all those mcbergers and mcfries are damn tasty.” declared Arun with confidence. He had completely forgotten that he was asking this to none other than TC.

“You will pay for this. Memorize the letter ‘F` from English alphabet” said a furious TC who had by then turned red like a piece of iron in the blacksmiths kiln.

At that moment terror stuck Arun, what the hell he had done, what was he thinking, he could see his American dreams down the filthiest drain. The semester was nearing its end, he might pass TC this time but what about next year?

That was almost four years back thought Arun speeding up to ‘The Eldorado’. Now he really sells fries and burgers in his free time and he makes enough to enjoy a little relaxed life. He looked towards the sky and thanked God for putting the thought in TC’s head about burgers and fries.

Well for what happened in the final year it’s anybody’s guess that he did not encounter the ‘F’ word. How did that happen is history? May be TC did not take the course or it was not made compulsory that’s for another time.


Disclaimer: This is a fiction any resemblance to anybody anywhere is purely coincidental

This is the last time I go for a girl!!!

Anuj and Raghu were having a nice cup of coffee on a cold weary night. Suddenly,

“Thud !!!!!!” sounded Raghu, banging his hand hard on the table.

“This is the last time I go for girl. No more girls. Only research. You know Anuj, these girls are hypocrites.” Raghu declared with an air of absolute authority.

Anuj still silent busy enjoying his coffee and the pancake he picked up on his way out of the cafeteria. The cafeteria was warm but still both of them preferred under the star studded cold night.

“Are you listening you ever eating hippo? I just had a break up and you are behaving as if nothing happened. You are my best friend. At least show some sympathy.” Raghu roared at Anuj.

“Yeah yeah.. I understand” Anuj said nonchalantly taking a huge bite of his pancake.

“No you don’t understand. You only say so.”

“You don’t get it, how hard it is to loose the love of your life?”

“Guys like you think love is like a pancake. As long as you eat it put all your attention on it. Once finished forget it with a burp. Anuj its hard to find true love” Raghu was almost in tears saying those last words.

Anuj finally got to understand the gravity of the situation and slipped his remaining pancake in his leather jacket. He had never been in this situation before. A heart broken fellow in front of him almost in tears. He had no words to console him though he knew this was probably Raghu’s zillionth break up since he had joined iit for his phd 4 and half years back. Anuj has seen only his last two break ups for in the initial years both of them had different groups of interaction. The one before this was not that grave. He intoxicated himself with good deal of vodka and went to sleep. Within a week he has trying to draw Parul’s attention towards himself. Parul happened to be a PhD student from the chemistry department. Only god can tell who got attracted to whom but within two weeks the two of them were often spotted together at various locations inside the campus. Walking side by side, chatting, giggling. And then after 1 and half months, here he was with Anuj declaring confidently that all girls are hypocrites and Anuj was a ever eating hippo.

After a long spell of silence Anuj finally asked “ How did it all happened?”

Probably Anuj had just done the worst mistake of his life. With nothing else to say he had to ask Raghu something. So he asked what he perceived to be the shortest question to ask. But sometimes the shortest of our questions has the longest of all answers.

“It all started with a bang like in big bang theory. I was having a cup of tea in lounge. After five minutes she too came with her labmate. We exchanged glances. And that very moment I knew she also has feelings for me.”

“How can you know from just a glance whether somebody likes you or not? “ Anuj interrupted.

“Don’t interrupt. Just listen. Just as you know by smelling food whether it will taste good or not I know by just a look whether somebody is interested in me or not. Like that girl over there inside the cafeteria. Though she is sitting with her boyfriend but with a corner of her eye she is looking at me.”

Anuj tilted his face a little to see if there was anybody inside the cafeteria. He was surprised to see there was a girl and boy sitting enjoying there cup of hot drink. Anuj didn’t notice them coming for he was busy with his pancake.

“May be she is trying to see who are those two blokes who are sitting outside in this cold winter when we could have enjoyed the warmth inside.” said Anuj with anticipation that Raghu might buy his explanation.

But god has made some people with a perception that they are ladies man.

“No you don’t understand, you fatso. She is trying to look at me. Every girl does that even if she is with a guy .”

“May be there is no sense of commitment now a days. So why don’t you go on with your story as to why you had break up” Anuj said pulling back Raghu to the topic they were discussing or rather to the story that Anuj was listening. For it was well past midnight and Anuj had only one thing in mind. Go back to his hostel and slip into his huge quilt his parents gave him on his twenty fifth birthday. They wanted to give him a wrist watch but Anuj wanted a huge quilt. For him only two things mattered food and sleep, rest everything is secondary.

“I knew this is the love of my life. So far what ever girls I had been with they were not the love of my life in true sense.” Raghu started his narration which seemed to Anuj will last till morning and he will miss his beauty sleep.

“You know it is one of those rare feelings you have when the cupid really strikes you. Anyway what would you know. For you food is everything .”

“Then i started saying come on Raghu go and speak to her this is it. If you miss this chance you will be sad for the rest of your life. I was waiting that I get a few split minutes when she would be alone”

“And then luck smiled at me. Her friend went inside to pay the bills while she waited outside the lounge. It was lucky day. There were lot of people trying to pay there bills. So I knew she will be there for atleast ten minutes. I walked up to her and said hi! I am Raghu from physics departmenmt”

“She looked at me surprised or rather I should say she was taken back by the way I introduced myself so fast when we had been making eye contacts for just couple of days. Believe me that was the longest 15 seconds of my life. But she replied with a smile I am Parul from chemistry department.”

“Wow! What a beautiful smile she had. That was my mistake. I fell for that smile. In reality she is a hypocrite”

Anuj listened to Raghu hoping that the break up part will come soon and he will be back in his hostel under the quilt.

“I hope Anuj I am not boring you” asked Raghu

“No no! not at all” Anuj replied for he knew he had to go through the whole story. So better now then later. If it is too late he will drop an email in his supervisor Prof Ramanujan’s mail box requesting him for a leave telling him that he was doing literature survey for the latest idea that the prof gave him for his phd problem the previous day. Of course not forgetting to add that he didn’t have much success.

“Shall we have another cup of tea or may be we can meet sometime in the evening and go for walk” continued Raghu

“Anuj do you know what was her reply. I have never met another girl with such a straight forward reply”

“She simply said are you formally asking me out.”

“I was stunned. I said you can think so.”

“In that case I don’t mind another round of coffee she said”

“Then we started of with a regular chat. I came to know she was working with Prof. Dave. And you know surprisingly she was also working on nano particles. Really that was a lucky day. Then I told her I am with Prof Ramanujan and working in nano particles. After that it was like smooth sailing. Her favorite colour is red same as mine. Lucky number 8, again same as mine. She loves to study a lot. You see she was completely my type.”

“Then why did you have break up?” Anuj interrupted trying to cut a long story short.

“Wait! I will come to that. Before even you can understand my point of calling her a hypocrite you have to know the circumstances that led to the conclusion” Raghu sneered back.

“Ok carry on” Anuj said trying to frame an email for Prof Ramanujan in his mind.

“Then it was full time affair” Raghu continued

“We used to meet regularly in the evening after lab hours. Even during lab hours our tea times were fixed so that we could have tea together.”

“So what did you talk about?” Anuj said trying to look concerned

“We talked about all sorts of things. Like weather, studies, future plans anything under the blue sky.”

“Future plans? Plans about what?”

“Plans like where we would like to go for our post docs. What we would like to do after phd. And so and so forth”

Anuj still couldn’t get the fact, if everything was so sweet why the god damn break up happened. Because the consequences were really huge, first this Raghu is emotionally broke though only for few days, second he has to listen to a love and hate story which if penned down will probably exceed Romeo and Juliet, and third he has to write an email to Prof Ramanujan telling something which he has never done. He thanked god for the idea in Prof Ramanujan’s head otherwise he would have to take a sick leave which incidentally he took two days back. Anuj was really running out of ideas for this kind of leaves.

“Then every week we used to go out for dinner. Sometimes on Sundays we will visit the mall and have dinner and come back. If anyone of us had to do shopping we would go together. Then when she had her qualifiers I used to accompany her to the library and study with her. So in a way that helped for my qualifiers as well, after a week we were going out she came to my room for the first time. I had spent the whole day tidying it up. We chatted for almost five hours that day. I told her about my family and off course about my drinking problem. And she turned out to be a good listener. Then she told me about her family. Her father is an officer with the navy. She has a younger brother who is pursuing medicine in AIIMS.”

“After that we went out to the restaurant in the campus and had a nice dinner. Luckily she is also non vegetarian. So we really didn’t have any problem selecting items form the menu.”

“Things were really going smooth then fifteen days back I popped the hardest question”

“I asked her whether she was serious about me and is she going to talk about me with her parents and stuff like that.”

“She said her parents won’t be a big prob. In fact it won’t be any problem at all if she were to marry me or something like that. Then she started talking how liberal her parents were and how she felt bad about certain things that are expected of girls in this part of the country. Then she was emphasizing on the fact that she is very different from the girls around her. She is very open minded that is why many people don’t like her.”

So Raghu continued with his narration of his numerous rendezvous with Parul. Then the part came for which Anuj was eagerly waiting for.

“This was last Friday” continued Raghu, “I had sprained my ankle and couldn’t move around”

“She came to see me in my room. And I was really yearning for a bottle of rum. I asked her if she could get me a bottle of rum from somewhere.”

“Her reply was like a shocked what?”

“From where did you expect her to get the rum?” Anuj quizzed

“Why from the shop at the campus gate? She said she is so forward and stuff like that and she couldn’t get a bottle of rum from there, that too in the day time”

“I guess she didn’t get you that and you broke up”

“Look anuj, I cannot spend my whole life with a hypocrite. At one hand she says she is blah blah blah and on the other she has problems in getting a bottle of rum”

“That may be a particular case. May be she is against alcohol and stuff like that. But somehow she adjusted to your drinking problem thinking she might be able to get rid of that. So you should have also adjusted to her reservations in going to the liquor shop.”

“Anuj you don’t understand the way she refused to bring it didn’t show she is against alcohol. Basically she is hypocrite”

“Ok what ever you say” Anuj agreed with Raghu though he could't understand how somebody becomes a hypocrite if he or she doesn't buy liquor from a liquor shop. In his heart he thanked god that the story is over within two hours. It was 4 in the morning. Anuj thought may be he will send the mail to Prof Ramanujan and then go to sleep. After all for Anuj sleeping anytime of the day is perfectly all right.

That was three months ago and still today he could not understand why Raghu had a break up. Raghu has kept his promise so far. He has not messed with any girl in the meantime. Anuj now firmly believes that Raghu has learnt his lesson from his last affair. Prof Ramanujan is already demanding more work from both Anuj and Raghu.. They are having tough time finishing their jobs within the deadline set by their supervisor. May be that is one of the reason why he is not messing around, thought Anuj. It had been a long day. Both Anuj and Raghu had a nice tough talk from Prof Ramanujan. Suddenly out of the blue raghu says “You know Anuj I think that lady with curly hairs in our junior batch likes me. I saw her many times staring at me”

“Oh no! not again Raghu” Anuj sounded with lot of disappointment.

Raghu started to say something but Anuj did not pay attention to much of what Raghu said on their way back to hostel. The first line from the conversation he had with raghu on that cold night flashed in his mind again and again. As an after thought Anuj thought may be Raghu should have said

“This is the last time I go for girl before the next time.”

Disclaimer: This is a fiction any resemblance to anybody anywhere is purely coincidental