overlived

overlived

this morning, i woke up at night.

while trying to decide if i should get up or try to have another nap, my mind wandered.

it found itself in a strange land. every thing around was ancient. and there, lying in grass was an odd looking object, which, later, i discerned to be a manuscript. name written thereon was lewis caroll.

i recalled that lewis had lost the original manuscript and had to write the book “alice in wonderland’ all over again.

wondered whether lewis left out some episode out in rewriting it and found that it was so.

so here is the episode which lewis missed.

“as alice wandered around, she came upon a familiar scene – the old court room. the queen sat on the throne, looking all excited. the king sat demurely thinking (or so it appeared) deep thoughts.

the knight was there, bound in chains, standing and trembling (how can you do two things at a time). a short distance away was a table and on it was a golden plate and on the golden plate was a bread.

alice wondered what it was all about. she dared not ask as she was a stranger there and her governess had strict instructions that she must not talk to strangers. after standing near a person, about as tall as she was, for about thirty five seconds, she concluded that this much knowing a person is good enough and they are no longer stranger. so she asked him what was going on. the man just stared at her and not a word he would say. alice concluded that his governess must have told him to wait longer than thirty five seconds to develop friendship.

she thought about the cheshire cat who was so friendly, ready to impart information, sometimes without even being asked to. as she thought, cheshire cat appeared, grin first and slowly the rest of her. as soon as the ears appeared, she asked her what was all this scene about. the cheshire cat responded, “obviously child, the knight is standing a trial”.

alice was offended at being called child. “i am grown up now, i am not a child. i am three and a half inch now, not three inches when i met the caterpillar (who was of the same height – three inches).”

“obviously”, said the cat, “but the question you asked about was about the trial and that was a childish question, by now you should have known that a trial is a trial when you see one”.  

alice apologised immediately as she had been instructed by her governess to do when she made a mistake.

“i can see the knight in chains but what i do not understand is what the bread is doing there,” she said.

“the knight used an inappropriate word for that bread and it is the evidence”, explained the cat.

alice was not satisfied, “but how can this be evidence. it is a stale bread”.

all this conversation was in whispers but one never knows.

“shh …. ,” said the cat,” that is the offensive word, knight used”.

“but it smells, it is obviously ……”, she halted just in time as she found the queen staring hard at her.

“so what do you call it?” alice wanted to know.

the all knowing cheshire cat whispered, “ well, you can call it ‘over ripe bread’.

“but over ripe bread is what we use for bread that is burnt and when we do not want to offend the cook”, said alice remembering the scolding she got when she described it as burnt.

“and, “ she continued,” what do you do it when the trial is over”.

“we will bury it along with the knight, when it is done”, replied the cat, a little sadly.

“unless the king pardons the knight, as usually he does”, thought alice.  

“but the question remains – what do you do with the bread which has already lived out its life”.

“and that will be appropriate, not offensive. correct expression – overlived its life”. concluded the cheshire cat.

(disclaimer - this story has nothing to do with offensive inappropriate word – corruption - used in connection with justice.)