Tuesday 5 February 2008

The Cat

This story goes back to the era of 'once there was...'

Once there lived a sage who was very popular and had a large following. The sage himself lived a simple life, devoting all his time to prayer and meditation. In all his discourses, he emphasised on rational thinking and breaking free from dogma. He encouraged people to question the age old practices and follow them only if they were satisfied with the thought behind them. Like every great thinker, his preachings were also written down, word for word, by his followers, which became the holy text of the sect, after the sage kicked the bucket.

In the later years of his life, a colony of mice formed in his cottage due to the availability of food there, brought in as gift for him by the people of his sect. He started finding it difficult to meditate with all the mice running around. As a solution to this, he brought a cat and started tying it near him while he was meditating. He continued tying the cat there till he lived. His successor wished to keep everything the way the sage had left and so the cat now watched the successor meditate. After a few more years, the cat died. Another one was brought in to replace it.

After many replacements of either of the coexisting species in the room, one from the wiser breed happened to question the reason for the other species' presence during meditation. Since there was a question, an answer had to be found, according to the holy text, as abandoning the practice was unthinkable. The wise ones of the sect tried looking for it. When they could find none, it was decided to add a chapter to the holy text, explaining the importance of having a cat in the vicinity during meditation.

Narcissist Narmad

" What did I do to deserve this" - The cookery contest judge, after tasting Ashtung & Bhalla's dish...

Interestingly, cooking wasn't allowed in the cookery contest held during Saarang '08