The house of Prento was on the left. Prento was renowned as a community that emerged infusing the spirit of the youth into the tired hearts of the old. The followers were called Prentoists. They improved lifestyle of common people. The people from the locality came in the morning and assembled in the house of Prento. They laughed so loud that Mr. Banerjee would often feel offended.
His house was just next to the house of Prento. Mr. Banerjee was a plumpy man with a huge tummy, more like a boulder with few sticks on either sides. The man always wondered how these men managed to laugh their hearts out early in the morning. They never called themselves the happy living club or just the laughing club, rather they issued their advertisement pamphlets asking people to join them in their Prentoism, in order that they could get their lives Prentoed.
The house of Prento was organising their annual induction meeting, where newer entrants of the above sixty group of people of the society would try their luck in the old and lonely days of their lives. They sang tuneless choruses, smelt bad from their mouths after getting drunk till the neck. The game of cards or chess was challenging for the inadequate wit of those who were in their late eighties.
All the senior Prentoists who had been already absorbed by the Prento system got their turn to bully the newer ones. Luckily, this year, Banerjee turned sixty and despite his dislike for the early risers and the loud laughters, the constant coaxing of her wife and sons had assured that he would also be a Prentoist soon.
Mr. Banerjee could not refuse or detest the offer by the house of Prento and went to the Prento induction party, at morming. The party started at 6 in the morning. Estranged by the early rising and due to being seriously hungry for not having his breakfast, his mood was not that good.
As he entered the big Prento hall in the house of Prento, he started having hopes, he would reduce his tummy and start having a low cholesterol food from that day onwards. As every new member arrived in the Prento hall, they were called outside in the garden beyond the backyards, close to the Prento Pool. This was the pool which everyone dreaded off. This pool had a big fat man eating snake in it, rumoured to have caused death to 9 senior citizens of the town in the past.
The pool was dark green, made opaque by the ever dispersed algae due to the movement of some big creature present inside it. There were stones at almost equidistant spaces creating three separate pathways to cross the pool and reach the other side. There was a small hitch. Some of these stones were false and if you stepped on them, they might actually drown you.
Sardul was explaining the rules to the newly joined Prentoists. The one full year of training with these new men was dedicated for a happier and healthier life, an effort to wipe out the tortures to the body that they have been inflicting for the last sixty years.
The first task was to cross the pool, which nobody has ever been able to accomplish. Everyone was pretty afraid of the consequences and was listening to the instructions being given by Sardul when, all of a sudden, a loud shrill took everyone by surprise and everybody started looking at the pool. To everyone's surprise, Mr. Banerjee, the fattest of all the members was crossing the pool, balancing his steps from one stone to another, at the same time making no mistake at all to put his step on a false stone. Within a minute, he had somehow managed to cross over and was panting as if he is relieved of the big task.
Everybody applauded for him as he strode infront towards the Prento Backyard, where he had been standing before crossing the pool. He started shouting at his elder brother, "Brother you knew, I didn't know how to swim. Why did you push me into the pool?"
His elder brother took him to the Prento Hall and got him seated on an easychair. There was no one in the room. The elder brother told him, "See, when I joined the Prento, I was also given the same task and I couldn't do it because I was afraid. Over these several years that I have seen, I have understood three things. One, when someone makes up his mind to cross the pool, the fear within them doesn't allow them to put their first step. Till date, nobody has accomplished this first task. Everybody fears death."
"Second. If someone else pushes you to take the first step, you carry it on further. That you proved today. Again, you do it to remain alive and in the process you get to the other side. And the most important of all, when you run on instincts, you do take an utmost precaution of your steps yet being unaware that your instinct is actually showing you the right path, and you do not step on the false stones."
"You know you are the first person to have done this. Now everyone else shall be motivated by you."
"But brother, what if I stepped on the false stone, drowned and got eaten up by that snake?" asked Mr. Banerjee. His elder brother replied, "let me tell you a secret. There is no snake in the pool. All senior Prentoists are aware of that. And there are no false stones. All that a newcomer needs is courage, which they have lost long ago in their youth."
Mr. Banerjee smiled mildly at his brother as he asked him to join the induction behind the Prento hall.
His house was just next to the house of Prento. Mr. Banerjee was a plumpy man with a huge tummy, more like a boulder with few sticks on either sides. The man always wondered how these men managed to laugh their hearts out early in the morning. They never called themselves the happy living club or just the laughing club, rather they issued their advertisement pamphlets asking people to join them in their Prentoism, in order that they could get their lives Prentoed.
The house of Prento was organising their annual induction meeting, where newer entrants of the above sixty group of people of the society would try their luck in the old and lonely days of their lives. They sang tuneless choruses, smelt bad from their mouths after getting drunk till the neck. The game of cards or chess was challenging for the inadequate wit of those who were in their late eighties.
All the senior Prentoists who had been already absorbed by the Prento system got their turn to bully the newer ones. Luckily, this year, Banerjee turned sixty and despite his dislike for the early risers and the loud laughters, the constant coaxing of her wife and sons had assured that he would also be a Prentoist soon.
Mr. Banerjee could not refuse or detest the offer by the house of Prento and went to the Prento induction party, at morming. The party started at 6 in the morning. Estranged by the early rising and due to being seriously hungry for not having his breakfast, his mood was not that good.
As he entered the big Prento hall in the house of Prento, he started having hopes, he would reduce his tummy and start having a low cholesterol food from that day onwards. As every new member arrived in the Prento hall, they were called outside in the garden beyond the backyards, close to the Prento Pool. This was the pool which everyone dreaded off. This pool had a big fat man eating snake in it, rumoured to have caused death to 9 senior citizens of the town in the past.
The pool was dark green, made opaque by the ever dispersed algae due to the movement of some big creature present inside it. There were stones at almost equidistant spaces creating three separate pathways to cross the pool and reach the other side. There was a small hitch. Some of these stones were false and if you stepped on them, they might actually drown you.
Sardul was explaining the rules to the newly joined Prentoists. The one full year of training with these new men was dedicated for a happier and healthier life, an effort to wipe out the tortures to the body that they have been inflicting for the last sixty years.
The first task was to cross the pool, which nobody has ever been able to accomplish. Everyone was pretty afraid of the consequences and was listening to the instructions being given by Sardul when, all of a sudden, a loud shrill took everyone by surprise and everybody started looking at the pool. To everyone's surprise, Mr. Banerjee, the fattest of all the members was crossing the pool, balancing his steps from one stone to another, at the same time making no mistake at all to put his step on a false stone. Within a minute, he had somehow managed to cross over and was panting as if he is relieved of the big task.
Everybody applauded for him as he strode infront towards the Prento Backyard, where he had been standing before crossing the pool. He started shouting at his elder brother, "Brother you knew, I didn't know how to swim. Why did you push me into the pool?"
His elder brother took him to the Prento Hall and got him seated on an easychair. There was no one in the room. The elder brother told him, "See, when I joined the Prento, I was also given the same task and I couldn't do it because I was afraid. Over these several years that I have seen, I have understood three things. One, when someone makes up his mind to cross the pool, the fear within them doesn't allow them to put their first step. Till date, nobody has accomplished this first task. Everybody fears death."
"Second. If someone else pushes you to take the first step, you carry it on further. That you proved today. Again, you do it to remain alive and in the process you get to the other side. And the most important of all, when you run on instincts, you do take an utmost precaution of your steps yet being unaware that your instinct is actually showing you the right path, and you do not step on the false stones."
"You know you are the first person to have done this. Now everyone else shall be motivated by you."
"But brother, what if I stepped on the false stone, drowned and got eaten up by that snake?" asked Mr. Banerjee. His elder brother replied, "let me tell you a secret. There is no snake in the pool. All senior Prentoists are aware of that. And there are no false stones. All that a newcomer needs is courage, which they have lost long ago in their youth."
Mr. Banerjee smiled mildly at his brother as he asked him to join the induction behind the Prento hall.
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