Bharatendu Harishchandra is one of the greatest playwrights in Hindi, and Andher Nagari, written in 1881, is one of his masterpiece.
In this hilarious and sardonic tale, a Teacher (Guru) and his student (Shishya/disciple while on a journey to gain knowledge, reached a new city. While walking through a city with his shishya, the Guru saw there was no man on the roads, all the shops were closed during the day, but at night, all the shops got opened, people started working.
He was surprised and asked a man why it is so? The man informs that it is according to the order of their King. Then the Teacher and his Student reaches a shop to get some food, they were more surprised to know that every thing was being sold at one standard price (Take Ser/eat anything for 1). Teacher tells his Student that its a dangerous place to live, and they must leave the city immediately.
But the Student thinks that its a wonderful place to live. Everything so cheap and he can eat delicious things spending very little amount of money, so he requests the Teacher to allow him to stay there for a while. The Teacher repeats his warning but when he realize that the stubborn Student is not relenting, he leaves him there and continue his journey alone.
The city is being run like an experiment of social equality by the eccentric King. There is one fixed price for everything in the city. One can have the run of the mill Bhaji (a simple, inexpensive, vegetable dish) or premium sweet like Khaja (delicious sweet made with wheat flour, refined butter, sugar) at the same price. The citizens are not allowed to question these eccentric rules or the rulers who come up with these stupidities or even talk about irrational and unjust policies of the King and his administrators who design and implement these twisted rules regarding Commerce, Law and Ethics, making it an undesirable place for live and deal with irrespective of monetary or strategic benefits. The young and unwise Student stays, eats, makes merry and enjoys it for a while.
In this strange land, one night four brothers plan a burglary and try to breach the wall of the house of an affluent family. Even the thief of such a doomed city are lazy and incompetent. The bungling incompetent thieves bring the wall down, and in the process are killed by the falling bricks.
The mother of the thieves gets angry when she gets the news. The grieved mother files a lawsuit in the court to seek compensation for her loss. In arguing her case before the court, she claims that her sons were merely following their profession and the inappropriately constructed wall caused their untimely demise, for which the homeowner was liable.
The court following the strange and uniform national code of justice designed to ensure social equality for all, asks the homeowner why he should not be sentenced to death for the loss of the thieves’ lives.
The frightened and frazzled homeowner uses the defense that those who constructed the wall are the guilty party and thus exonerates himself. The bricklayer is then summoned to the court and he says it is not his fault as he did his job well and the cement must have been of poor quality. The wrath of the court and its warped justice then descends on the cement mixer who is accused of pouring too much water during mixing. The cement maker admits that it happened, but attributes it to his required mandatory greeting of the passing Holy man, a legally justifiable diversion that diluted the cement. The Court calls the Holy man – the clueless guy has no excuse and the court pronounces him guilty of the murder of the 4 thieves and sentences him to be hanged till dead.
Like everything else, the King has also legally prescribed fixed size noose which must be used to hang the criminals by the neck. The noose is brought to the courtyard to string up the guilty offender. Living in the city of Idiots could be the fault of the Holy man, but the poor guy was living a humble life himself. It turns out that his neck & head is too thin and the noose keeps slipping off his head and neck. The size of the nose can not be changed since it was fixed by the King. Therefore, it was not possible to hang the Holy man with the prescribed fixed size noose.
This irritated the judge to no end, he had many other commitments too, more cases to resolved, more punishments to be meted out. So the Judge pontificates that the deaths of 4 thieves must be punished and since the circumference of the noose is unalterable by the national code, the only way for justice to be done, is to hang the first person who fits the noose. Anyone who’s neck can fit the noose, not important if an innocent gets punished, but justice must be served.
In the meanwhile, with good food at cheap price, and no work to do, the Student has enjoyed himself immensely and managed to gained a chubby body. He had nothing better to do so he was caught feasting on the cheap dates and idling his time watching the wheels of justice in the court . His stout neck fitted the noose and the court decides that he be hanged in the public square next morning as an example to the citizens and to emphasize that justice not only should be done, but it must also publicly seen to be done.
By godly intervention, his Teachers arrives in the city on his way back and gets to know about the predicament of his Student. The teacher promptly arrived early morning at the public square and creates a ruckus by insisting that he be hanged instead of the Student.
The intrigued Judge was taken aback at this strange self-destroying demand and even the Holy man suspects some theological mystery. They keep asking the Teacher for the reason but he refuses.
The irritated judge then threatened him that if he refused he would be beheaded instead of being hanged. The Teacher pleads that he must be hanged and not beheaded. Under further intimidation and after considerable interrogation, the Teacher relents and confesses that on this day of the new moon, anyone who was hanged would go straight to heaven and was guaranteed double his share of beautiful virgins.
The Judge, then insisted since he was the judge, he would decide who would be hanged. He decided he would hang himself to gain the heavenly rewards.
In the meantime the news had reached the King. He immediately reaches the the scene and uses his ultimate authority and primate privilege as a King of the City and decides that it was he who should be hanged.
The relieved Teacher quickly gestures to his Student to get out of the god-forsaken city before some new twist comes to the story. Both the Teacher and the Student promptly crossed the borders of the strange City, vowing never to return there again.
In this hilarious and sardonic tale, a Teacher (Guru) and his student (Shishya/disciple while on a journey to gain knowledge, reached a new city. While walking through a city with his shishya, the Guru saw there was no man on the roads, all the shops were closed during the day, but at night, all the shops got opened, people started working.
He was surprised and asked a man why it is so? The man informs that it is according to the order of their King. Then the Teacher and his Student reaches a shop to get some food, they were more surprised to know that every thing was being sold at one standard price (Take Ser/eat anything for 1). Teacher tells his Student that its a dangerous place to live, and they must leave the city immediately.
But the Student thinks that its a wonderful place to live. Everything so cheap and he can eat delicious things spending very little amount of money, so he requests the Teacher to allow him to stay there for a while. The Teacher repeats his warning but when he realize that the stubborn Student is not relenting, he leaves him there and continue his journey alone.
The city is being run like an experiment of social equality by the eccentric King. There is one fixed price for everything in the city. One can have the run of the mill Bhaji (a simple, inexpensive, vegetable dish) or premium sweet like Khaja (delicious sweet made with wheat flour, refined butter, sugar) at the same price. The citizens are not allowed to question these eccentric rules or the rulers who come up with these stupidities or even talk about irrational and unjust policies of the King and his administrators who design and implement these twisted rules regarding Commerce, Law and Ethics, making it an undesirable place for live and deal with irrespective of monetary or strategic benefits. The young and unwise Student stays, eats, makes merry and enjoys it for a while.
In this strange land, one night four brothers plan a burglary and try to breach the wall of the house of an affluent family. Even the thief of such a doomed city are lazy and incompetent. The bungling incompetent thieves bring the wall down, and in the process are killed by the falling bricks.
The mother of the thieves gets angry when she gets the news. The grieved mother files a lawsuit in the court to seek compensation for her loss. In arguing her case before the court, she claims that her sons were merely following their profession and the inappropriately constructed wall caused their untimely demise, for which the homeowner was liable.
The court following the strange and uniform national code of justice designed to ensure social equality for all, asks the homeowner why he should not be sentenced to death for the loss of the thieves’ lives.
The frightened and frazzled homeowner uses the defense that those who constructed the wall are the guilty party and thus exonerates himself. The bricklayer is then summoned to the court and he says it is not his fault as he did his job well and the cement must have been of poor quality. The wrath of the court and its warped justice then descends on the cement mixer who is accused of pouring too much water during mixing. The cement maker admits that it happened, but attributes it to his required mandatory greeting of the passing Holy man, a legally justifiable diversion that diluted the cement. The Court calls the Holy man – the clueless guy has no excuse and the court pronounces him guilty of the murder of the 4 thieves and sentences him to be hanged till dead.
Like everything else, the King has also legally prescribed fixed size noose which must be used to hang the criminals by the neck. The noose is brought to the courtyard to string up the guilty offender. Living in the city of Idiots could be the fault of the Holy man, but the poor guy was living a humble life himself. It turns out that his neck & head is too thin and the noose keeps slipping off his head and neck. The size of the nose can not be changed since it was fixed by the King. Therefore, it was not possible to hang the Holy man with the prescribed fixed size noose.
This irritated the judge to no end, he had many other commitments too, more cases to resolved, more punishments to be meted out. So the Judge pontificates that the deaths of 4 thieves must be punished and since the circumference of the noose is unalterable by the national code, the only way for justice to be done, is to hang the first person who fits the noose. Anyone who’s neck can fit the noose, not important if an innocent gets punished, but justice must be served.
In the meanwhile, with good food at cheap price, and no work to do, the Student has enjoyed himself immensely and managed to gained a chubby body. He had nothing better to do so he was caught feasting on the cheap dates and idling his time watching the wheels of justice in the court . His stout neck fitted the noose and the court decides that he be hanged in the public square next morning as an example to the citizens and to emphasize that justice not only should be done, but it must also publicly seen to be done.
By godly intervention, his Teachers arrives in the city on his way back and gets to know about the predicament of his Student. The teacher promptly arrived early morning at the public square and creates a ruckus by insisting that he be hanged instead of the Student.
The intrigued Judge was taken aback at this strange self-destroying demand and even the Holy man suspects some theological mystery. They keep asking the Teacher for the reason but he refuses.
The irritated judge then threatened him that if he refused he would be beheaded instead of being hanged. The Teacher pleads that he must be hanged and not beheaded. Under further intimidation and after considerable interrogation, the Teacher relents and confesses that on this day of the new moon, anyone who was hanged would go straight to heaven and was guaranteed double his share of beautiful virgins.
The Judge, then insisted since he was the judge, he would decide who would be hanged. He decided he would hang himself to gain the heavenly rewards.
In the meantime the news had reached the King. He immediately reaches the the scene and uses his ultimate authority and primate privilege as a King of the City and decides that it was he who should be hanged.
The relieved Teacher quickly gestures to his Student to get out of the god-forsaken city before some new twist comes to the story. Both the Teacher and the Student promptly crossed the borders of the strange City, vowing never to return there again.
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