Humpty Dumpty Ver 2.0, Circa 2015… The cockroach profiles a transformed Humpty Dumpty… Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the kings horses and all the kings men Couldnt put Humpty together again Now, without being judgmental about Lord Macaulay’s hidden agenda behind introducing English education in India, the cockroach must confess to having always been a lil bit confused by this nursery rhyme and what it seemed to imply. To most middle class kids used to speaking their mother tongues at home, nursery rhymes are still often the first introduction to English, an alien language, even before the learning of alphabets, since rhymes, with their meter and imagery, appeal to the young minds and are designed for collective rendering. Back in the nursery, one could understand the rhymes about the black sheep, the wandering pussy cat and the twinkling star, thanks to the illustrations there-of. But, dumb as he was then as now, cockroach could never fathom why Humpty Dumpty ever sat on the wall, in the first place, let alone how he had his epic fall or why the King’s men, and more so, the horses, could not put him back together again. The associated images were not helpful too, portraying a rather egg-shaped guy, all cracked up at the bottom of a wall. Made no sense whatsoever, if one might say. Cockroach’s next encounter with Humpty Dumpty was equally mystifying. In Louis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”, a story designed to make any one’s head swim if ever there was one. Humpty Dumpty appears in the book as a character who confuses poor Alice with his rather superior airs, casual use of words with meanings that he ascribes to them on his whims and fancies and curious views on the subject of how to make human faces more identifiable. Later, research revealed, several theories have been propounded down the ages about this mysterious character. It has been speculated that one of the Kings of England, who was unfortunately a hunchback, could have been the inspiration. There are others who believe the rhyme is about heavy cannon mounted on the wall of a castle which was shot down by the pro-parliamentarians during the civil war, which the King’s men could not put back up again. In fact, the last two lines of the rhyme seems to have mutated with time and the earlier versions point to something (akin the cannon), rather than a person, which got broke and could not be fixed by the best of men. However, Humpty Dumpty has always remained a personification, rather than an inanimate object. In fact, the fall of Humpty Dumpty has also been somehow gloated over as the fall that succeeds pride. Not fair to a poor guy who was only sitting on a wall, something politicians do every day. But then, we all like kicking someone who has fallen down, and attributing pride does seem to add a dash of harmless moral to the popular rhyme. All in all, Humpty Dumpty seemed to be an eccentric character that all authors seemed to dislike for some peculiar reason, judging by the shabby treatment meted out to him in poem and prose. Cockroach, with his boundless empathy for the underdog, found himself curiously feeling sorry for the poor chap and wanting to do a makeover of his sullied image. Being the imaginative guy that he is, the cockroach decided to put a spin on the rhyme - a sequel where a real life Humpty Dumpty recovers from his great fall and shins up another wall. Here goes. This Humpty Dumpty was comfortably ensconced on a big wall, climbing the pyramidal structure at a pace faster than peers and feeling rather good about him. Then, over a short period of time, he had a couple of great falls, once by losing one of his faculties and then when the big wall started to shudder and crumble. Poor guy was broke in more ways than merely physical. Neither the King’s men nor horses could put him together, yes, but, assistive technology and a compassionate entrepreneur could. Perched back on a smaller wall and experimenting with his tech tool, this Humpty Dumpty made a new start and has been steadily gaining traction on the new wall. The ascent is not yet over, but, he is now sitting on a perch called Associate General Manager (Strategic Initiatives) ! The cockroach hence feels the rhyme needs to be officially modified now as : Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Forget all the kings horses and all the kings men who couldnt put Humpty together again All he needed was a screen reader and a break, For Humpty Dumpty to scale another wall againJ.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 11:30:53 +0000
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