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A Bough, A Rope & A Mridhangam

Discussion in 'Stories (Fiction)' started by Thyagarajan, Feb 6, 2024.

  1. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    :hello:A Bough, A Rope
    &
    A Mridhangam
    :hello:
    In a kingdom, a peculiar cruel law was in force . As per that law, all men and women after attaining age eighty are to be compulsorily exiled to a distant mountain left there uncared for.

    Months after passage of this cruel law, the King desired to know the impact of this law and benefits that accrued to the people and so to his kingdom's kitty.
    He was contemplating that after driving away the unproductive citizens, the kingdom would now be free from burden of maintaining the geriatrics - i.e. people over the hill & coffin dodgers - and therefore infrastructural needs would have begun to shrink from stretching.

    He then was wondering whether the new law implemented yielded desired results in terms of innovation and produced out of box thinking among the young ones.

    Inter alia, to discover how the present productive generation intellectually superior in stressful situations, he devised a serious of three challenging tasks to his young citizens to attempt.

    One bright morning when the court assembled, the king announced the first of three challenging tasks.

    While that law was in force, a dad and his beloved son X fond of each other were worried about their impending separation as dad would be completing 80 years the next day.

    Fearing royal incarceration, X in compliance to prevailing law, carried his ailing dad on his back to mountains and left him there and begun walking away toward his home.
    But after moments of walking, the sadness of being separated from dad weighed heavily on him and therefore decided to take back dad home and protect and maintain him stealthily at his backyard,
    feeding him secretly.

    That was the the time the king made an announcement of the first of three tasks.

    The first task is to bring to court and show a long thick twisted rope in shape made by ashes only.

    Hearing this, every citizen wondered how ash could be spun into a rope. No one could make such a rope.

    The son X reported to his dad about the king's announcement and sought a solution.

    After listening to his son, dad told X that if he twists a rope over a threaded cylindrical metal drum and set it on fire, he will get a rope twisted with ashes.

    With meticulous planning, the son did exactly that. Even after the rope burnt rdduced to ashes, yet the ash as a whole remained intact in the shape of a coiled rope around the cylinder. He carefully carried and produced it before the king in court . The king and the gathering applauded his feat and X received from king the accolades and rewards.

    A month later the king had announced another challenge.

    He, holding a long slender bough - branch of a tree - and desired someone to identify it's base.

    As the two ends looked almost alike, none could determine or distinguish the base?

    Then X approached his dad requesting for solution to the king's second task.

    Dad thought only for a while - adviced X to fill a large cistern with water up to its brim and leave the slender bough gently on the water surface and then look for the end which sinks more deeper into water from it's placid surface, then that end ought to be the base.

    X demonstrated exactly this to the delight of members of the king's court and the king.
    A pleased King rewarded X with platitudes and gold coins.

    The king now announced the third task harder than the previous ones.

    He announced, "could anyone come forward to produce a percussion drum aka Mridhangam that gives off sound without it being tapped or knocked at its end".

    Son X weary of the king's third challenging task, once again approached his dad for solution.

    After listening to X narration of king's third challenge, his dad told him “First get the hide ( skin of animal) goat or cow leather needed for making the muscial drum. Go to the forest; source and fetch a beehive. Prepare the drum (aka mridhangam) fix carefully the beehive into it and seal and secure the open ends with the animal skin. when this arrangement is ready, carry it carefully without shaking it and let it be handed it to the king and tell him to shake this arrangement a tad vigorously and he would here the sound from it without its side tapped or knocked".

    X meticulously prepared the muscial drum (mridhangam) as instructed by dad and carried it without shaking it carefully to the king's court.
    In presence of huge gathering in the king's court, X handed mridhangam carefully to the king. The king holding it between his palms, shook the mriudhagam slowly & gently.

    Within the drum, beehive got disturbed & came out of their hibernation and began flying in random direction chaotically impacted repeatedly at the ends of the mriudhagam .
    Crude sound emanated from it without being tapped or knocked manually .

    The King and the gathering remained non-plussed for a while listening to awesome musical notes from the drum.

    King in awe and in bewilderment, asked X as to how he could accomplish this feat too, whence he told that solutions were revealed to him only by his octogenerian dad.

    He hesitatingly further added, "I don't have the experience to get at solutions for the tasks set out by your majesty. I felt the need to be guided by an experienced man who had seen many ups and downs and upheavals in life. That man is none other than my 80 year old dad. So I sought & got from him the solutions” .

    The young man's reply moved the king. Realizing His folly and begun appreciating the need of treasuring the aged experienced elders and told the gathering that old ought to be viewed as a vital scarce resource. He further added, "Besides solving complex kingdom building plans, the elders very presence and council would be handy & helpful in solving societal welfare issues and the kingdom as a whole".

    He at once rescinded the cruel law of excommunication of the old to mountains.
    Thereafter, citizens were happy to continue to live happily with their ageing parents thanks to X and his thoughtful resourceful dad.
     
    joylokhi, iyerviji and gamma50g like this.
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  2. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    Thank you @gamma50g for clicking the like. Do you find this story connotes present day politics in states of India and a minister planning to buy huge quantity of thermocol to prevent water evaporation by covering canals?!
     
  3. gamma50g

    gamma50g Finest Post Winner

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    This story actually brought back childhood memories for me. I remember reading this story either in Tinkle or Amar Chitra Katha as a kid. The story was brief and only mentioned the first task. However, your narration is much more detailed. Enjoyed the read.

    Did a politician actually buy thermocol to stop water evaporation from canals? If he is a young one, the story may apply to him. However methinks he is concocting a story to justify his large thermocol purchase!! In Kaliyuga even the young ones aren't naive
     
  4. Thyagarajan

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  5. gamma50g

    gamma50g Finest Post Winner

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    :flushed::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy: Thats hilarious. Irrefutable proof that power and intelligence dont necessarily go hand-in-hand.
     
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