From the pen APN
“Now the sky is unclear. The air
is dusty. The water is tasteless and the soil is barren. And this is so because
man who walks upon earth is now hollow like scare crow.” said the mother goat
to the kids. The kids could not understand what the word ‘HOLLOW’ really meant.
Whether man is SELFISH or UNPRINCIPLED-The kids could not make out anything.
On the contrary, the kids were
very happy with man because every day he would feed them on soft leaves of cabbage
and fresh long green grass. Every day he would put the little goats on the
weighing machine and then he would leave them again on the ground. The little
goats would jump and play with gay abandon. They would bleat and then they
would go near little plants to nibble young soft shoots. Man was more than a
friend to them.
One day, after weighing the
goats, the man spotted the healthiest one and took that one with him. In the
afternoon when the man returned, he was no more accompanied by the goat. But a
blood soaked goat skin was visible in one hand and big bundles of green shoots were
seen in the other hand. The man dumped those leafy shoots on the ground and the
little goats happily started devouring the leaves.
The mother goat knew that she and
her family are meant for the hungry jaws of men. They are reared and raised so
that they can be killed. Her eyes became teary but she knew that she had no
stand before the mighty man who knows how to kill like a machine and who knows
how to rob the nature of her resources and beauty.
One of the kids asked the doe
(mother goat), “Why do you say that man is hollow?” The mother goat looked into
the innocent eyes of her kid and told, “The man of this age carries in him the
unfathomable emptiness of greed and selfishness. He is empty and hollow inside.”
The kid was confused and a little
bit panicked at the appalling state of man. The kid asked anxiously, “Why has
man become so empty inside?”
The mother goat explained to the
little one that man has forgotten to live in harmony with Nature. Because of
his greed the man is empty and the joy of his life is missing. She said, “Man
cuts millions of trees, runs millions of industries, digs mines, pollutes
water, kills many animals and sucks all the resources of nature, yet he is not
happy. It is because his emptiness and greed grow every day.”
Blinking his eyes the kid asked,
“Mother, what is Greed?”
The mother goat replied, “Greed
may feed the senses but eats away the soul. Life on earth is a celebration of
joy through sharing and caring but greed dries up the springs of life. ”
The sun was about to set in the
west horizon. The sky was splattered in red with the last rays of the sinking
sun. The goat skin, red in blood, was hanging on the walls of the man’s house.
The mother goat was deeply hurt and shut her eyes in anguish. She was tearfully
praying to God for her turn when she will also be thrown into the unquenchable
flare of man’s greed. But she had a last wish that she should be taken to the abattoir
before any of her kids.
