The CHILLONA Virus : English translation of story وائرس سکونا
The CHILLONA Virus: A Short Story written in Urdu by Aatif Malik and translated in English by Suhail Akhtar
The original Urdu Story can be read at following link:
http://aatifmalikk.blogspot.com/2020/04/blog-post_6.html
It was an extraordinarily bizarre pandemic. Some were completely unaffected while others were gripped by a palpable feeling of dread. The virus made you grow shorter when you spoke, but the strange thing was that not everyone became a dwarf. There we people who were immune, they could babble all day without becoming even a shade shorter. These were usually the blue collars, the street vendors, the labourers and the garbage collectors etc. In fact these people were happy and engaged in even more lively and animated banter than usual.
On the contrary some professions were badly hit. Television anchors used to bolstering their intellectual credential via exaggeration and hyperbole, Op-ed writers who built citadels to their personal wisdom on a foundation of falsehoods, egoistical retired bureaucrats whose sole skill was self-aggrandizement, retired generals manufacturing reputations on the basis of fictional battlefield bravado and religious charlatans pedaling fake spirituality through deception and false miracles, All of them had a very bad case of this viral infection. As soon as they opened their mouths to speak, they would turn into dwarfs. Some would argue that this was their natural stature.
They tried covering their mouths with masks, but force of habit would not let them remain quiet and the population of dwarfs kept increasing. National research centers were given huge grants to design special masks with built in clamps that held the lips tightly shut, so that they could not form a word.
After a while researchers started to notice the environmental side effects of the virus. Efficiency at the workplace started to increase, there was a visible dip in the number of psychiatric patients, interfaith harmony stated to increase and noise pollution dropped to record low levels. All in all, a blissful mist of calm and serenity descended on the society at large.
People labeled the virus CHILLONA
Another Translation of the Story:
THE VIRUS
There was a strange virus spread; strange, quite STRANGE, and the result of the spread was even more outrageous. It was mysterious but for some the outcome was even loving; that brought smile to them.
The virus bringing smile to some? Are you kidding? Yes, it is so. The virus was causing the elephants to become rabbits. Were they the elephants? Yes, even if you don’t consider them to be elephants, they consider themselves to be elephants.
Listen, come, come to me and I tell you what was happening. It became the running story not at the news channels but at every slum. It was a strange virus. It was affecting only the people from certain layers of society, with certain characteristics. The virus caused instantaneous reduction in the size of the people as they speak. Their stature diminished. One had to look down to find them. Interestingly, the daily wagers, the hawkers, the working class, all were not affected by this virus. It was the bureaucrats always narrating their stories of cleverness and deceit, the clergymen with their proclaimed high status in front of God, the retired army Generals who keep revealing and revealing their narrations of personal bravery to any unfortunate audience, media moguls with their trumpery stories, the so called pseudo intellectuals who come on various TV shows to falsely project themselves, politicians projecting themselves with social media teams and public money ------ all were greatly hit. They put on the masks but even behind their masks as per their habit they could not stop themselves from narrating their stories of cleverness. And here it was, as anyone started the story, Bam, instantaneously lost the height, and you had to look down to find them in their true size. There was great anguish around. But there were also smiles around.
The state research institutes were given urgent grants to come with special masks with embedded clothpins. It appeared to be a simple mask from front but had miniature clothpins on the other side to tie the lips of the wearer. It stopped them from narrating any story of bravado and cleverness. The media became quite calm now --- all so called experts disappeared.
A research was published after some days; the society overall was happy, racism related incidents decreased, multi-culturism and religious tolerance improved and work efficiency at public offices was high.
The virus was overall not that bad.
The original Urdu Story can be read at following link:
http://aatifmalikk.blogspot.com/2020/04/blog-post_6.html
It was an extraordinarily bizarre pandemic. Some were completely unaffected while others were gripped by a palpable feeling of dread. The virus made you grow shorter when you spoke, but the strange thing was that not everyone became a dwarf. There we people who were immune, they could babble all day without becoming even a shade shorter. These were usually the blue collars, the street vendors, the labourers and the garbage collectors etc. In fact these people were happy and engaged in even more lively and animated banter than usual.
On the contrary some professions were badly hit. Television anchors used to bolstering their intellectual credential via exaggeration and hyperbole, Op-ed writers who built citadels to their personal wisdom on a foundation of falsehoods, egoistical retired bureaucrats whose sole skill was self-aggrandizement, retired generals manufacturing reputations on the basis of fictional battlefield bravado and religious charlatans pedaling fake spirituality through deception and false miracles, All of them had a very bad case of this viral infection. As soon as they opened their mouths to speak, they would turn into dwarfs. Some would argue that this was their natural stature.
They tried covering their mouths with masks, but force of habit would not let them remain quiet and the population of dwarfs kept increasing. National research centers were given huge grants to design special masks with built in clamps that held the lips tightly shut, so that they could not form a word.
After a while researchers started to notice the environmental side effects of the virus. Efficiency at the workplace started to increase, there was a visible dip in the number of psychiatric patients, interfaith harmony stated to increase and noise pollution dropped to record low levels. All in all, a blissful mist of calm and serenity descended on the society at large.
People labeled the virus CHILLONA
Another Translation of the Story:
THE VIRUS
There was a strange virus spread; strange, quite STRANGE, and the result of the spread was even more outrageous. It was mysterious but for some the outcome was even loving; that brought smile to them.
The virus bringing smile to some? Are you kidding? Yes, it is so. The virus was causing the elephants to become rabbits. Were they the elephants? Yes, even if you don’t consider them to be elephants, they consider themselves to be elephants.
Listen, come, come to me and I tell you what was happening. It became the running story not at the news channels but at every slum. It was a strange virus. It was affecting only the people from certain layers of society, with certain characteristics. The virus caused instantaneous reduction in the size of the people as they speak. Their stature diminished. One had to look down to find them. Interestingly, the daily wagers, the hawkers, the working class, all were not affected by this virus. It was the bureaucrats always narrating their stories of cleverness and deceit, the clergymen with their proclaimed high status in front of God, the retired army Generals who keep revealing and revealing their narrations of personal bravery to any unfortunate audience, media moguls with their trumpery stories, the so called pseudo intellectuals who come on various TV shows to falsely project themselves, politicians projecting themselves with social media teams and public money ------ all were greatly hit. They put on the masks but even behind their masks as per their habit they could not stop themselves from narrating their stories of cleverness. And here it was, as anyone started the story, Bam, instantaneously lost the height, and you had to look down to find them in their true size. There was great anguish around. But there were also smiles around.
The state research institutes were given urgent grants to come with special masks with embedded clothpins. It appeared to be a simple mask from front but had miniature clothpins on the other side to tie the lips of the wearer. It stopped them from narrating any story of bravado and cleverness. The media became quite calm now --- all so called experts disappeared.
A research was published after some days; the society overall was happy, racism related incidents decreased, multi-culturism and religious tolerance improved and work efficiency at public offices was high.
The virus was overall not that bad.
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