Friday, October 21, 2011

Fables of aesop in post internet era


Once upon a  time there was a farmer who had listed one person as son on facebook. They had 230 wall pictures of a donkey that they owned. The farmer had lost lot of money playing online poker, so he posted on his son's wall "shall we sell the donkey?". The son instantly liked it followed by 23 likes from neighbors who did not like noise made by the donkey.

So the next day after updating facebook status, they started out on foot towards the nearby town to sell the donkey. As they were walking with the donkey they got emotional about losing the donkey forever. So they took a small video clip where all of them are walking. The farmer posted it on his facebook wall as tribute to the donkey. Soon after, he was flooded with comments from various people and most of them were making fun of the farmer and the son. They thought it was idiotic for both of them to walk while the donkey could easily carry one of them.

After reluctantly liking the negative comments the father asked son to get on the donkey and he continued walking. He felt comfortable about new arrangement and posted new video clip on his wall. This time friends of the farmer seemed angry and complained in ALL CAPS about the son's temerity to take a ride when his father was walking. Now the farmer was really pissed off, he halted the donkey near a tree and played angry birds for sometime. After a while he himself got on to the donkey and asked the son to walk.

The bored son posted the new video on his wall from his mobile. Most of his friends gave comments against his father for making the kid walk while he is riding. Unable to take the criticism, he discussed the matter with his father. The farmer asked the son to mount on the donkey as well. So now both of them were on donkey and none of them remembered about taking the video.

However with cameras everywhere, some CCTV caught video of them riding the donkey together. Within few minutes some local news channels had collected animal right activists to debate on the torture being done to the donkey. The clip was running continuously in background with words like "Brutality", "Atyachar" flashing in bold. Worried relatives of the farmer apprised him of the matter via twitter.

The farmer got scared and he along with son got down from the donkey. He sent sms to news channels and animal right activists begging for forgiveness. Most activists asked him to atone for the torture by carrying the donkey on them for remaining part of journey. The farmer then tied legs of the donkey to a pole upside down and along with son started carrying the donkey on shoulders. Thankfully soon a celebrity twitted something nasty and news channels became busy with new breaking news.

The farmer was now crossing a narrow bridge. The donkey who was enjoying the ride till now looked up to the sky for a while when a realization struck him. He became unnerved at the thought of falling into the sky should his legs become lose. The donkey started shouting and jostling itself. The legs became lose and the donkey fell into the river.

Moral of the story: Sometimes its better to use orkut.