Fiction
Once upon a time, not so
very long ago, there was a kingdom. The
King was very particular about law and order, discipline and cleanliness,
uniformity and conformity, and so on. So
he ordered that no one should criticise the administration overtly or covertly,
explicitly or implicitly. He had
soldiers and spies throughout the kingdom to catch anyone who disobeyed his
orders.
Divyanshu was arrested by
one of those countless, nebulous officers.
His crime was that he had painted a portrait of the King. In fact, the King looked more handsome and
imposing in the portrait than he really was.
The King was displeased by something about the portrait. Divyanshu was never told what it was that
displeased the King. He thought he had
made a magnificent portrait. He had
placed in his prayer room along with his gods. But the King was angry. Without even seeing the portrait.
Divyanshu was given the
usual punishment. He was ordered to set
up his own funeral pyre before sunset.
At sunset he would be executed and placed on the funeral pyre. He had the liberty to make the funeral pyre
as beautiful as he wished.
With whatever pieces of
wood he was given, Divyanshu began making his funeral pyre as beautiful as he
could. Being an artist he had a clear
vision of how the funeral pyre should look like. He made it on a platform. He gave it the shape of classical tombs he
had seen in pictures. By the time his
body would be burnt the platform would catch fire too. The entire thing would collapse with a thud
which he imagined to be loud enough to shake the heavens. Artists have such big egos that they imagine
heavenly participation in their funeral too.
“You idiot!” The soldier
who was guarding him shouted. “Finish it
up quickly; there’s only an hour left for sunset. What do you think you are
making? A monument?”
What else? Divyanshu asked himself. Don’t I have this freedom at least? What sort of an artist would I be otherwise?
The sun was beginning to
show signs of sinking beyond the horizon.
The soldier approached. He looked
at the funeral pyre with some dismay. “Beautiful!”
he mumbled in spite of himself.
:) I was awaiting him creating a prototype of himself for the pyre while he vanished.
ReplyDeleteDoes our country today give room for such optimism?
Delete