The Story of a Kingdom

  Want, the beggar had been in a very bad shape when Contentment ruled the state. However, he was shown mercy by few, and received their attention in uplifting of his status. But he used their kindness to his advantage and continued begging. He then became a perpetual and rich beggar. Soon he captured all the markets and towns and sent Contentment into exile by a treacherous conspiracy with his friend Temptation. He made all inhabitants of the state a slave of his tyrannical demands.  His wives Indulgence, Greed and Lust were losing the resources of the country to their sons Anger, Chaos and Laziness. Anger was a spoilt brat who would even threaten his parents for life. Chaos was a totally confused personality and Laziness was a born sycophant who promised to take the legacy of Want to great heights! However, all of them were incapable of maintaining and undeserving of the resources they had acquired.  The ruler of the enemy state, Discipline was a sheer threat to Want and his family. He was always looking for ways to win over Want and rid the Earth of Want’s incapable sons.

 Discipline was not a kind hearted ruler either. He was harsh and demanding in his own way. Though the infrastructure and running of government went smooth in his kingdom, his terror of taxing people beyond their paying capacity made him an unpopular ruler.  With his persistent attacks on Want, he overtook his kingdom, and imprisoned Want and all his sons for life. The anarchy of Want was ended, but people were still not happy. They had to constantly slog to pay the huge tax amounts without which survival seemed difficult. It became a never ending sort of struggle for them, until Love came to live there with his wife Peace and daughter Bliss.

 King Discipline happened to see the beautiful Bliss once and longed to marry her, but felt too proud to marry the daughter of a commoner, so he dismissed the thought. But day in and day out, Bliss’s face would float before his eyes and he kept struggling hard with the thought if he should approach her.  Love on the other hand was gaining popularity among the masses with his friendly nature. He met people, talked to them about their problems and helped them. Soon he was ruling their hearts. He approached Discipline to place before him the request to lower the taxes and relieve people from their pain. Discipline respected Love’s courage to approach him for that, and said he would agree to it on the condition that he gave his daughter to him in marriage. Love could make no sense in such an agreement, and said “The choice of a groom is her prerogative; I cannot take that from her.” Hearing this, Discipline imprisoned Love and sent a message to Peace that Love could only be released if Bliss married him.

 Bliss wanted the freedom of her father and agreed to marry Discipline, if he lowered the taxes that people had to pay. Discipline agreed. Love was released, the taxes lowered, and Bliss was married to Discipline. This was the point of a big change in the life of Discipline. He had believed he would make Bliss the queen, teach her royal etiquette, but simple and beautiful Bliss changed Discipline from within. She transformed him to love simplicity, and made him more congenial. They gave birth to a son and named him Compassion.

Compassion was crowned king when he was 18 years of age. He ruled well both the kingdom and the hearts of people. He also brought back the exiled Contentment to stay in the kingdom. Contentment became the chief adviser to king, guiding him in all matters. Later Compassion married  his daughter Wisdom.  The kingdom was thus safe and secure in their care.

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