SEE-TEE OF KING

BISWAJIT

Time unknown; place unknown; there was a well-known king.

The king was overly creative, and dominating. Once he called a cabinet-meeting and said:

‘Nature is overshadowing my dignity day by day. The disobedient sky is staying above my crown all the time! And those greeneries — ever-spreading; there might be some conspiracy to engulf my land!’

— ‘It’s thine kingdom highness, how nature dare overshadow thee!’ a minister readily reflected.

— ‘Yes highness, nature is overgrowing too much nowadays. Thine observation is authentic’ echoed another.

‘I’ll show what kingship is. Note down verdict: Let all traces of nature be removed from my kingdom’

As per order, engineers erected stunning tall palaces all around to make the sky dwarf and almost invisible from the ground. Big trees were uprooted at random. Workers buried all greens and covered up the earth with artifacts. Rivers were confined with heavy walls. The revamped kingdom looked utterly man-made; classy, neat and clean.

The king was pleased, 'Almost what I had focused: My See-tee'

Suppression awaits eruption. Meteorologists observed some abnormal changes in environment; feared a long term climatic imbalance. But overconfident statesmen overlooked science.

Within a month, physicians reported a striking deterioration of mental and physical health in mass. Few prescribed regular excursion to natural places.

Suspecting them as spy, the king expelled all and issued a mandate:

'The king wants to make sure that subjects are evidently happy. Henceforth, they are expected to cheer, jump and howl every ten minutes publicly to assure that they are happy'

Mesmerized people enacted as ordered. A few, who could not, fled away to some natural life. But lured by the synthetic lifestyle, crowd started rushing in to See-tee from everywhere. The kingdom became densely populated. The king became famous. Moved by this, several other countries modelled their own See-tee. The trend of wrapping natural beauty with unnatural splendours spread world-wide.

Nature remained silently suppressed, perhaps, awaiting some eruption. Bewildered lives continued howling and jumping to prove that they were as happy as possible.

~~~

PS:

Not intended to hurt anyone,

This was a work of Fiction.

~Author

~~~

PPS:

Fact could thus be even stranger

~Moderator

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Photo: Author