The Story of a Fly

By Mohammad Yacoob

Mujtaba Hussain, the contemporary master of satire, wit and sense of humor,  has penned more than fifteen Urdu books. His style, mode of writing and discourse has exposed and revealed a new angle of human emotions, feelings and desires that remained hidden from most of us. He uses the whip of laughter, conveying a terrific message, telling each one of us that when you laugh the world laughs with you and when you weep and cry you do it alone. He most often uses the whip of laughter on himself. This is true because cheerful people never lack company and the people who are miserable are shunned by others. He says that his sense of humor is his way of avoiding getting tears in his eyes and at the same time he tells us that he does not want others to shed tears.

Mujtaba Hussain wrote an article in his Urdu book ”Aakar Kaar” which was actually a letter he wrote to “Zinda Dillan e Chicago Kay Naam” meaning “To Mirthful and Cheerful People of Chicago”. In his letter he appreciated the literary work cheerful people are performing in Chicago through the most popular language of India, Urdu. In his article he mentioned about flies of Hyderabad and said, “I think the members of the Chicago organization are grandchildren of Hyderabad organization. Each city has its own sense of humor style and wit angle. To emphasize the peculiar sense of Hyderabad, I would like to give a few anecdotes. In my hometown Hyderabad, near the ‘New Bridge’ area, Mumtaz Hotel and Tafreehe-Deccan Restaurant had tough competition. One time, in Tafreehe-Deccan, I found a fly in my tea; I showed it to the waiter, he said, ‘Sir! I can’t do anything about it, seems the fly is from Mumtaz Hotel. The people of Hyderabad city have been laughing at themselves for years and will continue to do so for centuries. This is their strength.”

So , this writer would like to present the stories of two flies in the twin  city of Hyderabad – Secunderabad. I am going to leave it to your better judgment to determine whether these incidents did really happened.

Two restaurants, Grand Café and Metro Restaurant, located across each other in the city of Secunderabad also had tough competition for customers.

A waiter placed a cup of tea in front of the customer busy reading Urdu Newspaper ’Sisasat’ in Grand Café. The fly sitting on the rim of the cup flew away cursing the customer, “He should have continued reading his newspaper; atleast should have allowed me to take a sip.” The first sip of tea gave a bitter taste to the customer. He took another sip and expressed his disapproval. He complained. The Manager apologized and offered to give him twice the price of tea. The customer insisted on seeing the owner and complaining to him. The discussion continued, finally the waiter intervened, “Do you see the gentleman in blue shirt sitting in Metro Restaurant and sipping his tea? He is the owner of this Grand Café. He also does not like the tea here and goes to get his tea across the street.” The customer got more furious and insisted on seeing the owner. The waiter went across the street and talked to the owner and finally came back with the owner. The owner of the café and the customer had a little talk, finally the customer ended up getting a complimentary dinner at Grand Café. The second thing the owner did was to fire the waiter.

A hundred feet down the street, the fired waiter opened a tea stall. Now the number of customer at Grand Café and Metro Restaurant has dropped. They are now going to the new tea stall to drink delicious tea.

Another anecdote is about another small restaurant in Secunderabad city. The customer brought the attention of the waiter to a floating fly in the cup of tea. The waiter, a big mouth joker quipped, “Sir! For two and half rupees do you expect an elephant in your cup.” “If you can put an elephant in my tea, I will give you hundred rupees.” “Please wait for a minute, I will get an elephant.”, the waiter answered and disappeared behind the kitchen door. The customer started staring at the kitchen door with eyes wide open. The fly still in the tea cup started thinking, “These human beings are always fighting. The waiter should have removed me from the tea and placed me on the table. This would have saved my life. I am going to die in this cup.”

The waiter approached his friend in the kitchen and said, “Give me your keys.” “You want to steal my car.” “No, I want the plastic elephant in your key chain.” “You have an eye for my elephant.” “No time to explain the details.”

The waiter ran back into the restaurant, opened his closed palm and dropped the elephant in the cup. “There is an elephant in your cup, give me my hundred rupees.” The waiter and the customer engaged in a big argument while other customers watched verbal assault and the confrontation. The elephant caused a splash and scattered tea, tiny drops and the fly on the table. A few minutes later, the fly flew away saying, “These humans will never improve and never behave.” While flying outside the fly made a promise to itself saying that it would eat everything in this world but stay away from drinking the tea.

@@@@@@@@