#ArtoonsInn #Five00-23
I stood at the airport, watching them walk away, not knowing when or if I’d see them again.
As this thought crossed my mind, I had already decided that I was not going to see them again. Fools. And imbeciles. These were the only words which came to my mind. They were fit only for being exploited.
I came to know quite early in life that honesty and hard work takes you nowhere. I had seen my poor father, being exploited by his employer, who only had to praise his honesty and hard work, to ensure that my father continued working on peanuts. That’s when I had decided, no hard work for me. Take advantage of people’s blind trust and gullibility and make merry.
Just a few magic tricks, some spiritual mumbo-jumbo, and soon the donations started flowing in. I started believing in my own power, I wanted to see how far my idiosyncrasies would be tolerated. I fanned the rumor mills that I could cure people with a kick with my left leg. And lo and behold! People lined up to get a kick in their back side. After a time, no one noticed that I kicked with the right leg as well, sometimes when the left one needed some rest. No one noticed as long as they carried a sour bum home. That certainly gave me a heavenly kick. I kicked my way to fast riches. The Lamborghinis and the Mercedes lined up. My fame spread far and wide and I started getting invited to other countries. My memes spread on social media, depicting my caricature in the form of a football player kicking a roly-poly man, who crashes into a goal net. No one understood that they were scoring self-goals; the joke was on them. I started travelling in a 12 car cavalcade, my clientele consisting of the rich and the famous. Once, a poor family came in front of the cavalcade to seek my blessings, but the cavalcade didn’t stop. It just rolled them over and the next days papers screamed, “A family of four were despatched to their heavenly abode, courtesy the Kicking Messiah”. The people just grasped the phrase “heavenly abode” and went wild with mad devotion the next day.
So, here I am at the Airport, waiting for my personal jet to take me to my dream destination, a small country in the west, which I have bought with my hard earned money. I say a silent goodbye to my local devotees, lined up on the other side of the glass, those who have helped me build my empire, while getting kicked about and happy about it, who are now walking away. Now that I will be away, perhaps they can make better use of their hard earned money, to build something for themselves instead of blind, expensive devotion. But will they? It is more likely that they would be on the lookout for the next Messiah like me.
Thanks to Zac Durant for making this photo available on @unsplash 🎁