Columbus and Insane Land

Once upon a time there was a country named insane land. It was named after its founder. Insane in English dictionary means mad but they perceived it as an attribute of some one who is astute and witty. It was a very prosperous country as it was rich in natural facilities. In those times there was no concept of international trade as they believed that they lived on a flat terrain which extended to point where sky goes down. In that community there were some intelligent people who often brought up the question that what is beyond the point where sky ends. People told them that are they mad. They further used to emphasize that we are surrounded by walls which protects us from outside intruders.

Now that community used to waste resources. At that time barter was used. They were so rich in resources that they never valued resources when comparing with other resources. As a result they traded blindly. Slowly and gradually resources started diminishing and a point came when famine took strangle hold over insane land. There was no food available and people were dying. Now government sought advice of wise men. They said that they should build a ship and put all dead and weak people in it and take it up to a point where sky ends (it means up to the limit of horizon as perceived by them).

According to their ideology they were unaware of what lay beneath the wall. They put the ship into the water and came back. According to philosophy of wise men if they would push the dead and weak beyond the point where eye level ends God will be able to know about their sufferings. Now in a day or two it rained heavily bringing to an end drought. This allowed land to become fertile thus natural facilities were revitalized. This strengthened their belief and they praised wise men greatly and started living as before.

After many months one morning mast of a ship appeared above the horizon. Slowly it came towards the shore. At first people thought that ghost of the dead has come back. Then a young man came out of the ship. He was dark, tall and handsome. People were both shocked and baffled at this appearance. Then again opinion of wise men was sought. They saw him and by imposing their philosophy categorized him as a messenger of God. The reason they gave was that God saw that ship and sent a messenger to guide them about future constraints. The name of the man was Columbus (could be Columbus, the explorer). They were in awe of his status and gave him heaps of accolades and filled his booty with wealth. Now Columbus was a witty and wise guy. He came from below the horizon and knew that world was round. He quickly sensed that this community is mad and are very narrow minded.

Now he was also aware of rich resources which they had so he took full advantage and gained control. Now Columbus wanted to end this community and establish his rule. Now one unique thing about this community was women. Women of this community were very beautiful and it was their beauty which motivated their men to live in harmony. One night Columbus sent all their women by manipulation to his land by ship. When they woke up next morning there was no woman any where. As there they were staunch followers of Columbus they went up to him. He told them that unity among them was breaking up. He said that it was conspiracy by some of them. They have hidden all their women some where as they only want to enjoy them. This lead to battle between them. The battle continued for several days after which no one survived. Columbus as a result declared him self emperor of insane land



Lessons from this Tale

Now this tale can be relevant in today’s time. We as a part of third world community are living in our own shells not willing to go beyond horizon and seek newer truths. We have rich resources but we waste them instead of organizing them and distributing them equally. Restrictions are imposed on intelligent minds who genuinely want to make difference as was the case in story of insane land. The so called Wise men are similar to those of insane land who put forward weird policies to run a country. We put others on the rope as we are ourselves afraid of consequences so a if plan fails we make these people scapegoat. It is similar to insane land that used to put dead and weak people on the ropes as they were unaware of what is beneath the horizon.

In other words we are unwilling to take responsibility and strive to make ourselves a better community. If some thing good happens accolades are given to wise men who do nothing but give illogical ideas. Then we follow west blindly like insane land who thought Columbus was a messenger of god as he was unique because he came from beneath the horizon. West like Columbus wants to divide us by creating religious differences among various sects. Women were like religion to insane land. Similarly intruders want to break our strongest point and then rule the roost. Just because of our deeds we have brought a bad name to our founder who separated us so that we could see beyond the horizon and come out of our artificial shells.