In the Kingdom of Fools Explanation
In the Kingdom of Fools, both the king and the minister were idiots.
Idiots: the people who are not intelligent
In the Kingdom of Fools, the king and his minister – both were uninteliigent.
They didn’t want to run things like other kings, so they decided to change night into day and day into night.
The king and his minister did not want to run their kingdom like other kings did. So, they decided to do something different. They started treating night as day and day as night.
They ordered that the work which was done at night would be done during the day time and the work which was done during the day time, will be done during night time.
They ordered that everyone should be awake at night, till their fields and run their businesses only after dark, and go to bed as soon as the sun came up. Anyone who disobeyed would be punished with death.
Till: here, to cultivate land for farming
They passed an order that everyone in the kingdom would work at night. Nobody would sleep at night. The farmers would do farming at night and the ones who ran businesses would do business at night. As soon as the sun rose, everyone would go to sleep. If someone would disobey the order, he would be punished with death.
The people did as they were told for fear of death. The king and the minister were delighted at the success of their project.
The people were scared that if they did not obey the king’s order they would be sentenced with death penalty, so, they obeyed the order although it was very strange. The king and his minister, both the fools were very happy that all the people in the kingdom were following their order.
One day a guru and his disciple arrived in the city. It was a beautiful city, it was broad daylight, but there was no one about. Everyone was asleep, not a mouse stirring. Even the cattle had been taught to sleep by day.
Stirring: moving around
guru: saint
One day a saint arrived in the kingdom of fools along with one of his disciples. He saw that it was a beautiful city, it was a sunny day but could not find anyone around. They were surprised. Everyone was asleep and the writer says that not a mouse was stirring. (Stirring means moving around). They could not find a single mouse moving around which means that it was so quiet as everyone, even the tiniest creatures, the mice were asleep. The people had taught their cattle to sleep during day time. So everyone- human as well as animals were sleeping.
The two strangers were amazed by what they saw around them and wandered around town till evening, when suddenly the whole town woke up and went about its nightly business.
amazed: shocked and surprised
These two strangers to the kingdom of fools were not aware that this kind of order had been passed in the city. So, they were surprised to see that everyone was sleeping during daytime. They kept on wandering around in the whole city and as soon as it was night, everyone woke up and started doing their work. Businessmen were doing business and farmers were farming.
The two men were hungry. Now that the shops were open, they went to buy some groceries. To their astonishment, they found that everything cost the same, a single duddu — whether they bought a measure of rice or a bunch of bananas, it cost a duddu.
duddu – money in Kannada language
The guru and his disciple were very hungry. When the shops opened at night, they went to buy groceries. They were surprised to see that whatever they bought from the shop costed one duddu. The things were very cheap out there. Weather you buy a big bunch of bananas or you buy a big bag of rice it costed only one duddu. Everything was at the same price in the Kingdom of Fools!
The guru and his disciple were delighted. They had never heard of anything like this. They could buy all the food they wanted for a rupee.
The guru and his disciple were very happy because the food in this kingdom was very cheap. You could buy a lot of food just for a rupee.
When they had cooked and eaten, the guru realized that this was a kingdom of fools and it wouldn’t be a good idea for them to stay there.
When the guru and his disciple cooked and ate their food, the guru realized that the kingdom was a kingdom of fools and decided not to stay there any longer because it was unsafe for them.
“This is no place for us. Let’s go,” he said to his disciple.
The wise guru told his disciple that the place was not right for them and asked him to leave at once.
But the disciple didn’t want to leave the place. Everything was cheap here. All he wanted was good, cheap food.
This disciple was a foodie, he loved to eat and that is why he did not want to leave this place because the food was cheap there.
The guru said, “They are all fools. This won’t last very long, and you can’t tell what they’ll do to you next.”
Guru tried to make his disciple understand and told him that everyone out there was a fool and are was very dangerous. The kingdom would not last for a long time and they could harm them too.
But the disciple wouldn’t listen to the guru’s wisdom. He wanted to stay.
This disciple is not foresighted like his guru and could not understand what his guru was trying to say. He wanted to live there only and enjoy the cheap food.
The guru finally gave up and said, “Do what you want. I’m going,” and left.
Finally, the guru left alone, leaving the disciple behind.
The disciple stayed on, ate his fill every day — bananas and ghee and rice and wheat, and grew fat like a street-side sacred bull.
The disciple stayed back in the kingdom of fools. Everyday, he ate a lot of food due to which he becameas fat as a huge bull.
One bright day, a thief broke into a rich merchant’s house. He had made a hole in the wall and sneaked in, and as he was carrying out his loot, the wall of the old house collapsed on his head and killed him on the spot.
One day, a thief entered a merchant’s house. He made a hole in the wall to gain access. When he was about to move out of the house, after looting all the things, the wall broke and fell down on his head and he died there only.
His brother ran to the king and complained, “Your Highness, when my brother was pursuing his ancient trade, a wall fell on him and killed him. This merchant is to blame. He should have built a good, strong wall. You must punish the wrongdoer and compensate the family for this injustice.”
To be continue in next part.
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