Two Whimsical Tales from the Subcontinent
Succession
In a small kingdom on the subcontinent, the king had died suddenly without naming his successor, and it fell to the Panchayat to choose the new king. The five wise men (yes, no women) convened, and someone pointed out that the most obvious successor should be one of the sons of a certain prominent Shah family. So they decided to have a good look at them. There was the bald Shah, the bearded Shah, the tall Shah, the limping Shah, the good Shah, the one-eyed Shah, and the bad Shah. The moment the latter’s name was mooted, the Panchayat to a man nodded. Yes, it must be the bad Shah, they all agreed.
Why? If I tell you Panchayat means a five-men committee of wise men, then you can look up the urdu word badshah in wikipedia.
What’s in a Name
The event described here occurred at the turn of the century. Not the last one, but the one before, and is set in Bombay. Young dandy had splashed out on a new suit, a tie, an umbrella, a hat etc, and as he was rather self-centred he was proudly playing the peacock before his family, oblivious of a protest march outside, visible through the window, but his mother was more interested in what was happening outside. He was standing between his mum and the window, and she pointed at the window, and asked, What’s that? Thinking she was pointing at his head, he promptly answered, That’s ma hat, ma!
From that day Mr Mohandas Gandhi became known as Mahatma.
