Sampat Saral’s 5 short stories – ‘Son steals electricity and father steals water’

Sampat Saral is a famous satirist of Hindi. Through his sharp ideological satire, Sampath exposes simple social and political anomalies. The new satirical collection ‘Ek storey house mein lift’ by comic poet Sampat Saral, who took Hindi satire to the global stage in both writing and reading medium, has been published by Rajkamal Prakashan. Presenting 5 short stories from this collection-

virtue
Father is in electricity department and son is in water supply department. Both of them have got their new houses built at the same time in a colony of the city. Father needs tap connection in the house and son needs electricity connection. Unless the father bribes, the son will not allow the tap to be installed at his place. Until the son does not pay the bribe, the father will not allow him to have an electricity connection.

There may be thousands of shoe-pajars between father and son, but the Indian culture has not declined to such an extent that father and son start demanding bribe from each other. So, the son steals electricity and the father steals water.

globalization
Hearing the noise of the immense crowd in the direction of the main gate of the palace, King Rama asked Lakshmana, “What kind of voices are coming, my dear? Who will be the people?

Got the answer, “Lord, all are residents of Ayodhya. Ever since globalization has come in the state, every citizen wants to take a loan to buy a bow and arrow, so that he too can shoot a golden deer.”

elections in sundarbans
There was democracy in Sundarbans, even if it was democracy to say. General elections were announced. Although many wild animals were in the election arena, but the main contest was between the hyena sitting on the chieftainship and its arch-rival deer. The election symbol of hyena was ‘jaw’ and that of deer – ‘eye’. The hyena was again in the mood to occupy the chiefship. He called the election in-charge jackal and asked, “Who made you the election in-charge?”

Jackal muttered, “Hozoor, you only.”

The hyena said, “So now it is your responsibility that there should be an election ceremony in the Sundarbans and I should be elected as the chief again.”

The jackal bowed his head and reassured, “You must be relaxed, master.”

In a poor democracy, with the pious aim of reducing expenditure, instead of elections, voting was done by tossing a coin.

Results declared. Lakdbagha won with a huge margin. After investigating the reasons for his defeat, the deer complained to the jackal that why only ‘jaw’ was printed on both sides of the stone coin? But who would listen to the cry of the defeated jackal amidst the drums of victory of the hyena?

Awakening
He wrote a complaint in the name of the in-charge of the police station on plain foolscap paper and reached the police station early in the morning.

In fact, somewhere around 9 o’clock in the night, the awakening started till 5 in the morning and Mike’s loud voice did not let him sleep the whole night. He called the police control room on one double zero several times during the night, but each time the result was double zero. He showed the complaint letter to the guard and sought permission to meet the station in-charge.

The guard reprimanded, “Come later. Sir is sleeping and will wake up only after eleven o’clock.

He expressed his surprise angrily, “Sir is sleeping and will wake up only after eleven o’clock?”

The guard said, “And if not then what? Sir has returned from Jagran at five in the morning.

heh heh heh heh
As soon as the Mughal emperor Jalal-ud-din Mohammad Akbar became the ruler of the maximum territory of India, the poet Kumbhandas called Abdurrahim Khankhana.

Rahim picked up the phone on the very first ring, “Say Kumbhandas ji, how did you remember us today?”

An outstanding scholar and poet of Persian, Sanskrit and Hindi, Alampanah Akbar, the main army leader and one of the Navratnas, without any prior introduction from Rahim, Kumbhandas was assured explosively that when Rahim’s name is fed in the phone book, without any prior introduction. Think it happened in Goodbook too.

Kumbhandas asked, “Nowadays the emperor is safe in Delhi, in Agra or in Fatehpur Sikri?”

Rahim, “Yes, he is in Fatehpur Sikri.”

Kumbhandas, “So organize a poet’s conference in Sikri soon in the presence of Alamtab?”

Rahim, “But Kumbhandas ji, Jahanpanah doesn’t understand poetry etc.?”

Kumbhandas, “It is a good thing.… Hello, the series of Kavi Sammelans in Sikri will go on forever. Just convey this secret to the emperor that a stone can float only after being tied to a stick. Only the pen of the poet has that edge that the world starts considering the heinous mass killings as a religious war. Only the poet’s speech has that magic to prove every foolishness of the king as his ‘leela’.

Rahim, “But Kumbhandas ji, have you ever said in one of your verses, ‘Santan ko kaha sikri so kaam’?”

Kumbhandas, “He was invited by the Maharana of Mewar in a poet’s conference, so he had to say. Heh heh heh heh.”

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Tags: Books, Hindi Literature, hindi writer, Literature