Propaganda of the Storks

Struggle with stork

A stork stood on one leg, the other held up high. Bopa turned to look at something else momentarily. When he looked back, he thought the stork was on the other foot. He decided to check if the stork was slowly wading in. He looked with concentration at his camera with a fast shutter speed, ready to catch the moment. He marked the stork’s left and right legs; the stork was currently on his right leg. An interminable time passed; it was a battle of patience. Bopa blinked and noted that the stork was on the left foot and seemed to be deeper in the pond. Bopa was furious. The sun was up, and beads of sweat trickled down his neck onto his chest. Those on the forehead blinded him as they entered his eye, and Bopa couldn’t catch the bird in the act. determined to come back on the morrow.

Panchtantra and Aesop’s fables

Bopa went to check on his laptop video of a stork wading in water. He got a stork walking in water. It never stood on one leg. It was wading as buffalo do, carefully. It was disgusting. He tried to recall the story of the meditative stork from Panchtantra of Vishnu Gupt. This is similar to Aesop’s fables, “Bagula Bhagat”, the cunning stork. He remembered a story about a cat named Goonda. Goonda, a friend of the stork, invited him for dinner. He served the stork soup on a shallow plate. Frustrated Bagula Bhagat thanked Goonda and said Next dinner at my place. The next day, Bagula Bhagat took revenge. He served fish in a narrow-mouthed vase. This caused consternation for the Goonda. Or was it a fox, Bopa wondered.

Bopa knew that animals are cunning for a reason. They do propaganda of all sorts. Vishnu gupt and Aesop actually aced them all by creating stories like those of the ant and the grasshopper. Everybody knows that worker ants all die off in the winter. The stores they collected ferment and turn into alcohol. The queen ant, the only survivor, remains drunk on that for winter. Worker ants have a span of just a few days. They lay eggs at the end of summer. Yet, people go around saying he is a grasshopper. I am an ant. He is a spendthrift. He is a womanizer. I am a chaste soul. What solid propaganda.

Varieties of Propaganda

Goebbels would carry water in front of these stories, Bopa thought. Then he came across a PDF named Fachha. It was obviously fucked up Bachha. However, the PDF hinted that it was a fresher Bachha. Inside, the lore had been corrupted. Students had become cadets. They would go to daily 0530 AM PT and maintain their 75% attendance. Some students who never fell ill or became drunk achieved 100%. There was a prize of sorts for them. Their name would figure in the hall of fame with photo and all. The propaganda’s effect was insidious. Students wrote it, but faculty supervised it. These faculty members had been hard boiled in propaganda soup.

Successor to Panchtantra

Bopa stared at the screen. The hypothetical had become tangible. The PDF he had imagined was real, but its name wasn’t the crass “Fachha” he’d conceived. It was something far more disarming, more potent in its propaganda: “The Penguins’ Handbook.

Bopa tried breaking it down. They thought there is no place now like Bhairoban Nala. By God, It was a legend even 40 years back. Other points he jotted down as under: –

The Penguins Handbook

1. Corrupted Language: His observation about “Fachha” being a deliberate corruption of “Bachha” is spot on. It’s the first step in indoctrination: creating a new vocabulary. It immediately reframes their identity by calling them “cadets” instead of students. This changes their identity from one of learning to one of quasi-military discipline and obedience.
2. Ritual and Routine: The 0530 AM PT is not just about physical fitness. It’s a ritual of homogenization. It dismantles individualistic late-night habits. It forces the entire group into a single, disciplined rhythm. This happens before the sun is even fully up. It builds compliance from the very first hour of the day.
3. Gamified Obedience: The “hall of fame” for 100% attendance is the insidious genius of the system. It takes a mundane requirement and turns it into a competitive sport. It doesn’t punish non-compliance as much as it glorifies total, unquestioning compliance. The prize isn’t the photo. Instead, the prize is the public validation of being the “perfect” cadet. This creates a powerful incentive for students to police themselves and their peers.
4. The Self-Perpetuating Machine: Bopa’s final thought is the most critical. The system endures because the indoctrinated become the indoctrinators. The students who write the lore under faculty supervision are the ones who have already succeeded within the system. They are the “ants” from the fable, now teaching the new grasshoppers how to behave. The faculty, having been “hard boiled in the propaganda soup,” see this not as manipulation, but as tradition and character-building.

1984

George Orwells dystopia is now reaching its fruition. A person was arrested for urinating on a tree. His video alerted the the Police, they served a video warrant to that man.

“The next day, Bopa took a long video of the stork. After five hours, the stork finally put its foot down. On checking the internet, Bopa discovered that’s simply what storks do. They are very persistent and rigid in their behavior.

He fell down with a heart attack

• The Woman and the Knife: Cold Steel in Command
• Counting of Ants
• Bopa Rai’s Ants Part II: The Quantum Cheenti Conundrum
• Disquisitions On Life
• Rats Tail Sign