Berries for World Peace
By Bhaskar Dutta-Baruah
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I ate a berry last night and it gave me a tummy ache. I rued what possessed me to eat that silly metamorphosis of a fruit and a nut which was better off on the tree or on Osama and Trump's dinner plates?! It was too late though and I do not possess the skills to fish out a swallowed and digested piece of so-called food. So I went where all men (and women) have gone in the past and as I endured the pain, millions were still going there – the only difference would be the form and the facade – some have the privilege of sitting on ceramic in an air conditioned concrete room, some have the excuse of squatting and working on the blood circulation of their legs (as in India) and then there are those that would use the sky for a roof and the earth for a dumping ground.
This berry took me all over the world I thought; it was such a small and measly way of opening ones mind to the rest of the world and understanding the lifestyles of your brethren. How I felt an affinity towards the people of the world and regardless of their colours, race, pedigree or character, I started sympathising with them. Now imagine a battle field, bloody, sweaty and muddy; imagine this berry and its kin, all ruby red and seductive, finding their way to this ground where modern day humans turn into gladiators and finally imagine these gladiators popping this beautiful fruit in their mouths and all feeling the same pain that I was going through now. So many lives would be saved because so many soldiers would change their priority lists – shooting would drop below squatting (for I presume, battlefields do not have the right equipment to accommodate defecation).
I hit upon a brilliant idea, serve these berries for breakfast to every Head of State in the world. Make it part of the regime of every Army General and every Minister of war. If they do not eat them willingly, patronise their wives or butlers so they coax them to eat it. Most of the wars will be avoided, for these decision makers would have something else on their minds, i.e. “when is the next journey to heavenly bliss due?”
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