A realistic, fatalistic fable. It tells the story of rivalry between a gold and iron ingot. In which one ends up thriving, and the other costs a life before...
A blacksmith was beating a cold iron ingot with hammer to test it's quality. The ingot cried to blacksmith “Do not beat me, master”. The blacksmith threw the ignot in a furnace to make it comply, and didn’t pull it until it was orange-golden in color.
A newly arrived gold ingot was witnessing this. It mocked the iron ingot “You require harsh heat of furnace just to become my clone. Who is superior?” But the iron was in no shape to reply back.
The blacksmith heard this, and angrily approached the ingot. It ordered blacksmith “If you beat me like that, it will be all your loss”.
Hearing the voice of gold, a Goldsmith came and snatched the ingot from blacksmith. The blacksmith, not realizing it’s value, happily handed it over.
The Goldsmith also beat it with hammer, but the gold ingot didn’t cry, because it believed it was in the right hands.
The iron ingot was made into a horseshoe. It reached the home of a wealthy merchant. The gold ingot was made into a shiny golden ring, but it stayed on shelf due to it’s higher price.
One day as the merchant was coming after doing an illicit opium trade, glitter of the golden ring caught his eye. He stopped by the same goldsmith, and immediately exchanged his gold bullions with the ring for a premium.
As he passing through desert, he started sweating and the golden ring slipped from the merchant’s finger.
The gold ring was pampered all it’s life, so it couldn’t tolerate the heat and dryness of desert. Due to this, it started expanding(thermal expansion), and slipped from his finger.
The merchant being intoxicated didn’t notice anything and kept going. As he reached home, he started bragging about the ring, but his family pointed out that the ring ring was missing.
He did not rest or eat anything, neither did he let his horse do the same. He immediately took the horse and rushed towards the desert.
The horse got blinded by the glitter of the golden ring, and got stuck in sand. As it itself was not used to desert like a camel. To get of, it violently stomped the sand. This threw the merchant out of it.
The violent stomped paired with hardness of the iron horseshoe, the golden ring got chipped into micro pieces.
The merchant crawled towards the ring, trying to save it, but it quickly sank into the sand. As gold is around 12 times denser than sand.
The horseshoe now asked the ring, “Who is superior now?”, but the ring was in no state to reply.
In anger, the merchant threw a pebble at the horse. The horse then ran away from the merchant and went straight towards the blacksmith.
The blacksmith stationed the horse in a stable and took horseshoe of it. The horseshoe was against sent to furnace to be repaired. This time it didn’t cry, and there there was no gold ingot to mock it.
A few shards of gold stuck with the horseshoe begged to the fire, “Please do not separate me from my master(iron)”. But the fire can not change the inherent properties of the gold.
As the iron reached the golden state, the gold shards stuck on it, got separated from it and melted away.
The blacksmith put the new horseshoe to the horse, and they started living together.
The merchant not being used to harsh desert, being intoxicated died quickly due to dehydration and heatstroke. His body was discovered by tribals of the desert. His belongings were looted, and he was buried in a makeshift coffin.
Weeks later, his son set on a trip through same desert on a camel. He caught glitter of a sun bleached, disfigured skull lying in the sand.
He picked the skull and asked, “Whose skull is this?” The skull replied, “I was once a traveler(literal, and of life) like you”.
“’They buried my body in a makeshift coffin in a dark hole. Soon, the desert foxes, worms and insects dug into my grave. They tunneled through my coffin and ate my brain. They kicked my skull out ln the surface and since then, I have been rolling in the dust.” ”
“Even the birds do not come to drink the stagnant water that pools inside my empty head.”, the skull cried.
He recognized that it was his father skull, and tried to take it back to a tomb, but the skull fell from his hands due to sweating. When he tried to pick it up, it insisted in being there to warn other travelers.
“This world is an Musafirkhana(inn) where travelers don't take their luggage back with them. Make sure to clean up your garbage, and leave this place in better condition before you leave. So the traveler that comes after you remembers you and says ‘The traveler who came before me was good.’ If you won’t then….”
This is my original creation. Though it has been heavily inspired from North Indian Subcontinent folklore, tropes and my own experience in amateur blacksmithing. Such as trope of comparison between gold and iron, of talking skull etc.
Instead of relying on supernatural concepts. It employs concepts of science. Such as density, scavenging and recycling, melting point differences, sweat reducing grip, bird’s natural aversion to stagnant water. Though to make it a story instead of a scientific article, it employes poetic techniques such as personification, exaggeration, coincidences, momento mori etc.
Question to the reader: Have you noticed that both the golden ring and the skull were shiny? And their shine was the reason they caught the glimpse, and ultimately death.