Criticism on criticism

Ever wondered how talented people are - when it comes to finding the faults, even in the epics and moral stories?

Recently I heard about a book dedicated to criticising the epic, Raamaayana. I would have ignored that criticism and would have minded my own business. But, I happened to see some people showing a lot of enthusiasm to read that critic's book, and no interest at all in reading the original version of Raamaayana.

And then it hit me.

If people are really interested in reading the critic's work, then why not criticize a critic's work ?

If people are interested in reading criticism, then... I guess they would be double interested in reading the criticism on criticism.

So, here we go... A very old Indian folk story...

Original story:

Once upon a time... a father and his son were travelling in a dense forest. That forest was full of wild animals like tigers and lions. The son starts moving ahead of the father. Father warns the son to stay with-in his sight as there are wild animals in the forest.

Suddenly the son starts shouting... "Father!!! A tiger is attacking me". The father runs fast towards the direction he heard his son's voice. The father finds that his son is safe. And the son was just shouting for fun. There is no tiger. He scolds his son that it was not funny and warns him not to repeat it. The son cries and says OK.

But the son repeats the same mischief for a dozen times. The father gets vexed up and starts to ignore his kid's screams.

And then, suddenly a big tiger appears out of no-where and attacks the son. This time, the son shouts in panic and fear. But, the father ignores the son - as he thinks that it was just another prank by his son. The tiger kills the boy and takes him away into it's den!!!

Moral of the story:

People are supposed to learn the following moral from the story...

People will not believe us if we give false statements.

As simple as that.

But, we live in a world where people have no hesitation at all in using the story to suit them. They don't even care what is the moral in that story. All that they care is their popularity/success.

Lets see how different people exploit this moral story...

Racist historian Critic:

There has been much false propaganda about the rich cultural heritage of this country. But after a recent study with strong emphasis on the latest techniques, some shocking news have been DISCOVERED. Lets get into the details...

For any research, the most important information is documentation. And this country's people never had a habit of documenting the date and year of occurrence of an important event. This really makes the research more challenging and fills the enthusiasm to invent new methods to find out the flaws that used to prevail in the ancient days of this country.

Before this country is colonized by another country, this country's culture was very much different.

There are documented proofs to conclude that this country's people were primarily nomadic in nature. There are many folk stories about this country's people travelling across jungles and other dangerous places. We can easily conclude that the natives were nomadic tribes.

Coming back to the folk stories, nothing was documented, but just the stories about some accidents were propagated across different generations only through orally - which is a clear indication that the country never took any steps towards personal safety. These folk stories even talk about infant deaths - which means that the country's native people were simply a bunch of survivors and scavengers.

There are some folk stories about kids being disowned by their fathers - just because the kids wandered a bit to enjoy the nature. This is a clear evidence that the family values were simply absent in the ancient culture of this country.

There are some folk stories about human causalities due to wild animal attacks. Any body with a minimum common sense can understand that this country was essentially a weak race, unable to protect itself from the dangers.

Environmentalist Critic:

Dear earthlings!!! We have already damaged our mother nature to fulfil our greedy needs. Our mother nature is deeply hurt due to the imbalance in the eco-system. Everyone should strive hard to aid her in regaining the balance.

When a author is writing books, he should be responsible enough to understand the consequences of his irresponsible works. If the author portrays an ecologically important animal like a tiger as the man's enemy, then our future generations will never understand the importance of ecological balance.

Please help our organization in undoing the eco-harming works of the author. Our organization spreads the awareness of eco-balance. You can send your donations to a/c no. blablablabla, blablabla bank, blablabla branch, IFSC CODE blablabla

Political Critic:

Dear citizens of my beloved country, this story is a living and walking example of the inability of our king. We have been ignored by the king and his ancestors since ages. Its high time we should bring down the king.

A king, who can't even save a kid's life is unworthy of ruling us. Lets join our hands together in bringing down this tyrant king.

Feminist Critic:

Dear fellow women, this story is one more example that boys are stupid. There are many historical evidences to show that boys are stupid. But the male world is manipulating the history by oppressing the facts. We want gender equality. Women are much talented than men. We want gender equality. Women are much smarter than men. We want gender equality. Women are much able than men. We want gender equality.

If it was a mother and her daughter, they would have completed their journey safely. A father failed to protect his son. We understand men and we respect men. But we don't tolerate their irresponsibility. Men should stop abusing women and start focusing on how to save their kids from the dangerous tigers.

This is the failure of the entire male dominated society. Instead of focusing on the main issue of a man's failure in fulfilling his responsibilities, and discussing the need of a lady's presence in this story, the author is trying to side-track the main issue by focusing on the false statements and the consequences.

Religious Critic:

Dear ignorant men. Fear not. Our God will save your sinful souls. You need not worry. Have faith in our God. Our God is much more powerful than your God.

If you convert into our religion, our God will protect you and your family from all kinds of wild animals, natural calamities, diseases and violence.

If you ignore this message you will die under the paws of the same tiger mentioned in the story. The author of the story is ignorant just like you people. He is ignorant and believes that it is his creation. But it is not. This is a real story. The boy ignored this message and hence died because of the tiger.

You still have time. Spread this message to at least 10 people. You will be saved by our God. If you fail to send this message to 10 people within 10 days from now, or if you ignore this message, you are going to face the same fate of the boy in this story.

Facebook user Critic:

Yesterday I heard a story. What a waste of time it was. It is the most boring and the most pathetic story I ever heard. Fit for nothing candidates are becoming lead roles in the stories now a days. This lean and boring lead role is played by a stupid loser. My rating for the story is 0.25/5. When the hero of this story faces troubles, leave alone his ability to face the troubles. He don't even have the ability to run away from the troubles. (Check out this link for cool album - me, winning the 3rd prize in my school running race when I was studying 4th class).

Coming to the story, there is no entertainment, no emotions, no technical values. This story is a real test to the patience of the listeners. As long as the listeners entertain this kind of stories, we will be bulldozed with this kind of crap stories. Its high time to dump this kind of junk and start encouraging fresh and new talent. (Check out this link to my latest short film - "I too want a girl friend". I'm sure you never heard this type of story before. )