When Yudhishtira’s yagna was about to end, a mongoose with half his body in golden color turned up. This mongoose, who could speak, opined that this sacrifice was not equal to the deeds of a poor brahmin who lived in Kurukshetra.
Perplexed, the brahmins who were sapient in matters of yagna, asked him to explain. They had done the sacrifice as per the rituals. They had uttered the mantras without thinking of the Reed Wharbler or Whitethroat. So what could go wrong?
The mongoose simply said, “story time.”
There lived a poor brahmin family with nothing to eat. One day the head of the household got some barley. The food was divided and they were about to eat when a guest arrived. The brahmin gave his share to the guest but the guest was still hungry. So his wife gave her share. Soon their son and daughter-in-law followed. The guest departed and the family too departed — to heaven.
The mongoose who was watching this came out, rolled in the barley, and half of his body turned golden. The mongoose rolled around in Yudhishtira’s palace and the other half did not turn golden, but just became dirty.
Yudhishtira told the mongoose that if he visited the Chief Election Commissioner, the fate would be the same. The mongoose read a Rediff article and was shocked
“If you go to his residence, he won’t even offer you a glass of water. He may even eat in front of you without offering you anything,” a close friend said. This attitude is more because of a give-nothing-take-nothing principle than anything else, insiders say “He had to attend so many dinner meetings. In the two decades or so that I have known him, I have never seen him eat outside,” a friend said, adding, “He will entertain you in the drawing room and may talk to you for two hours, but there won’t be a single offer for any refreshments or even water.” [He lives by the give-nothing-take-nothing principle ]
The mongoose thanked Yudhishtira for the tip. He read other Rediff articles and found a person who could help him.
Chawla was also found to have exercised ‘extra-statutory control in jail matters’, including ‘the treatment of detenues’. Not confining himself to dictating to his boss as to the persons to be arrested, he also prescribed how they were to be treated in prison. For instance, he was for constructing special cells with asbestos roofs to ‘bake’ certain prisoners. [Unfair to impute motives to CEC]
The ‘asbestos treatment’ would definitely bring a glow to his skin, the mongoose thought, but he would be dead. Finally the mongoose looked at the 401(k)s, bank balances and house price of various people and decided to be content with what he had. He lived happily ever after.
Excellent JK!