Saturday, December 6, 2014

The colour of envy


The Panchatantra tales tell about a jackal who fell into a vat of indigo-blue dye being used by a washerman. When the jackal managed to struggle out of the vat, he had turned a uniform blue! All the animals were wary of this blue jackal, and assumed he was a mysterious powerful animal. The jackal too realized the opportunity this situation presented, and pretended he had divine powers. He managed to convince all the other animals of the kingdom, including the lion who was king of the jungle, that he would protect them from all evil forces. In return all that he asked was that the animals would by turns take care to feed him, and look after him, and pay daily obeisances.

The jackal was really enjoying himself, till one day, he let his guard down. He heard some of his fellow jackals howling in the distance, and forgetting himself, sat up and howled away loudly along with them. Of course all the animals realized they had been fooled, and rushed upon him in anger. And that was the end of the blue jackal.





A different kind of story is playing out on the streets of Varna, Bulgaria. This cat has been sleeping on a pile of synthetic turquoise green paint in an abandoned garage. It is a mystery how as a result of it, he has turned so completely, and uniformly green. Nor does he seem to be shedding any of the paint off!


(http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/news/a31736/bright-green-cat-bulgaria/)




He is a friendly cat, and the other animals are not getting put off, or at all getting scared by his appearance. However, the other cats do seem to be rather envious of all the attention this cat has been getting, and probably wondering how they could turn a shade of green themselves!


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