THE SCARECROW AND THE MORAL

THE SCARECROW AND THE MORAL In his book “THE WIZARD OF OZ”,Frank Baum writes about an imaginery dialogue between a lifeless scarecrow set in fields to scare away the birds and one Dorothy Gale who was swept away by cyclonic wind driving her away across into a corn field in Munchkin country rich in ripe corn grown, waiting for harvesting.The field would be ready for the next sowing once the grains were carted away. In their dialogue, the scarecrow made of padded material lets her know his philosophy and direction of thinking(if it really could!-my comment-) saying “Why,if I had a brain I could while away the hours, conferin’ with the flowers, consultin’with the rain. And my head I’d be scratching while my thoughts were busy hatchin’.If I only had a brain.” The regret that it cannot do so drives it to the conclusion and the moral there from that”Brains are the only thing worth having in this world,no matter whether one is a crow or a man.” The thoughts set into motion by this fictional scarecrow are worth mulling over by everyone who cry ‘foul’at others for silliest of reasons and those who tend to do something worthwhile not merely for themselves but also to the society or world at large.One may ask “Well, what does it matter if we just mind our routine without harming others and pass the days and nights till one day, we all pass into the oblivion.After all everyone is born, ultimately to die. What god or fate has given, we reap.We just cannot escape this ritual.Anyway we are dummies in the hands of fate; are not we? “The padded object of the scaring tool conceived by the man cannot deceive every bird, every time or all the time.In the beginning, he scared away the crows, no doubt.But one wise old crow discovered that the tatterdemalion figure was made of straw and all crows started to eat up the corn.But the scarecrow is also a symbol of how one can be deceived by their own tentative,unproductive plans, imperfect handling of situations or prejudicial leanings and dogma.The loser in such circumstances is not necessarily only the owner of the corn field or men of such thinking but others too like in this example the persons or the country to whom the corn was expected to be delivered.The world has never forgotten and never could forget or condone the rash and cruel dictates of Hitler that killed and tortured millions of people all over Europe and Afarica for the sake of a dogmatic, prejudicial and hateful cause envisaged and merceilessly executed by him and his cronies.Over time immemorial,wars have at times been caused and even today for flimsiest of causes,resulting in colossal loss of man power and wealth-resources-that could have been retained for the benefit of next generations rejoicing in abundance of wealth and happiness. Often, people keep squabbling against each other for silliest reasons- here in our own country-as we read about these in the periodicals-and hurt each other or even resort to killing without the least regard be it infantails,elders or women. A construction site intended for public amenity causes is diverted by politicians and their cronies with active and eager support of the bureaucrats to serve their selfish ends using the sanctioned money by the government with least consideration for the society or the voter whose vote they grab in the elections.The scarecrow here is the voter who is just an symbol,but in his name,every undesirable, offensive activities are perpetrated day in and day out,plundering public money. In the field of education, where the primary duty of the administration and the teaching staff should have been to building up an up-coming future generation of intellectuals and future administrators to serve the cause of the country and hold the prestige of the nation high, we are teaching them to groap in the darknrss of their sectorial and communal orientations never trying to release their physical and mental energies directed to nation-building and love devotion to their mother land that gave them birth. Sectarianism, provincialism and misuse of public money only rule everywhere while devotion to duty,country, parents and the teacher are fast deteriorating into tyrannical misadventures. The greatest irony of things that each Indian should be ashamed of in this context is the fact that our elders who fought for liberty and freedom from suppression by the invaders and who literally lost everything from their siblings to property they owned,if come alive today would rather commit suicide than live among these unwise people with neither scruples nor love for country. Who can reverse this trend and set our house right and in order?If so when it could take place?-.-.- ————————————————————————– The excerpts included in this blog from the Old Classic “THE WIZARD OF OZ” by the celebrated author and fictional writer Frank Baum are taken from the article “GREAT BETRAYAL” BY Sri.Ravishankar in the 15th June 2014 issue of “The New Indian Express”,Bengaluru Edition. Blog Contributed by H.R.HANUMANTHA RAU. ————————————————————————–

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