Lucifer House Inc.: September 2011

A race called humans owned a very special planet called earth. Every year Mother Earth would sprout forth a bounty of fruits and vegetables and grains that could feed millions of them. All the food made them healthy, wealthy and wise. They flourished and soon millions turned to billions.

“Just think”, said a wise man, “If we could have all the fruits and vegetables that are inside the earth, we could feed many more with lesser land and also build factories, residential complexes and shopping malls.”

“You’re right,” said all the rest of them, “We wouldn’t have to wait for Mother Earth to sprout food slowly every year.”

So they decided to pump chemicals into her to make her produce more food faster. The chemicals made her feel sick but she tried her best to keep up with the rate of production demanded of her. Due to the production and time pressure, she could no longer lovingly fill all food with as much goodies as she would have liked. The reduction in nutrients began to tell on the human race’s health and various diseases began to show up. But they did not give a damn. Who cared about diseases? A small dose of chemicals and all the uncomfortable symptoms would vanish. What was important was to produce more and more, faster and faster.

Now they had large amount of food. But it was still not enough. They discovered that the race of insects who shared the planet with them was also sharing their food. What insolence! They decided to teach the insects a lesson. So they poisoned all the food. The insects would eat the food and get exterminated. That would teach them not to mess with humans. It did not matter that the poisons were harmful to the humans themselves too. Chemicals would protect them.

Next they noticed that not all foods were equal. Some food was getting produced faster and in greater quantities while others were laggards. So they decided to eliminate the laggards and favor the achievers. The loss of variety further diminished the nutrients available to man. But then as usual there were always chemicals to make up the deficit. Further men discovered they could design better foods than Mother Nature and began to force her to produce the foods designed by them.

By now the writing on the wall was clear. The chemicals were not able to keep pace with the spread of diseases. More and more of them were falling sick and dying. But their faith in chemicals was deep rooted. Of course chemicals were the panacea for all problems. Just that they had not yet discovered the right chemicals.

Mother Earth began to feel very depressed. She was being made to work longer hours and there was no job satisfaction. It was just drudgery producing more and more of the same stuff designed by humans. The chemicals and poisons hurt her and she was under great pain. Finally, one day unable to bear the stress, she gave up and dropped dead. The humans dug deep into her bowels. But there was not a morsel of food left inside her. In their greed, they had killed the mother who fed them and now they would die with her.

This post has been posted for a contest jointly conducted by EkTitli, Rustic Art and GingerChai.

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The pictures have been taken from the internet. The credit for the pictures to the best of my knowledge in the order of appearance is given below. In case the orginal owner feels credit has been wrongly given or does not want to share the pictures, please do let me know. I will do the needful.

It was 5 in the morning. In the earlier days one would hear a cock crow. These days all cocks are probably incarcerated in poultry farms. All one could hear was the rambling sound of speeding cabs. BPOs have ensured that Tata Indicas are on road 24 hours a day. Otherwise it was a peaceful morning. A soft, cold breeze was blowing. The sky was transitioning from black to blue as the sun’s rays were trying to make their way through. The first rays of the sun woke Finglas up. It was the start of another hard day’s work. His duties started early in the morning and went on till late in the evening.

Finglas worked in the energy conversion and atmospheric regulation department. His department ensured that energy from nuclear reactions in a distant ball of hot gas was captured and converted into biological energy usable by life forms on earth. The department was also responsible for producing oxygen to sustain life. Since his was an essential service he had to work 7 days a week. He had no weekends, no vacations. He was a field agent and needed to be onsite all the time. He had set up his office on the side of a public highway. In order to avoid wasting time commuting, he generally slept at the workplace itself and usually started work as soon as he got up.

He usually started his day with a cup of tea. Nothing like a sip of mineral tea to get one started, eh? After his tea he right away got to work. He did not read newspapers. He had no time for human gossip. He was into the more serious business of sustaining human life. And mornings were when he liked work best. As the day progressed, work got tougher and the workplace more hazardous. Hardly an hour had passed when he noticed a familiar figure walking towards him with a sheaf of papers. He was obviously not the newspaper boy. Finglas did not read newspapers as mentioned earlier. As he came nearer, Finglas just looked on in dread. He ambled carelessly towards Finglas, took a sheet, applied glue and slapped it on Finglas’ face. It hurt and choked. But the man did not seem to give a damn as he walked on. Finglas hated these papers. They spoiled his looks and the glue itched for days after the paper had fallen off.

Finglas shrugged and got on with his work. The sun had become intense. He was feeling very thirsty. He reached out into the ground to take a sip. But it was becoming increasingly hard to find water. The humans were drawing out all the water from under the ground. By now the road was very busy. The cacophony on the road was giving Finglas a bad headache. The air had become heavy with smoke and carbon particles. It was choking him. But he carried on bravely. This was the nastiest part of the day. The only ones who helped him maintain his sanity amist this madness were the squirrels who were running playfully over his body soothing him.

As the sun’s intensity began to wear out, Finglas heaved a sigh of relief. But the traffic on the road showed no signs of receding. In fact it had become even more intense. A van came and stopped right next to Finglas. Two men got out and took down a ladder from the top of the van. They leaned the ladder against him and began to climb. Finglas knew what they were up to. This was not the first time. But he could only mutely watch as they climbed up and hacked away at his branches. These people were from the human energy department. His branches were apparently obstructing their energy network. He longed for the life in the forest away from humans where he could grow unconstrained and no one found his branches an obstacle.

The sun was setting. His friends were coming back- the crows and the ants and the bees. A cow passed by and looked up at his leaves longingly. When he had been younger, Finglas had lived in dread of cows. But now he had no fear. His branches and leaves were out of their reach now. But not for the monkey troupe. The chattering monkeys were soon all over him. They jumped and ran and chased each other. There was not a dull moment with the monkeys around. Three hours passed without him even noticing and it was night.

He now looked forward to a good night’s sleep. But the traffic continued unabated. It was very late in the night by the time he could get some peaceful sleep. A tough day had finally come to an end.

Note - I do not know who owns the picture. I found it here. Not sure if he/she is the orginal owner. If original owner requests, I can accordingly give credits or take down the picture.

EkTitli.Org is a unique voluntary initiative where we showcase all the Positive and Constructive work happening in the ‘Green and Clean Space’.
[Know More, Follow Us]

Rustic Art is a brand of Organic, Natural & Handmade products in exotic fragrances. They are here to spread the ‘organic’ word.

[Know More, Follow Us]
GingerChai an online magazine brewed by passionate writers. Join,Let’s sip thoughts!
[Know More]

Lucifer House Inc.

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