The runaway Knight & the city of darkness.

As a kid had read this story in hindi which was written by Bharatendu Harishchandra,

अंधेर नगरी चौपट राजा.

The writer, a satirist had written the story on the absurdity of socialism during 1880’s.

The scene,  chirpy, bright morning, a monk with his disciple enters a city with empty roads and shops, as night fall the activities begin.....more of a modern day call centre routine. But the goods sold were fixed price, anything and everything for a cheap price.

The disciple got excited, he thought he has found a cheap paradise but the monk was worried, he did not share the same thought and wanted to leave the place quickly. Inspite of the monk’s statutory warnings, the disciple stays.

After a few days, a thief steals goodies from a rich man’s house and while eloping with the loot, falls victim to the fragile house wall and dies. The thief’s brother files a case against the rich-man of sheer negligence at the King’s court.

Now the King summons the rich man and the case file opens.

King: You are a murderer.

Rich man: How your majesty?

King: You built fragile walls to your house which killed the poor thief.

Rich man: But I did not built the wall, it was the handy manny.

So the king summons the handy manny. Now the handy maany says, it was no fault of his too as his attention was diverted by a beautiful dancer who was standing for a long time near the jewellery shop.

The dancer passes the buck to the jeweller, as he took long to show her the flaunty necklace. The jeweller excused by saying that he was busy making a gaudy necklace for a rich man, who happened to be the same Rich man.

So the King in consultation with his PM sentences the Rich Man to be hanged. A guillotine gets erected but the Rich man’s neck being too thin does not fit.  A diktat is forwarded to bring a man whose neck fits the noose. Now  the disciple, who had stayed back, to enjoy good food and living at cheap price, fits the bill and King happily gives the verdict for him to be hanged instead of the Richman.

The same absurdity of the verdict is prevailing once again in modern India. The Telecom Regulatory Authority in India is planning to allow telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone to block apps & websites which are free and charge a sum to consumers and businesses for their uses.

Now the principle for net neutrality or net equality is that ISP & government should treat all data equally, without discrimination or charging differently by users, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment or mode of communication.

In short all net traffic should be treated equally, an ideal condition but the big question is will the government act and put the brakes on TRAI? Or the poor netizens gets the noose?