Rain, fury & a frog’s prayer

Dear God,

You’re the almightiest amphibian and all us froggys of Bhopal talab bow to you and croak out your name, but we draw the line at humans getting us married off without our permission. I refer to my friend, Warts, who was frog-napped by humans and carried off to be married to some random female frog. The aim, apparently, was to invoke rain. No matter how loudly he croaked, they wouldn’t let him go. Not content with arranging their own offspring’s nuptials, humans want to arrange our marriages too?

Their ceremonies started with covering Warts with a cloth. Held tightly in a human hand, he was brought face to face with my cousin, Ribbit, who was held by another human. Now, Warts and Ribbit hated each other. Their enmity had started when Ribbit challenged Warts to a jumping match and gave him — and his frog ego — a drubbing! But so scared was poor Ribbit that she was relieved to see Warts.

“Are they going to dissect us, Warts?” she asked in a whisper. “I’ve heard that humans rip frogs up and remove their organs. They call it science.”

“I only hope some ugly human female doesn’t kiss me,” snorted Warts. “I don’t want to turn into some prince and then keep kissing princesses from another species.”

“Maybe they want to remove our legs and eat them as a delicacy,” Ribbit said morosely. Lost in contemplation over this nightmarish thought, Warts suddenly found himself smothered in a shower of red dust. It filled his eyes and his mouth and clogged his beautiful slimy skin. When he finally managed to open his eyes, he saw that poor Ribbit was similarly smeared with vermillion. People were chanting and invoking their gods. At last, Warts and Ribbit’s faces were pushed close to one another’s and, apparently, they were married and were supposed to be toadily happy ever after.

Anyway, the two freed frogs made the best out of the situation. They migrated to Bhoj wetland, settling down to toady matrimony. They grew to love one another. Warts appreciated Ribbit’s jumping abilities, while Ribbit swooned over Warts’ croaking sounds, bulging eyes and slimy skin. Soon they had a whole lot of tadpoles. And perhaps because of so much love, it rained in Bhopal! And rained… and rained…

The humans now got tired of the rain and we heard through croak mail that they were looking for Warts and Ribbit to divorce them from each other to try and make the rain stop. But they couldn’t find them. In fact, nowadays, it is hard to find us in cities. The toxins and poisonous substances that they have released in rivers and ponds have effectively eradicated us. 

The point, God, is could you kindly explain to humans about how nature works and the factors that cause rain? Humans should realise that the only way to get rain is to stop interfering with nature, grow trees and stop clogging water bodies with lethal substances.

Good night, God! Hoppiness to the world!