(Political satire)



(Cartoon taken from internet)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;

All the king’s horses

And all the king’s men,

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

Our Humpty Dumpty, called Prince by family and family friends, did not sit on a wall. He sat on a high pedestal. He did not do so on his own. His loving mother had put him on a high pedestal with high hopes that he would maintain the glorious family tradition. She believed that by just sitting on a high pedestal, her son would become a big man whom people will adore. But Humpty Dumpty, though by counting number of birthdays celebrated a grown-up man, was as innocent as a nursery child. So, when mother grew old, she told her daughter to take care of him. Being Humpty Dumpty’s sister, she too was like a child. Trying to behave like a big man, Humpty Dumpty started moving, rather running, in all directions to serve the interest of the family. Unfortunately, he could not maintain the balance and fell down several times seriously injuring himself. Trying to save him, his sister too fell down and injured herself but not as seriously as her brother.

After the fall, he was put in a bed. He had wounds all over the body. The bandages applied to cover the wounds had covered most of his body. He had received serious injuries at almost all the places he had visited. At one place he had fallen upside down. As a result, his head was injured badly. At another place the fall was so serious that his ribs were broken. At yet another place both his arms were twisted. At the fourth place he had received wounds on his cheeks. At the fifth place he had a miraculous escape.

That was not all. Since he had been speaking, in fact shouting, at his opponents almost for two months, his vocal cord was badly damaged. He had great difficulty speaking.

Since our Humpty Dumpty had been travelling long distances to meet people, to keep the morale of his supporters high, his both the feet were swollen.

By shaking hands with thousands of people had badly damaged his right palm.

His worried mom was sitting on his bed, continuously looking at her darling son. She was looking very tense. She was cursing all those fellows who were responsible for such a pathetic condition of her only son on whose frail shoulders rested the huge responsibility of carrying on the glorious tradition of the family.

His injured sister was giving him company in another bed nearby.

The close family friends, known in the public as family’s general secretaries were sitting around the bed. They did not know what to say. They did not know what to do know.

The family doctors were in attendance.

However, there was no pin drop silence in the room. Sometimes mother’s sobs could be heard. Sometimes her son’s groans could be heard. Every time the mother heard some sound coming from her son’s mouth, she would bring her ear – sometimes left, sometimes right – close to his lips but every time she was frustrated because she could not understand what he was trying to say.

Our own Humpty Dumpty had not eaten anything since morning. He had not taken a drop of water since morning. Since the son had not eaten anything and had not taken even a drop of water, how could the mother eat or drink?

When the mother and son were in such a bad shape, there was no question of any tea or coffee or even cold water being served to the family friends and doctors. Anticipating such a situation, they had all come after heavy breakfast and were fit enough to go without food for the rest of the day. They were really worried. More importantly, they had to look very worried. Their career depended on the career of the young man.

Meanwhile, Humpty Dumpty’s guru who was once his father’s friend walked in to console and advise. He said, “जो हुआ सो हुआ (whatever has happened has happened), now let us take care of our future.”



Despite his serious injuries, Humpty Dumpty jumped from his bed, took his sleeper in his hand and started hitting the guru who sported French cut beard. “Get lost!” Humpty Dumpty shouted. “It is all because of you.” The guru ran for his life beging pardon.

The worried mother looked at the doctors. One of them rushed to inject a concoction of painkiller and sedative. Our Humpty Dumpty fell asleep.

The mother got down from the bed. All those sitting in the chairs too got up. She signalled them to follow her and went out of the room. They all assembled in the adjoining sitting room. After their Madam had acquired the high chair, she signalled all those standing to sit down. There sat down as obediently as they had got up a few moments earlier. They were all looking at the Madam. They were ready to receive any punishment, oral, physical or financial. Those were moments of high tension, moments of great suspense.

After five minutes, Madam broke the suspense. She said in a low voice, “I want a complete report from each place my son had visited. I am not blaming anyone of you. I know, all of you are his well-wishers. In fact, you have been very loyal to our great family. Whatever I have been able to do so far, it is all because of your support and good wishes. But I want to know, how my son could suffer so many injuries, from his head to his toe. My poor baby. Besides family friends like you, several other persons had also promised to help him. Some old and new supporters had come forward and promised me that they would virtually adopt him but they let us down very badly. I don’t find anyone of them here. I want complete report from you people. I had appointed each one of you in charge of at least one state where the stakes were very high. Will anyone say something that could give some comfort to me, some comfort to my son?”

They all looked at each other. They were grateful to Madam that she had not shouted at them. The question was, who should speak first. Everyone was expecting that someone else would take the lead.

Madam was waiting for the reply. At long last, she asked one of her general secretaries to say something. Mustering courage, he said “Respected Madam, all of us will go back to the field to collect full report but pardon me for saying that we cannot rely on the outside friends, old or new. I had always my doubts. They were showing friendship to serve their own interest, not the interest of this great family, not the interest of the nation. At the appropriate time, you must teach them a lesson.”

Madam took a deep breath and murmured as if to herself. “The people of this country are so ungrateful. I left my home, my parents, my brothers and sisters, my friends, people of my own country and came here to serve poor people of this country.”

“Respected Madam, you are like Mother Teresa. Like you, she too came from a foreign country to serve the poor people here.” Said one of the general secretaries.

“Mother Teresa got the Nobel Prize. What did I get? I sacrificed my husband for the sake of this country. I dedicated my son to the country. At my suggestion, he decided to forgo personal pleasure and devote all his time and energy to serve the poor people of this country. And look, what they have given in return! It’s all because of one man. I will never pardon him. He seems to be determined to ruin my family, to ruin the career of my son. My child is such an affectionate boy, full of compassion for everybody. But I don’t know why, people of this country do not appreciate great services rendered by my illustrious son and his great ancestors of this country. Ungrateful people. Sometimes I feel that I should go back to the place from where I had come but I have some commitments to this family, to my late husband, to his ancestors and to take care of my son’s career. I can’t go back. I will stay here to fight, fight to the last drop of my blood. The people here will have to understand the value my son. A wonderful gift of God.”

She cried, “They don’t know me. I will not let them live in peace. I will not allow Parliament to function. I will….”

After a couple of minutes, she asked all of her general secretaries, “Make arrangements to send my son abroad and tell the media that he has gone on sabbatical. I’m sure, when he returns, he will be fit stand on his own.”

Will our Humpty Dumpty be able to rise from the great fall? Everyone was asking the same question. Of course to himself. Devendra Narain

@narain41

PS

Our Humpty-Dumpty recovered from injuries sooner than expected. He was so scared of high pedestal from which he had fallen that he announced his decision not to sit on that. The Queen and all the Queen’s men and women could not put him back on the pedestal.

If you like satires, here is a link for something interesting.



Also read

“A new revolutionary is born in India”

Link:

https://www.devendranarain.com/a-new-revolution…is-born-in-india/

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