The town called boring (Part II)
The parents did not know that the shopkeeper also
secretly sold infra-red detectors that could catch any secret message
on any surface. The children ended up getting caught by teachers and so
the parents were forced to return to The Marks Bazaar to buy better
'secret messengers', as they were called.
Grandma was shocked
to see all this. "I must do something so that the people of Boring learn
to be happy," she thought to herself. It was time to use her secret
weapon!
This secret weapon had changed Grandma's life in
childhood. As a young girl she always complained about everything and
anything. She thought her parents would give her more things to try and
make her happy. Then one day Grandma's cousin sister Haasya decided to
change things. She came up from behind and tickled Grandma hard. Without
her knowing it Grandma squealed and giggled. "Ah, so you can giggle
like other children," said her cousin. When Grandma laughed she felt
very happy. Grandma's parents named Haasya the 'Goddess of Laughter".
Haasya
was such an expert at tickling that people could not but laugh. She
knew more jokes than there were stars in the sky. Good jokes, funny
jokes, that made people laugh with each other. Once they laughed
together they felt warm towards each other. They made friends for life.
Once Grandma laughed the whole day -- so much so that her
dentures fell out! But she made the people of her neighbourhood laugh
with her. Since then there had been very few fights in that area.
Grandma
had never forgotten Haasya's words. "You can have power over all the
world's laughter. But that power willwork only if you wish to do
something to make people come close to each other." That day Grandma
learnt that laughter was the most powerful weapon in the world, though
very few people understood its strength.
"I need to use the secret weapon for my granddaughter Ekta as well as for the people of Boring," Grandma told herself.
Next
morning as Ekta got ready for school, Grandma played a clever trick on
her. "Ekta, there is something under your chin, let me rub it off. As
Ekta stood obediently, Grandma came up to her and tickled her hard.
Something happened. It was like an electric shock. "Aiyeeee, Ekta
squealed and then a laugh escaped her lips."
"What did I do just
now," Ekta asked her grandmother in surprise. "This," said Grandma and
tickled her again, making Ekta laugh some more. Her head had never felt
so light before. From the window Ekta saw her puppy bark angrily at two
crows making a big racket perched on the neem tree. She laughed.
Grandma took her to the garden. "How come I have never seen these
blusing pink roses and the many greens of grass and leaves before," Ekta
wondered. That day she went to school with the plan Grandma had told
her."You just have to tickle one girl. The tickle travels by touch from
person to person."
By afternoon, all the children in school were
giggling. Each time they uttered the word m-a-r-k-s, they giggled! Each
time they spoke of 'secret messengers', they went into whoops of
laughter. And when somebody spoke of the teacher's treasure chest of
marks, they toppled over asking each other: how could anyone store
marks?
And then something wonderful happened. The same children
who could never get a sum right did not do anything wrong that day.
Asked to add two and two, they went out to the garden, touched two roses
and two champa flowers and said there were four flowers! They said it
with a giggle!
Even the teachers started smiling. It happened
when one teacher tried to cane a student. He thought the student had
cheated to get the right answer. As he held out the infrared detector
menacingly over the student's knee, the student said, "Sir, there is a
speck of dust on your trouser. Please let me remove it." Saying this he
tickled the teacher on the back of his knee. The teacher started smiling
and broke the cane.
The tickle revolution continued. By
evening the parents had started smiling, laughing and guffawing. Next
morning, the local radio station broadcast an interesting bit of news
about some strange sounds having invaded the town! Nobody knew what the
announcer said next, for he too started giggling! The tickle must have
got to him too.
Grandma was satisfied. Her work was done. She
returned home. Since then, wherever children have laughed and played
with each other, those villages, towns and cities have never seen any
misfortune...
Sumber Pitara.com