A short story without any title
by, Naseer Ahmed
(dedicated to you all who love and think)
Once upon a time, there was a sage. One day that sage gathered the people around him and said “Oh you idiots, I command those wonderful powers that could change the course of nature. To demonstrate my control over those powers I would make the sun rise from the north.”
The people had reservations about these sort of claims those days but they waited for the next morning.
The next morning the sun rose from the east just like before. A few of them dared to laugh at the powers and wisdom of that sage. They were silenced through noisy violence. Rest of them got the message. The newspapers of that place talked about the benefits of the sun rising from the north.
But at deep down, everybody knew that the sun rose from the east and life in the place they lived in got quite worse. They refused to suffer lies about the sunrise.
This situation disturbed the calm of the sagely powers. He invited all those dissidents. After introductions and presentations he told them “you idiots, it seems that sun of bitch did not listen my commands the way I wanted. But I tell you one thing. This one is an impostor. The true sun would arise from the north tomorrow.”
See more: The Art of Humor Garrison Keillor , Interviewed by George Plimpton
In the end, every morning, every true sun did not listen to the sage. The sage could not do much about the sun; he kept offering this promise of the true sun.
His gang believed his promise. In addition, they also kept oppressing the people about the questions on the nature of the true sun. The people suffered but they also learned to copy the sage.
They also had command over those wonderful powers in few weeks. This gave rise to so many gangs. As a consequence, that place became a promise festival every night.
“I would make the true sun rise from the south,” a copycat with a gang claimed.
“I would make the true sun rise from the west,” another sage with a gang insisted.
“I would make the true sun rise from the north east,” the Eastern clairvoyant asserted.
“I would make the sun rise from the south west,” The western scholar cried.
“I would make helicopters run by throwing shoes at them,” a mean man said.
Everybody laughed at him. This is irrelevant stupidity, but this mean man had his gang. And his gang made his claims quite relevant by shouting obscenities.
These various claims caused strife, conflict and fight among all these factions. They made various alliances among each other, but nobody gave up their basic claims to power and wisdom.
Nobody could mediate their differences. One long night everybody fought everybody. By the morning they all died but one.
“In the morning, the sun rose from the east just like always”. Thus the lone survivor reported to a rescue crew. The captain of that crew was a smart woman. She just figured out what it was about. She laughed and laughed until she cried. Sooner, it was not possible to know whether she was crying or laughing or doing both at the same time.
