Tuesday, November 01, 2005

A quick tale 94

One or the other

Is that a silk saree you’re wearing? Lovely colour. It reminds me of a story. Yes, I’ll make it quick. Sit down. How’s the back? Good. Then let me begin.

A woman (it was hard to tell her age) was stirring sugar into her cup of tea while looking out at her garden. It’s strange, she thought, there are no butterflies. At this time of the year, the air is usually full of fluttering wings. Where have they gone, she wondered. Perhaps they have all been captured while they were still worms and dropped into hot water to make silk, she panicked. For, the lady mistakenly believed that silkworms left to live then go on to become garden butterflies. This led her to think that it was either butterflies or silk. Everything was a choice, she concluded. Satisfied that she had reduced all of life’s dilemmas to a simple aphorism, she took a noisy sip from her mug.

14 comments:

Premalatha said...
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Premalatha said...

Oh my god. someone on the the other day said something like this made feel very guilty whenever I looked at my wollen clothes.

Though I am aware of how silk is made, this story makes me feel that I am a cruel bitch!!

Atleast I am happy about one thing, I do not own too many silk sarees, nor I am fond of silk sarees in the first place. I have only couple of saress my brother gave me on his marriage, and told me that it was customery. Atleast the colour was left to my choice, I went for white. Hope white didn't mean too much cruelty to the worms.

thanks. I won't buy another silk saree in my life.

Anonymous said...

There is a beautiful story about a caterpillar that lived much of its life believing that it had come into being only to eat and sleep and do what the rest of the caterpillars did. However it was unhappy. Somehow it sensed that its life had another dimension not yet experienced. One day, driven by a strange longing, it decided to become still and silent. It hung from the branch of a tree, weaving a cocoon around itself. Inside the cocoon although constrained and uncomfortable, it waited, sensing and aware. Its patience bore fruit, for when the cocoon burst open, it was no longer the lowly worm that went in, but a beautiful, resplendent winged butterfly that dazzled the sky. The caterpillar had been transformed into a thing of air and lightness, magic and beauty.

Once the transformation had taken place, it was impossible for the butterfly to return to being a worm. In the cocoon, the caterpillar had become one with its inner being, and in this union of the body and the Divine, it had reached its ultimate nature.
What happened in the cocoon can be described as yoga.
(lifted from isha's website)

Krish said...

Happy Deepavali, Ammani :-)

labdee said...

Happy Deepavali Ammani!

And yes.. I am wearing the most beautiful silk saree today (one that belonged to my grnadmother many moons ago). Yes I feel bad for the worms, but how can i resist the colors of the Kanjeevaram?

Aparna Menon said...

Probably those are the ironies of life... and yes ironically , the google has put an add for "Silk Saree Sales" on this same page today next to the story!!

Aparna Menon said...

And BTW, i hope Premalatha was kidding when she suggested she would stick to white color kanjeevarams !!!

As far as i know, irrespective oft eh color, the silk comes from the cocoons. The color is just dying techonology 

Premalatha said...

I do know the technicality of dying. I am surprised that someone could think that I may not know. thank you very much for the info, though.

Aparna Menon said...

Oops…sorry premalatha ji, That is the bane of communicating over a blog site with strangers you have no estimate about.

As a thumb rule I do believe that stupidity can be infinite, but now that I have visited your blog spot, I wouldn’t get myself to think that ‘you’ would make such a ludicrous statement.

So chill !!

Anonymous said...

Am enjoying myself here...
about how Aparna and premlatha..are talking about the technicality of `dying' (which should indeed be the discussion)
actually they are talking `Dyeing'...:)))

and in this story...guess that's the point. Dying vs Dyeing:)

Ramasubramaniam Srinivasan said...

Ammani, happy diwali...great story.... the way you have written it is beautiful...

Great Comment Tangent.

Jeevan said...

wow great story.

Citrus said...

Quite the satirist, aren't you? And a thoroughly enjoyable one at that.

K

Anonymous said...

Oh,look there are no mosquitoes in the yard. I am sure someone put poison to kill mosquitoes. Good! my child wont have to worry about not getting any sleep today.