Chapter 13

It was a bright and sunny day in Ugar. A day when the whole town had taken a day off. People were sitting in front of their houses, their shops, in front of everything where they used to sit. People who sat on sofas were sitting on ground in front of those sofas. Barbers knelt on the ground cutting hair of people who were sitting on ground. The home chefs who used to stand in kitchens making food were now standing in the garden outside their kitchens. Who was cooking food? No one. No one needed food as the air was so healthy. It was for days like this that people have worked hard to grow grasses in their lawns. 10 ft by 10 feet grass lawns had 4 feet by 4 feet mats covering with each family member occupying 2 feet by 2 feet real estate. There sat Mr. Naman as well. But what can be called as his uncompromising nature or can also be called as his generosity, he relinquished his share of the real estate and chose to lie down on bare grass.

His body was used to lying on the green grass. The green grass had accepted her fate by now. She was now used to carry the weight of this man. She had tried to resist earlier. When Mr. Naman had sat on her the first time, she tried to pinch him with her long shiny blades. But Mr. Naman had too much on his mind to give attention to his body. So all her attempts went unnoticed. Furious, she spent the next few days honing her blades growing them and making them sharper but her war efforts were cut short by the gardener (Naman's beloved own Ramu kaka - every story should have a character with name as Ramu Kaka). The grass became more furious. This time, she asked help from her friends - the small insects, centipedes, millipedes, the grass hoppers, small ants both black and red and even some snakes. " From time memorial i have given you shelter, i have saved you from sun's direct light, i have shared my water with you, i have feeded you with my leaves" said the grass to her friends, "But now i need you to fight me with me, help me make this man go and lie on his bed inside his home"

We have all read the story of Gulliver's travels. This epic battle could have been called Naman's travel to the garden. But the comic connotation would ruin the seriousness of the issue. We have all read how one man has sometimes fought against an army. How the spirit on one one man has challenged an entire rule or how one man has single handedly defended his priniciple when all around him had given up. But Mr. Naman is not that man and more importantly Mr. Naman is not that kind of man.

There were many rounds of debates on seeing the grass's preparation for war among the plant life surrounding the grass lawn. Out of the four sides of the grass lawn, one side was kept open for people to enter the lawn. Plants of different varieties were planted on other three sides to give aesthetic beauty to the garden. There were plants that bore flowers, plants which gave beauty by just their leaves and then there were some cactus. Why cactus? Many have argued but to appreciate good you have to appreciate bad. There were debates between these three sides regarding the grass's declaration of war. Who is the oppressed here and who is the oppressor ? This was the main question. There were some who sided with Mr. Naman saying that it was his right to sit on grass as he had planted her in first place. Cactus were the ones who were the most vociferous in defense of Mr. Naman. But their voice was shunned down as they had no answer to the rebuttal -"You don't understand it! How can you understand the pain when no one has ever sat on you." The grass said to cactus - "You are lucky in this regard". This aggravated the cactus very much. "Lucky? Me? Madam, you have no idea. The thorns that you see outside, they have only one end that you see there. The other end is inside me and it is as sharp as the other".

The three sides were split up equally. One side supporting the grass, one opposing it and the third undecided. It was a perfect analogy of political debate. Then came the weekend and Mr. Naman's day to lie on grass. The garden had suddenly changed to a stadium with lawn as the center and three sides as spectator stands. The players were there in the middle and do not forget, it was a bright and shiny day. First the black ants were sent to irritate Mr. Naman by crawling on him. But Mr. Naman liked the tingling effect caused by them and thus grass's first weapon had turned into pleasure. Next grass asked the millipedes and centipedes to crawl under his clothes. Like soldiers in war whose courage drains out by looking at the enemy, our peaceful organisms - millipedes and centipedes refused to fight and remained in their burrows. Furious, the grass commander ordered grasshoppers to jump on him and distract Mr. Naman. The grasshoppers obeyed but you can only distract someone who is attracted towards something. Mr. Naman's attention keeps shuffling from one thought to another ten times a second. Grasshoppers frequency of hopping was less than this and hence their effort also failed. Garden snakes were sent next but Mr. Naman had grown up playing with them. Not them exactly but their grand parents and their parents. Naman smiled on looking at them and picked them. The snake grandparents who had become deaf by time were so far ignorant of grass's plans. But on looking their grandchildren crawling over Mr. Naman, it made them furious and immediately ordered them back into the ground. When verbal warning had no effect on them, grand-parent snakes gave them an ultimatum - "Come now or you will not inherit our will". The snakes retreated instantly and within two seconds all of them were back. The grass's rage had doubled by now. She had only one weapon left - the only one who had real weapons - the red ants. She ordered red ants to attack their opponent and destroy him. But little did the grass knew that red ants are very emotional. Pity, yes that's what the red ants had for Mr. Naman. Pity that even Arjuna had on seeing his opponents in Mahabharata, but there was no Lord to guide ants in this moral war. It was Mr. Naman's innocent face that had won red ants's hearts. Thus the grass was defeated.


Months passed and it was summer. The hot sun had evaporated all water from grass. The thirst had turned them into pale yellow. Then came Mr. Naman, sweating, but carrying a hose pipe with him. He watered the grass standing under the uncompromising sun. Since then the grass had kept quiet feeling ashamed of her behaviour. Mr. Naman, on the other hand, still remains unaware that he has been part of a historic battle that he actually won on account of his face.