A dispute broke out between the fans of pink hornbills. There were two major views that claimed their minds. The ones who liked the bubblegum mating call, perceptible from latter half of march to mid June, were identified as listeners. Others, who were somewhat more in numbers and less in love were called lookers. They thought of the listeners to be completely mistaken about the actual pinkness of these pretty birds. The dispute started when a non-academic book, written by a young spiritually inclined professor of anthropology in the late sixties, was discovered. It was about the mating call and its influences upon the spirituo-social behaviour of the people living in the little island of Lompa Drontk. His claim was that since in the local language of the lompai folk, Lompa Drontk translated to “Pink Voice”, it has been a part of their indigenous knowledge for centuries; that the voice was more importantly lompa than the plumage. Needless to say, he, now an old man, was voice of the listeners. His book met with hostile criticism years after it was first published. A researcher from linguistics department of the same university happened upon the obscure book and claimed that the name of this island had been badly translated and horribly interpreted. He explained that the adjective was lomp and when one adds the suffix ‘a’ it translates best as “pink’s”. The name would therefore loosely be “Pink’s Voice” in english. The word drontk has a special significance in lompai culture. They are worshippers of a deity, whose song is said to have became the world. Thus the very being of everything is drontk. The author, he concluded, has interpreted it inadequately without actually engaging with the cultural context of the special term.
The book was republished and this time it sold like hot cakes. People started voicing their affinities on the internet. The fan page of pink hornbills became a battleground. A third voice, that did not give a shit about choosing a side, christened these two groups as listeners and lookers. It caught on. Now that they had been identified as opposition, they separated.
The old anthropologist, now a rich man, spends the eve of his life vacationing in “Pink Voice”. The young researcher too has earned quite a name for himself. He is currently working on his second paper, doing some field work in “Pink’s Voice”. It is said that they were seen together in Lompa Drontk sharing a bottle of locally brewed alcohol. The former listens… the latter looks… and they both laugh.
Story Of The Footloose 