Emperor, What Gift Did He Accept? Not Bhagavad Gita? (A parody, an imaginary story)

Indian Prime Minister was visiting an important country. This time around he made sure that the leaders of opposition parties in India should not be offended by improper choice of gift. He knew that he had made a blunder last time when he had gone ahead on his own impulse and thoughtlessly gifted the holy book of Hindus, the Bhagavad Gita to the Emperor of Japan in early September 2014.  Some opposition leaders thought that it was a partisan attempt at glorifying Hinduism, ‘He should not forget that India has a large population of Muslims and Christians and therefore he should not forget other holy books, the holy Koran and the holy Bible’. Therefore, to please everyone, this time around the PM takes all the three holy books on this trip.

Three books were individually gift wrapped, one in golden, and other in silver and third in an orange wrapping paper. During his meeting with the Monarch, Indian PM rises to give him those gift that he had thoughtfully carried with him from India. The Monarch who was hosting the welcome for him, also rose to receive the gift, however, when he saw three big parcels, he paused and said, ‘Mr. PM, this is too much of gifts, I will take only one of them, please tell me what is in each parcel and I will choose what appeals me most’.

 

 

It is not polite to argue with host emperor and as the Indian PM was knowledgeable, he was sure that he would convince the emperor to accept all three. PM started with the most expensive looking Golden parcel. He said, this is a holy book of the largest number of people in the world. Then he pointed at silver parcel and said that this too is a holy book and is also followed by a very large number of people, ranking second in the number of its followers in the world and he said this orange parcel too is considered holy by a very large number of people, ranking third number in the world.

The emperor looked puzzled, he said, why do you talk about the world? Are you not an Indian PM? I would prefer that book which has Indian flavor, is either written in India or written by someone who is native of India or the one which has maximum followers in India. Tell me which that is. The book in orange wrapper was the Bhagavad Gita and it met all the criteria, it was written in Kurukshetra (in India), it was authored by a person born in Mathura (in India) and it is followed by largest number of people in India. Although PM knew that the orange parcel fulfilled all the three critical criteria, he was worried, if he was to only give one holy book, opposition political leaders of India would be angry and tear him apart in TV debates and in parliament upon his return from trip. He cannot give up, he must convince the Emperor for all the three.

Indian PM, therefore persists, ‘your Highness, this orange parcel has the holy book of Hindus, the Bhagavad Gita, it fulfills your idea of a good gift with the flavor of India but rest of the books too have very large number of followers in India, albeit those books are neither written in India nor written by Indians. Emperor did not take even a moment to respond, he instantly told, I am sure, other two books are holy Koran and holy Bible. If so, please leave it to someone from Mecca, Jerusalem or Rome to gift those to me. It is their gift to the world and the Bhagavad Gita is India’s gift to the world.

Indian PM knew, the host was right but he had worries about the left ‘thinkers’ of India. Indian PM returned  with two books, still in the wrapping paper and as predicted, many Christian leaders, Muslim leaders and the left leaning socialists and communists were not happy. Surprisingly, some one was happy and said “thank you”.