Ali Baba of our Times

Ali Baba of our times is a business man whom no bank would allow credit for no other reason than he never repaid any in the past. His brother Kassim did business on a grand scale and always he got credit. Why? The banks loved the very sight of Kassim who brought presents. (The manager who worked in the city office never worked in the same place for more than seven years. All presents large and small, brought by Kassim were to his own use. The manager took them and extended credit facilities yet higher). So the manager did business with alacrity and Ali Baba cried in vexation. He did a little snooping around and found he had stuck to one bank through thick and thin. But his brother Kassim could afford bamboozle the Bank A and give presents to B so he got credit from manager of B at the drop of a hat (not to mention it was the manager who dived faster than the clerk and handed it back to him). He asked his elder brother if he ever repaid his loan to the banks A or B he did business with. “Oh no what for?” Kassim was flabbergasted, “I can always go to Bank C.”
Managers like birds of passage pick whatever they get(and sticky loans finally sink into the bottom of a sea no one wants to enter) so the kingdom is bustling with activities and all agree it is great to run through figures all neatly drawn up and certified by chartered accounting firms. Greatness for them was wealth you see and it changed hands on the mantra: ‘open sesame’.
Ali Baba understood the great mystery of public finances. He became known throughout the land as the master of making great deals.

You show first what it is to be great in ways others can accept as true.
Benny

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Available: The Wow-Wow Tales

The Wow-Wow Tales is a collection of tales, 84 of them, quite a number of them new and never published before makes this very special for me. There are some 41 illustrations also made for this edition. Pages: 228

The paperback version is released through createspace.com.

There are two editions one is in black and white. The Plain Wow-Wow Tales is priced at $16 and the one with color and b&w illustrations at $46.

I shall give an excerpt from the Introduction:

”

When elephants gather it is news. That was how with Wow-Wow, the elephant.

Wherever he went he was in the news. As a baby he strayed from his herd and it made news. Now he was back some hundred years old if not more, he still wowed them.

Coming home was not so much as telling all the stories he knew.

So when the Mayor Oddlegs, after introduction cleared the field for him he began, ‘I have so much to tell but I shall begin with two friends who are not here.’

While his audience stirred he said, ‘In Bolivia, I think it was, a parrot became my boon companion. Except that he wasn’t there whenever I wanted to make a conversation.’ A hubbub. The elephants did not care much for asides. ‘Come to the point, Wow-Wow’, said they all.

‘The parrot was not seen but he heard just the same. In fact he retold all my stories verbatim. Now memory is not what it was. If it weren’t for his knack I would not have known how to amuse you.’

‘Then there was a mouse, the like of which you shall never see, and he could chew into anything or make holes. Whenever I laid my hand on my cheese I knew my friend was already at it.’ Wow-Wow chuckled at this point. ‘While I was in service of the King of Siam, the royal treasury was soon emptied. The king looked high and he looked low. What did he see? My friend the mouse had made a hole in the royal chest and decamped with the goods. Oh that was nasty! I got the blame. When the charges were read to me I went white. Literally! I lost my position but found direction in life. I am home.’

The elephants at the point trumpeted their satisfaction. The Mayor said in appreciation, ‘You came back anyway, white or not’. The herd would have tittered more but the volcano in the background belched. It didn’t do any damage except in the sound and fury of an eruption. Before the startled elephants a parrot flew in. Wow-Wow was delighted. ‘At last you are seen.’

His former companion equally delighted to add, ‘And I heard you out there.’ A squeak, and there was his other companion! The beasts looked at the sorry looking mouse. His whiskers were gone and his tail still smouldering. Oh he looked terrible! He jumped into the arms of Wow-Wow. He said, ‘Don’t speak! You are looking at a friend who made a hole through a hill with the mightiest bellyache. I walked o’er hot coals for you.’ The scamp squeaked, ‘What are friends for!’

Wow-Wow felt his life was coming to him. He had his friends back. Now he could tell all…”

Benny

 

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A Fable For the Politically Minded

Eldorado Or Bust? ©

 

An intrepid traveller went into Eldorado and he was surprised that the roads were paved with gold and no one seemed to take any notice of it. Gold nuggets were thrown in heaps as gravel in his own land and the inhabitants went about their chores carrying firewood and breadfruit in baskets woven with banana leaves. All the more amazed was he to notice man and woman were naked and they did not seem to bother with the great wealth heaped about them as if with an indifferent hand. He approached one man and managed to make himself understood. He wanted to speak with his chief. He smiled and led him to a hut erected with utmost simplicity a spacious hall unadorned except for a raised platform. At the centre was a three legged stool and a Panama hat. The visitor would have burst out laughing had it not been for a number of locals who were standing before it with gravity.

He murmured to his escort where the chief stood among them. The cicerone without any change of expression said, “Our chief rests on his stool.”

“But why those six standing before it and in solemnity?

“They are taking counsel from Great Chief and what they decide there they accept as coming from him.”

“Don’t you want your voice heard?”

“What for?” the local said in amazement, “ We live in peace with ourselves and we have nothing to complain; nothing to improve our lot since nature takes care what we cannot.”

Later the visitor after careful study of their manner of running their daily affairs without much trouble and in the amity that existed among them he realized the Chief exerted a great influence upon their lives even without stirring from the spot.

Politics is the art of the impossible concept made to look as possible. The idea that one better and more schooled in public affairs can better your condition is sold by fellows who have nothing to be happy with themselves so they create a smokescreen of their superiority. Not having anything worth in themselves they sell you a pie in the sky. Poitics is for the gullible who shall not be content with themselves. Look at the social history of nations. Which nation can justify that they have found a leader who created Eldorado or made happiness their lot?

benny

 

 

 

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The Frog In the Well- an ancient Chinese fable updated

There was a frog that lived in a shallow well.

” Look how well off I am here ! ” he told a big turtle from the Eastern Ocean. ” You ought to see what treasures I hide in my little kingdom.’

The wise old Turtle could not believe his ears. So he asked whether he would show a few of them. The frog said,”You come tonight I shall show.” That night the turtle came around, calling the frog he announced he was at his disposal,’I shall be grateful if I could add something to my knapsack of knowledge. The frog said,”I have a wonderful brotherly feeling towards you.” The treasure is however so buried deep I cannot yet show you. May be another night. The turtle was so eager that he came around next night and he was disappointed. After a few nights the frog showed him the reflection of a quartermoon and said, “ this well is my garden and I planted some seed which I forget when. But it is sprouting.”

The turtle smiled and said, surely your garden is a magical garden. “

“Don’t you wish you had rather been born in this well than any other?”

The old turtle said,” The Emperor dragon put me in the backwaters while he appointed you to take care of his inestimable jewels.”

The frog said, “Pity, you were not singled out for luck; my forefathers in their time were doorkeepers of the Imperial Palace and the Emperor must have found their service excellent.”

“It seems so.” Replied the Old Turtle and went off wishing him well.

Are not we like the frog in the well when we speak of our belief-systems for which we stone, kill and burn others?

If we cannot handle this world of shadows what shall we do with the real?

benny

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A Folk Tale Updated in comic strip format

Mr. Clod and Leaf on the War Path

 

 

One fine morning Mr. Clod was surprised by a leaf who introduced himself as a Jihadi. He had a South London accent that marked him as a Brit and he said, “Clod, Is it not time to clean up the land?”

Clod who has been called Ali Baba said, “ Why don’t you clean up your house first?” Leaf was sure that they should not settle for anything less than a Caliphate .”

At that point Clod brightened up and said, “Caliphate! All you need to say ‘Open Sesame’ Syria and Levant shall be under our feet.” Clod pointed out to some rag that was blackened under the scorching sun and said it should make a flag. Mr. Leaf giggled and said, “Hardly have I made a suggestion before you are brimming with ideas.” They agreed to march to Syria in order to found their Caliphate.

On the way they discussed what needed to be done. Clod was all for rooting out music from the land. Mr. Leaf wanted to crucify the minorities and Clod was sure all women they won at the point of sword was to be sold as slaves and enemies slaughtered.

Mr. Leaf asked somewhat apprehensively, “Is it permitted by the Prophet?”

Clod said brusquely,”I have not heard any Imam forbidding them, So we shall do as we please.”

They called themselves As Is Where Is. “IS for short.” they shouted.

Thus they went on. Suddenly a storm arose and Mr. Leaf all shook up and said, “Wish we did some thing against Nature before we took to war on human nature.” No sooner than he said the clouds massed up. The hard wind carried the leaf away and the rain washed away the silly clod.

benny

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Yggdrasil and its Keeper-illustration

Work and Play©
Once the gods who roosted in the Yggdrasil conferred with one another to find out how the nine worlds were doing.
Wotan said,’Oh well we are always at hand to give the worlds their buoyancy. Freya said,Hear hear,!’ I can always turn the despair in women’s heart with a motherly touch’. Each god had something to speak about their role in keeping the order. Hope, Joy, Pleasure-well every emotion that made the worlds run on and on was discussed.

After a painful silence they looked at the dragon who was hopping from the three roots which never stayed still,’I see someone who has nothing to do but make a play on our tree.’ they said.
Prompt came the retort.’Play you call? If I did not put my foot down the root will swat some worlds to oblivion. You calll my role as a trifle, Do you?’
The gods knew the tree itself stayed the course since the keeper made a play of his work. It needed all the foresight and concentration. The dragon, after all was the balance wheel that made the tree work.
benny

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A Fable from Norse Mythology-illustrated

The Tree of Terror ©

Sorry. it is removed. Continue reading it in the Wow-Wow Tales-b

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