An Indian fairytale: from riches to rags

Saba Naqvi

Once upon a time in a not-so-far-away land there lived a great King and many, many subjects. The King was a great Wizard and a practitioner of magic designed to keep the people spell bound so that they could forget their many miseries and the failures of the state. He cast magical spells through speeches that were broadcast live by many loyal soldiers of what was called the Ministry of Transmitting Magic.

Like all large kingdoms this fairy tale land had some problems and the Wizard King kept wishing them away through magical speeches. He knew that if you fool most of the people most of the time, it would not matter what some of the people said some of the time. So the King said that he had ordered surgical strikes on the Enemy that lived to the West of the Kingdom and inflicted great damage and the people believed him although the Enemy kept saying nothing had happened. 

The King also said that he had given gold coins to the people through magical outlets called banks and the people believed him although there were no coins in their banks (this was a special magic trick called Jan Dhan or People’s Wealth and the beauty of it was that most of the people had no clue what a bank was but they liked the idea of gold coins). 

You see, the People believed because this was a great and glorious time in the life of this Kingdom that was known as the Age of Good Days. It was so because the King said it was so and the Ministry of Transmitting Magic said it was so. The people loved the King because he opened up an imaginary world for them that did not exist but could exist if they believed him although there were some Traitors called Liberals who did not believe and were determined to mislead the People.

But no matter, there were armies of creatures called Trolls and Ogres who set off to defend the King every time a Liberal committed Treason. These trolls were special people with special powers that allowed them to abuse and become Tormenters of those who showed disloyalty to the Wizard King who also had a very broad chest. 

There was also a council of wannabe wizards that was meant to advise the King but he knew better than all of them put together and rarely consulted them and they were trained to only speak if they could say Hail Great King at the beginning of each sentence. 

And so it came to pass that one day the King got up in the morning and said Eureka. He said so because he had an idea that convinced him he was more brilliant and benevolent and brave than he already knew that he was (the King had a magic mirror that he would ask, mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greatest of us all. Except for one day when the King stood in front of the mirror wearing a suit that had his name written all over it, the mirror always told him he was the greatest). 

So, on the morning that he said Eureka the King decided to take out his wand and do a magic spell that would turn gold to dust and make the People’s money disappear. He did so after he had sent secret messages to the Special People with some magical powers of their own who produced gold coins that were often delivered to the King’s soldiers so that the Ministry could keep on transmitting the magical message. It was for the ordinary People that the King had a special plan. He knew that the people hated those who had stolen some gold coins so he said he was making the coins worthless in order to punish such people. But the few brass copper and silver coins of the ordinary folk also became hard to get, so the King made one of his magical speeches and promised them a brilliant future after just 50 sunsets and sunrise.

You see, the King believed that he understood the mind of the People: 

• He thought that if they were subjected to constant punishment they would be happy with a little relief. 
• He thought that most people have nothing much to lose anyway and if they got the little they had after a struggle they would then have a sense of achievement.  
• He knew that the Trolls and Ogres would drum up support for him in case the people and the little leaders of far flung corners of the empire began to protest. 
• In case some people faltered in the great exercise, the King believed he could build their faith again by saying their sacrifice was needed to defeat the plans of the Enemy on the West. It was all quite simple really and there was even a 91 year old fairy god-mother who gave kind blessings to the People when their suffering became too much. In the end the riches became rags and gold turned to dust and the people lived in queues ever after.

(This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to living people or characters is deliberate)