From Crunchtantra Tales by Balwant Gurunay
Friends as I passed over towns and villages in my quest for practically applying what I had learnt from my Masters and my guide books, I travelled far and wide, from town to town and village to village. In my wanderings I once happened to pass through a place called Goddesscastle. I thought of sticking around there for some time and observe the people and experiment with how a shift in positions and situations can affect the beliefs and values of the people and their behaviour. During my research I happened to pass through many situations, some pleasant some not so pleasant, and met many people, some at places high some low, some in situations good and some not so good. I have put my observations in Goddesscastle or so to say the results of my wanderings in it in to a set of short stories called 'Ballu Nasrudin's Neo tantra Tales'. I witnessed the people and situations closely, some times as a neutral observer and at places chipping in with some stimulus to trigger a situation or a person out of inertia, so as to speedup my experiments but I religiously let the results be a pure outflow of the inherent character of the people invoved and the situations naturaly presented to them by their own effort or sheer circumstances. All chracters and situations in my stories are absolutely based on truth but fictitously caricatured. The aim is simple---- To state the results of my experiments on contemporary Socio- Psychological truths in a story form. There is a small paragraph explaining the background of each of the stories before I begin narrating it.. In some of the stories I am a distant observer and in some a close observer, very close to or within the time and space of action.. {The reason for this being that one can not either study or clean a sewer unless you step in to it where as the fragrance of a garden can be felt from a distance even.}
Here is aTale called 'THE STABLE AT GODDESSCASTLE'
(This story is a spoof on many of the so called false societies and social organisations, which in the name of social work take lakhs of rupees as donation and sponsorship money from goverments and other corporate institutes only to be misused and unscrupulously expended on personal merry making.)
In the town of Goddesscastle once I happened to visit a stable and found some horses and mares there. The stable was being presided over by a horse called Loudvoice . They named him Loudvoice because he was a real LOUDMOUTH. Loudvoice was very depressed and sad because the horses and mares in the stable didn’t care a s---- about him. The moment he would even make a little sound the horses and mares would immediately give him a shut up call.
A time came when Loudvoice became so frustrated and sad that he thought of leaving the stable for once and for all. This was a very sad situation and I was moved by this. I asked Loudvoice not to get depressed and encouraged him and motivated him just to cheer him on. This is when Loudvoice once again started shaking his legs and soon started to take control. His manners were no doubt rough and intimidating so much so that one of the sweet looking older mares even cried aloud when Loudvoice neighed right next to her ear. Oh it was an embarrassing moment for the mare but Loudvoice had a field day and emerged in control.
Now on the very roof of that stable lived a monkey called Doubler. He had a great skill of making sure that his right hand wouldn’t know what his left hand was doing, he could hang on to two horses and jump from one horse back to another like an expert, simply put he was the greatest turncoat I ever met. Now Doubler the monkey was simply a superb double crosser and was thus called 420 the Doubler. Seeing me encourage Loudvoice out of his bad times Doubler once came to me and said,” Sir, do you know that the guy you are trying to encourage does not deserve your encouragement because once he catches pace he is gonna back-kick you , because this is what they all do.
I simply told Doubler not to worry . He should be focused on his game. He could in any case jump from one horse back to another. As far as his worry for me, he need not worry as I am a student of psychology, and in fact I just want to experiment whether a brow beaten and dipressed fellow can turn the tables of a game, just with some encouragement, and if the results come positive than I shall be convinced of the fact, that yes motivation and encouragement can turn around the tables of any game.
Now Doubler told me not to trust a snake or a stubborn horse as they will bite or kick the very hand that feeds them but I asked Doubler not to worry as this is a little price that has to be paid to experiment with the truthfulness of a theory so as to be able to accept it as a law. So, Doubler and I reached an understanding that if Loudmouth succeeds in kicking all the horses out of the stable and if Doubler could show me some of his true talent in finding a place at the high table of the stable with Loudmouth, I shall let doubler be, and get out of the way for ever, and brother, this is what happened.
It was decided that a conference be organized in this city of parallel lines. In this farce of a conference, representatives from many stables were to come from different states. This required for a huge amount of fine mud and good grass to be collected so that all the guests coming from far and wide could roll around in the mud to their hearts fill and enjoy the grass as well. It was decided that as much as possible of mud and grass be collected so that every one can be made happy eating grass and rolling in the mud to ones hearts fill. Loud Voice had to prove a point to all the horses so he tapped all the possible resources that he could and well he turned out to be quite a smart fellow at collecting loads of grass and mud.
Now the owner of the stable named Conman who lived in a big city was impressed, and told Loudvoice to do what he liked. He told Loudvoice that now they deserve to pat each other's back and could be bum chum pals.
This made Loudvoice very confidant and he even told the long time occupiers of the stable who thought they were the hosts to start paying for the grass and mud party and started snubbing the town horses as and when he liked. Some of the horses decided that they shall have nothing to do with this get-together and some just thought, lets go and at least see what Loudvoice does, and be a witness to the show even if it becomes a little embarrassing. Some tried to play along in hope of some gain that they might receive. Most of the people who played along Loudmouth were in fact his official staff. Doubler as expected came in at the right moment and started collecting the spoils of the game. He proved to be real ‘player’ and was all over the place, playing from both the teams, as I and few others saw him doing what he was best at, and could not hold our smiles. For the older horses it was all so very entertaining to see this smart operator make all the right moves and soon even find a place at the high table.
The King of Godesscastle was honourably invited and he was impressed by Loudvoice being the leader of stallions and mares and he extended support to the party in terms of some solid loads of good quality grass and mud. When conman the stable owner saw that even the King has supported this party and has even promised to visit the place as a guest of honour, he was exceptionally happy and he reached Godesscastle in good time.
Conman was a cool operator. A man of smart talents and in fact the owner of many such stables all over the country. He organized many such events time to time. He had organized the stables all over the country with ‘I don’t trust no body attitude’ and controlled this big ‘Tamasha’ with tools of stealth and manipulation. He was a player to hilt, but if Doubler was a little monkey, Conman was the TigerWoods of this game. He organized these events on pretext of some social cause or the other because this exercise was helpful, in not only collecting funds but gaining publicity as well. Many simple and nice people, professors of universities, and some people simply looking for a stage to say some thing, would reach such functions at his invitation, would speak on relevant or irrelevant issues and be happy with a few photographs, a few words in the press and all the little poisons of life. Some Kings or administrators would be roped in on the first and last day for the usual press coverage and turn the event in to big news, or at least, worthy of some media glare. This is how the show went on.
Our friend Loudvoice had by now collected a lot of sponsored mud and grass, which elated Conman and encouraged him. Seeing the positive response of the king of the region, Conman our friend, had sudden ambitions of being a town ship builder. At the right time he praised the King of his magnanimous nature and kind heart and made the demand for a piece of land for the Conman Township right next to the big capital city. Wow! what a move and if it works, Well, Conman and his cronies, shall be happy men and women. This is what I call taking a shot or throwing the dice.
There is something that I noticed as it could not be ignored. There was always a huge crowd during the meal times and the dance sessions of this conference but during the speeches most of the chairs were empty, though sadly so. During meal time the whole place was rocking and folks were just having a good time with Loudmouth and Conman and their family and friends. Doubler came to me on the last day and said, “Brother, with my calculations I can see that in these moments of ‘masti’ and happiness Loudvoice is about to ditch you in a most shameful way, because he is now feeling that he is too well settled in the driving seat and he has started looking at you as a threat rather than a friend. He is also going around telling people that you are an extra smart fellow.
Once I had heard Doubler I told him that oh dear Doubler the monkey, why should you worry, because in fact for me it is just an experiment and for you it is another fresh opportunity”.
Go and be a part of the gang and make Loudvoice feel all the more secure and strong, and tell him, that the race begins now. The race now is between Loudvoice who thinks he is a throughbred and the stable conglomerate owner who thinks he is so much in control, and I assure you that Loudvoice shall win. You have nothing to lose. as once in due time the stable conglomerate owner is going to be back kicked by Loudvoice, he shall try and take over the conglomerate because this is what he is slogging his arse for, so as to have something to do after his retirement from the government job, and, 'You my dear friend Doubler shall rule the horses for some time, atleast till the time' another stallion realizes that U R After all just a monkey.
Me and Doubler rolled laughing all over the place.
All that I was keen on was experimental psychology and all that Doubler was interested in, was some monkey business.
Balwant Gurunay
