Once Mr.Black and his brothers Mr.Blacker and Mr.Blackest are sitting with their cronies, Mr.Darkest Gray, Mr.Darker Gray and Mr.Gray. Night is falling and they are relaxing with a drink. Just then they see some sort of light and then suddenly there is someone standing without.
“Who are you?’ asks Mr.Black for he had never seen such a one before.
“I am Mr.Light Gray” he replies, with a friendly smile
“Mr.Light Gray?? There are no Light Grays in this world! What nonsense!” scowls Mr.Blacker, his brother.
“There are only we the Blacks, Darkest Grays, Darker Grays and at the most Grays!” he adds, giving Mr.Gray a slightly contemptuous look.
The look is not lost on Mr.Gray and he squirms in his seat.
Mr.Light Gray smiles and is about to reply when Mr.Gray speaks up, hesitantly.
“If I may say so…I think there are Light Grays!”
“I have seen them on my other side you know!” he tentatively adds. He can feel the contemptuous eyes of Mr.Blacker boring into him.
Mr.Blackest glares at him menacingly and Mr.Blacker scowls even more in annoyance. He hates it when Mr.Gray comes up with objections like this. Mr.Darker Gray and Mr.Darkest Gray look skeptical and side with Mr.Black. Even the older Black brothers listen to Mr.Black. He is their leader and what he says went. And anyway they haven’t ever seen any Light Grays either. They believe in the color black and are even loathe believing in Mr. Gray who is sitting with them.
Meanwhile, Mr.Light Gray listening attentively to the conversation and the murmurs, beckons to someone standing a little off. They step forward. The group is again stunned.
“Who are these??” asked Mr.Black. There is alarm in his voice.
Some of the new comers are positively shining that the eyes of the group start watering. They screw up their eyes at this brightness that surrounds them almost blinding them.
“Meet Mr.Lighter Gray, Mr.Lightest Gray, Mr.White, Mr.Pearly White, Mr.Snow White…”
Mr. Black and his cronies stare at the newcomers. This is unbelievable!
The world has only Blacks, Darkest Grays, Darker Grays and when you come down to it Grays if you counted the nincompoop who is part of their exalted company.
But..but…who are these people??
And why are their eyes hurting so much looking at these people? Why this irrational fear that has taken hold of them when introduced to them? A strange fear that wants them to deny the very existence of what they are seeing, right in front of their eyes!
No there could not be Whites, Snow Whites and Pearly Whites, Not Lightest Grays or Lighter Grays. They look at Light Gray and admit reluctantly that there is a possibility that he could exist. The rest are all a figment of an overworked imagination.
Suddenly Mr.Black and his crowd get it. Why hadn’t they seen it before? Mr.Light Gray is only trying to hypnotize them for his own gains. Ha! He is trying to cheat them, maybe ultimately rob and kill them. That is his motive! He wants to turn their world as they knew it, topsy-turvy.
Mr.Black stands up with his cronies, in a sinister way. They walk forward threateningly and start beating up Mr.Light Gray. Mr.Gray puts up a token protest against this unwarranted action but with the black looks from the Black brothers, he shuts up and joins them in bashing up Mr.Light Gray.
Mr.Lighter Gray wants to help Mr.Light Gray, but is alarmed that he himself would be hurt.
“Oh dear!Oh dear!” he cries. “Please someone help him!”
“These people are so cruel!”
He stands wringing his hands calling out for help and cursing the rulers for failing to make life safer and easier for them. Mr.Lightest Gray stands silently crying and praying for the deliverance of Mr.Light Gray. Mr.White steps forward with determination, trying to help Mr.Light Gray along with Mr.Pearly White and Mr.Snow White.
In the melee that follows Mr.Light Gray loses his life. Mr.White sustains some serious injuries and is in the hospital. …his chances of survival are remote. Mr.Pearly White dies on the way to the hospital. Mr.Snow White is maimed for life having lost his limbs, which were chopped off by the Black brothers, whose diabolical laughter sends chills down the spines of the Lighter Grays and the Lightest Grays as also the Light Grays.
The Whites fewer in number as they are, are preparing again, for they know the future holds more skirmishes and more of them will have to sacrifice their lives. A day would come when the Blacks and his cronies had to agree that they the Whites and their friends existed too.
The Blacks and their followers, the Darkest Grays and the Darker Grays have now convinced themselves that the world is indeed filled with only the darkest of shades and that they rule that world.
Mr.Gray broods alone in his room….he longs to reach out to the lighter Grays and be a part of them. He cannot hope to be one of the Whites ever …..but, if only…if only, he could have been a Lighter Gray….! He cries softly to himself.
Life goes on….
Truth, imaginatively written!
Ganga, thank you!!
🙂 This was tough for my tiny little brain… 😀 But then… I admire the way you write 🙂 Only you can imagine such things & make others use their brains (at least mine) to think 😀
Bubbly, I am glad I made you think. I feel the world does very less of ‘thinking’ and that is one of its biggest problems. ‘Sweeping things under the carpet’ and ‘ostrich mentality’ is more the world’s style!! 😉 😀 Have I given you more to think?? Lol…
Yes we see this happening all around us…but we have started living with it. Nice way to put a meaningful message across….an effort this like is really appreciated 🙂
that is one imaginative piece!! i think i personally prefer the humorist in you, but the depth is equally appreciable. i got a whole “Brave New World” feel when i read this. the twist at the end caps it all.
Amrita, yes it is about life around us. Thanks for the appreciation.
Roopa, this post was written in response to comments made by some friends on the lines of the Black family in this story. It makes me sad to see that most people believe only the Blacks exist in this world. At the most they are willing to accept Grays. They are not willing to acknowledge the existence of Whites which is tragic and quite unfair to the Whites among us.
How did I miss this awesome post? Its so true so well written
This was posted before you started frequenting my page Ritu. 🙂
Thank you for the appreciation. It is one of my own favorites among those I have written.
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Wonderfully and very imaginatively written drawing from real life 🙂 Loved the creativity in this post.
Thank you, Jas (though very late) 🙂
Shades of Gray 😀
Reads like an allegorical tale- which it most certainly is.
More power to the Grays, and the whites I say – or any other colour for that matter 🙂
Allegory it is 🙂 Thanks for reading, Ush 🙂
My interpretation of this maybe wrong..but
when I read this it sounds like more of a racial thing where some groups of people think only their race ‘exist’ and others don’t, and when they see someone of a different ‘color’, they are inferior. Anyway it’s still sad racism still exists and people still judge and have no respect of others d/t being a different color. Reminds me of the current popular story going on in the US, where a ‘white’ officer shot and killed a young teenager only because he was “black”. Can’t we all just get along and respect each other no matter what color we come in?
Well, it can be interpreted in many ways. It is just to show how people deny the existence of anything they don’t understand and fight to crush it.