Pankaj Sonkusre's Diary

Ant & Grasshopper

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house
and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays
the summer away.
Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed.
The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Modern Indian Version

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house
and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the
Ant’s a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering
Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a
table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant’s house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding
that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government
for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the
Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt
support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for “Bharat Bandh”
in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala
immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat
so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian
Railway Trains, aptly named as the ‘Grasshopper Rath ‘.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ‘ Prevention of Terrorism
Against Grasshoppers Act’ [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of
the winter.
Arjun Singh makes ‘Special Reservation ‘ for Grasshoppers in
Educational Institutions & in Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing
left to pay his retroactive taxes,it’s home is confiscated by the
Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by
NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it ‘ A Triumph of Justice’. Lalu calls it
‘Socialistic Justice ‘. CPM calls it the ‘ Revolutionary Resurgence of
the Downtrodden ‘ Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the
UN General Assembly .
Many years later… The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a
multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley .
100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation
somewhere in India …
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
Grasshoppers, India is still a developing country !!!

Doctors are trying to unravel the mystery of an Indian village boasting 250 sets of twins born to just 2,000 families.

The phenomenon has seen almost six times as many twins born than the global average in the remote village of Kodinhi, in Kerala.

In 2008 alone 15 pairs of twins were born in the village out of 300 healthy deliveries and this year is expected to top that number.

Local doctor and twin enthusiast Dr Krishnan Sribiju has been studying the medical marvel of Kodinhi for the past two years.

Although 250 sets of twins have been officially registered in the village Dr Sribiju believes the real number to be far higher.

“In my medical opinion there are around 300 to 350 twins within the village boundaries of Kodinhi,” he said.

“What is fascinating is the increasing numbers of twins with each passing year, so much so that I feel in the past ten years the number of twins in Kodinhi has doubled.”

According to villagers, the twin phenomenon only started occurring three generations ago.

Dr Sribiju said: “To the best of my knowledge this medical marvel began somewhere between 60 to 70 years ago.

“Without access to detailed biochemical analysis equipment I cannot say for certain what the reason for the twinning is, but I feel that it is something to do with what the villagers eat and drink.

“If that is the case then maybe whatever is causing this exceptional level of twinning can be bottled and provide help for infertile couples.” Categorising the twin phenomenon as a naturally occurring anomaly, Dr Sribiju has ruled out genetic factors as the cause due to the localised nature of the village.

He also dismisses any suggestion that the unusual level of twins could be caused by an unknown pollutant pointing to the high number of healthy twins born without any deformities.

“There are lots of reasons for twins, but let me explain the underlying uniqueness of Kodinhi,” said Dr Sribiju, 40.

“The number of twins per thousand here is around 45 per 1,000 births.

“Indian, and by that I mean Asian, people on the sub-continent have the lowest acknowledged incidences of twinning in the world at around four per thousand.

“In addition, there is no IVF treatment here because of the prohibitive cost. Global rates of twins being born, especially in the western world, have increased because of artificial insemination.”