a mARTIAN dIARY

This story speaks of a winter. It was a winter to some and a summer to some. But the pessimist in me wants to talk about the winter so here it goes.,,,,
This story speaks of a winter. A cold and dark one at that but it did come after a spring. Yes, there was a time when the birds flew freely in the sky, squirrels and his? mates spent lazy days together with nothing but dalliance in their mind. But then came a sorcerer. He seemed like what the predecessor of Ford Perfect who came to earth and saw before hurrying off, scribbling “Mostly harmless” but little did the creatures know. His ways were distinct and his plans deep with more levels of foresight than the best chess AI.
He promised them fun, food and love. He promised them stuff they had not even heard about, but felt they could do with since he made a big deal about it. They listened to him with 2 ears…and if they had a 3^rd one, they would not have hesitated before listening with that too. Was he a good orator? No they would not say that…but “There was something about him”…Was he poetic? They would not say that either? But as the rats later confessed, nibbling their little nuts “There was something about him”….
The creatures listened with delightful expectation and uninterrupted concentration as he cast this well practiced spell, his voice waxing and waning with intent. Then he laughed a laughter that spoke of intense satisfaction, satisfaction of a job well done, a spell well cast. By this time the creatures had left earth, they were dreaming, of greener pastures, darker chocolate, greener hasins (even though they did not know what it was, but they figured that since he emphasizing it that much, It must be worth having) and what not.
They had private counseling sessions with him, then they had group sessions with him, where as they recall now the same things were repeated, but somehow it seemed different. Yes, he did pay a lot of attention to personal preferences, jolted down a lot of stuff but little did they know that would end up in the fish market pretty soon.
The time had come for him to leave, to go to other forests, to tell other about the good news. The news of this ‘Great New Forest’. A forest all could only dream about. But was it the last time they would hear from him? Unfortunately for some it would be, because they could not convince him that they wanted it badly enough or…..was it he did not want them enough? Who could tell? Anyways for the some happy critters, it would not be last time they would meet him, actually it was far from last in one sense and not too far from it in another.
The ones who could not convince him were sad for obvious reasons, but the others were even sadder, since he asked them to wait and learn the tricks and trade of their forest till the spring was over, so that they could readily fit into the new forest. They were sad since they had to wait, worse still they had to learn for they had to maintain a CNEG (Common Nom Eaning Grade) in the AFCFIT(All Forests Creatures Fak Ing Test).
So they studied (for this story to sell in most forests I would have to tell that they studied hard, but for the sake not hanging the computer in which I am typing I am not going to do that and my humble note to forests creatures reading the electronic version is that I will be correcting this anomaly in the print version, as long as the printing machine does not go bust)
And the D-Day finally arrived. Actually the D-Day was different for different animals since they were invited to join the forests at different times so there was not D-Day as such for the sake for the sensational effect in this write up D-Day exists.
Getting back…The D-Day arrived and animals were feeling great, nervous with anticipation. Scared of the new forests present citizens and were nauseating due to the taste difference of the grass and leaves of the new forest. BUT they were feeling great.
They arrived from far and wide, spoke different dialects of the forest slang, some hardly recognizable by others but they were united in one thing (and in most test samples of 2 animals this thing alone), their being selected to be the new age forest.
They assembled in a large clearing in the forest specially constructed for welcoming the new comers. The older ones had tagged along with their children to see what was new in this “new” forest…
The ceremony started, with the present animals talking about how “different” the new forest is, recollecting their past experiences from other forests. The new ones and even the old ones that tagged along were awed by the what was said, but their faces gave away a look, a strange look that can be found in history umpteen times. A particular instance in history were this look was the “look of the day” was when once a king was fooled into wearing nothing and do a parade in front of his kingdom by two clever tailors popularly known as “The Emperor’s Clothes” fable. They had assured him that their cloth was so special that only the intelligent could see it. The rest, as they say, is history.
Coming back to our forest and more specifically to the clearing we were talking about, the speeches were over. The animals were confused by what was said in the last 1-2 hours but they were happy, not only because the other also seemed just as confused as them but mainly cuz it was lunch time….FREE lunch time. They ate to their hearts content and theirs stomach’s limit….and a bit more, for today they could call themselves residents of the new age forest. The older ones talked among them of how wonder full the new forest seemed to be, each trying desperately to figure at least one thing good so that they would not seem stupid.
They dispersed, they young to their new caves and temporary trees and the old started their long journey back, a bit happy, a bit sad.
Day 2:
They rose early; they did not want to miss out anything from their first actual day at the new forest but I were to lead you to believe that this became a habit I would be bluntly lying.. They had been asked to assemble in the clearing before the shadow of the great oak tree crossed the newer oak tree just near it. And they actually assembled before there was any actual shadow at all.
They waited, while they waited they talked. The different dialects were a problem but they managed, made friends. But there were some who were too scared? to leave their old forest group. Others started talking like they had known the others for years.
Finally the older animals arrived. Leading them was a fox. He seemed mature for his age. His posture betrayed years of sedimentary work. He stood at the center. looked around. His deep eyes cut through every one. The cacophony that existed slowly ceased and as he cleared his throat, the animals could hear the leaves fall.
“Good Morning New Crits, Hope you had a good sleep…”
The more attentive ones (mostly the ones at the front replied) a bleak “yess..”
“I dint HEAR that…”
“YES SIR…”
“That’s more like it…”
“I am sure all of you will be eager to start living in this new forest with us…”
“Now we will be allocating you roles to play in the new forest…”
The animals stood perplexed. Roles? They could not figure out what he was talking about. A small murmur raised and lowered as he began to speak again.
“Right then….I will be reading out the names of people who have been selected for the squirrel position….”
The perplexed looks on the `crit’s` face grew ten fold. Squirrel position? Who would be more suited to be a squirrel rather than a squirrel himself? But they were too scared to speak out lest they do it out of place and context. What they thought was if the others are content with it, it must be a natural thing like most mistakes in history were we follow invisible rules without questioning them scared of standing out, for from birth we are taught its better to walk with the group however stupid or pointless the thing groups is doing is. Actually taught is a strong word, the more appropriate work is lead to believe but let’s leave aside the technicalities and get on with the story without boring much.
A string of names followed….most of them were squirrels themselves but there were some rats and even an elephant in them. Then the names stopped. But the remaining squirrels, though few in number, huddled together scared @ why they were left out. In the next one hour they surely were allotted roles but instead of decreasing their anxiety it just multiplied them since they just could not understand what they would be doing in the role of a rat and elephant.
Then they divided into their respective groups and stated to get to know each other form their team. They found out that even the other animals were as confused as they were. Then they had a bit of escape from reality and its jagged ends during "team building activities" which they thoroughly enjoyed. And no one later took up the issue and even if someone did no one knew but strangely though one or two squirrels who were initially left out were put back but they plaintly refused to know anything about how the switch occurred.
And the next day the training stated for assimilation into the new forest. Some critters complained since teaching a squirrel the basics of being a squirrel seemed a waste of time to them. But they had to calm down and literally slow down for the elephant and rats to catch up with them but eventually the others reached and some even overtook the squirrels  at begin squirrels. Also though the elephant had to be careful not to crush his fellow team mates during their various activities but rapport between then reached newer dizzy heights previously though impossible in a ordinary forest.
And two months went off just like that. Actually that’s just for writing beauty, in a more practical way "it was the best of time and it was the worst of times (sorry Charles)".There were times when they had nothing to do and spent the whole day whiling away at the training water hole and there were other days when they had to decrease the number of  breaths they take to submits the various training tasks. Their initial doubts, though still lingering in their minds, were swept under the little doormat in the back of their brains during these two months.
Finally the `Tree Allotment Day` came. The forest was divided into different sectors with specific vegetation and each vegetation sector was again divided into different trees and each animal were to be allotted a tree where they would do their work. Everybody was anxious, not much deep to go into this anxiety, it was more like the one you feel while awaiting the results of the exam. Not saying that that anxiety doesn’t has as many layers as a onion but I’d rather not do deep into that now cuz there was something more here. Their brain was getting thoroughly cleaned and all the dust accumulated under the doormat got the first rays on sunlight for the first time in 2 months. Well not really the first time in two months for the ambitious ones as they were real nerds, never good at sweeping anything, both in real life and in their head. But then again in fictional stories most statements are generalized for the “greater numbers”  and in non fictional ones (history) for “greater good” , ironically though what this greater is, is decided by a minority and in most cases people with no contact of what they are writing about or doing for.  BUT since this is my (author’s) small fictional world, please rest assured that what I generalized wrote before is more or less true and the ambitious batch constituted a very negligible minority
So with blah blah they waited. The person came game them another speech about trust and the non importance of what tree us get, because in his own words "a tree is just a tree", you will outlive a tree and move onto others and then the old tree would become irrelevant in a sense. The pessimistic ones among then saw that as a way of tendering meat before cutting them into small small pieces but then again they were a minority
The allotments were read out, but it was evident that even though a tree is a tree some trees are more tree that a tree cuz the  more brighter??? critters were getting certain trees but contrary to the first division lesser people were disappointed. One way of seeing this was that initially when the critters came, they were young, their blood was warm and expectations high, so they got disappointed easily but now after the initial disappointment and burning of hands they had learnt not to expect much and hence were better prepared to take the tree allotment news. this is just a theory though…
And their forest life finally began…they were creatures of new forest.
This is where I am stopping…..for now.
But the question remains….where they happy? Now that’s the real question…isn’t it?
Will deal with it in the next post…