The Hard working Ant and the Lazy Grasshopper !

Everyone who can read/write/understand some language would have come across this story, where an ant works all summer to save something for the winter, whereas the grasshopper makes fun of the ant during summer and suffers all winter. I came across a modified version of the story, an Indian version, which was thought-provoking. The first half remains the same and it had a second half where, grasshoppers protest against the happy and the well-fed ants, while they were suffering. And all those Eagles (obviously, our wonderful politicians), marched behind these lazy hoppers, confiscating all belongings of the ants. These tired ants flee India to America, where they succeed by large, whereas India is still developing.

On the first read, it seemed to be very true. The hardworking middle class brings in all incomes to the country, which are used to donate colour TVs and gas stoves to the "so-called" poor. A farmer, puts in all his 6 month effort to produce rice, which he has to sell for Rs 2/Kg. He ends up eating rats. An employee ends up putting a part of his earning, into the wallets of the eagles in the name of income tax. In a wealth distribution scheme, the politicians presume themselves to be major stake holders and become day light robbers. they not only get spoiled, but also spoil those hoppers and make them even lazier.

But, when i look deep, the number of ants here in our country is far more than the combined population of the hoppers and the eagles. So why does our country look like its a grasshopper country. Mainly because of the two things that the ant fails to do. One, TO BE UNITED and Two, To SHOULDER RESPONSIBILITIES. They forget the fact that(or at least pretend to do so) , they learnt to work here, they were taught here,by a previous generation of ants who chose to remain here, hoping to free the country from those hoppers and eagles.

When your sister doesn't keep your house clean, you never move out. You teach her how to keep it clean. It is the same with these ants. they have to teach the grass hoppers rather than playing blame games. The Indian version, definitely written by an ant must not become a bad precedent. So here is an ant trying to rewrite it, hoping the ants would understand its significance.

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There was a community of ant and grass hoppers living together in a farm. The ants worked all summer to save something for the winter, whereas the grasshoppers made fun of the ants during summer. Winter came.

The grass hoppers were ill-fed and were very unhappy. They envied their neighbours. they wanted to harm them. They staged a protest against these ants with the help of the cunning eagles, who were waiting upon such a chance. Both together, planned the war against the ants. But those ants had other plans. When the protest raged, they pretended to be ill-fed too and fooled those grass hoppers. the eagles knowing that, they won't benefit settling a dispute between two poor fellows, backed out of the protest. Ants knew it was time to make pacts. they traded food and happiness for a promise. A promise which made grass hoppers work in the summers.

Next summer, ants and the hoppers worked hand in hand, giving eagles only chance to give statements, "India is shining ! ".

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Ants lead, they don't follow. If you believe you are an ant, lead, in the Right direction. When you blame, you become a grass hopper, worse, the eagle. Its your choice to be an ant or a grass hopper. Decide!

But even if you choose to remain a grass hopper here or fly as an ant somewhere, there are lot of ants, who will stay back and keep INDIA SHINING !