The Haughty King

This forest kingdom does not have a name. Not all forests do, you know. May be you can think of a name for it. However, the King did have a name.

Once upon a time, Raghu Raven was the King of this forest. Every fifteen days, on a Sunday afternoon, he would come to the glade at the centre of the forest to speak to the animals of the forest. He spoke well; he always spoke of the wonderful things he would do for the forest. Raghu Raven was a large bird; he stood tall and looked handsome in his shining coat. He spoke either in stylish English or perfect Hindi. He always thanked the animals for their hard-work and for being such good citizens of the forest. 

All the animals, well most of them, were impressed by Raghu Raven. His speech was followed by a fabulous repast. Each meal was different. Sometimes the animals were served the choicest fruits of the forest, sometimes Mughlai fare of Biryanis and kebabs or it would be Chinese noodles and prawns and stuff. The last part of Raghu Raven’s speech always referred to the last meetings food, of this day’s meal and also to what they would have at the next meeting. Sometimes he asked the audience what they would like to have in the next event and took their suggestions. The animals looked forward to the meetings as listening to Raghu Raven and eating delicious food was a great way to end the Sunday. At the end of these meetings Raven always felt very good about himself, he thought how large-hearted he was that he shared such good food with his subjects instead of eating it all himself like any other King might have done.

Charlie Chameleon was Raghu Raven’s favourite minister. He always followed Raven’s orders diligently; he could guess Raghu Raven’s moods and knew exactly what would make him laugh. Charlie Chameleon had lived in the jungle long and had once heard the Raven’s speeches and enjoyed the food served at the meetings. Now, as Raven’s minister, he organized these events, just the way Raven wanted him to. Raven was brainy; he planned all events to minute detail. Charlie Chameleon had always to keep a back-up plan ready in case something did not happen as planned. Like to keep the arrangement for food if the caterer did not turn-up for the meeting or what if Raven’s favourite horse had a fever on the day of the meeting, Charlie had to keep another horse ready. Charlie Chameleon did his job well, just the way Raven wanted. He had also come to know that while the Raven praised everybody in his speeches, he spoke ill of everybody in private. Raven’s favourite pastime in private was making fun of other animals with Charlie. Charlie Chameleon was careful never to disagree with Raven, as he knew that was one thing Raven disliked the most.

Several animals from personal staff of Raven, as well as some of his subjects, had learnt the disagreeing with Raven meant trouble. Like the Ruddy Rooster, who was once Raven’s great favourite, knew when he fell into bad times because of talking too much. Ruddy Rooster was packed away from the forest one day without even giving time to gather his things. The Raven told the animals that the Rooster had become lazy therefore had been dismissed from his job, but Charlie knew that the real reason was that Rooster had cracked a joke on Raven in the forest event the previous day, which had made Raven mighty angry.

Clever Mami Mongoose, who looked after Raven’s money matters, was good at his work, even if he made mistakes he would not let others find out. Mami Mongoose had a habit of complaining about things, for eg. about the food served in the events - that he would have liked a diet coke, why was it not served or why always Raven spoke in the event, other animals also should get a chance to speak and so on. Raven did not like the sight of him, but for long he could not think of a flaw or error in Mami, which he could make the reason for driving him away from the forest. One day, an innocuous notice arrived from the Forest Tax department, that there was some error in Raven’s tax calculation. Raven told the animals that Mami Mongoose had been careless in doing the work of the king, so just like Ruddy Rooster, Mami Mongoose was also driven out of the forest. Privately Raghu Raven boasted to Charlie that he had, at last, got a perfect excuse to be able to drive away Mami as he had never liked him. 

Now some animals had liked Ruddy and Mami, so gradually the animals started suspecting that Raven may not be as good as he appeared in the events. However, even the most powerful animals of the forest did not want to say anything aloud to Raven or to mess with him. They all were scared that Raven would find some mistake or weakness in them and make it an excuse to drive them away from the forest, just like he had turned away Ruddy and Mami. The Forest was their home and living, no animal wanted to be turned out of the forest. Raven as always had everything planned.

Raven actually ruled quite a few years with all his planning and manipulation. He appointed and surrounded himself with ‘yes men’, that is people who would never disobey him. Raven thought he can now do whatever he wants as the people around him would always obey him and praise him for whatever he said, however wrong that may be. Raven imagined that he will always be the King - so he became lazy. He hardly looked at what his ministers and generals were doing. The animals were exasperated, as the roads became potholed and garbage was not cleared. The lakes became dirty as no animal did his job and nobody reprimanded them for not doing their job. There were long queues at the hospital and shops as supplies were running out and not replenished on time. The Raven was not available as he was always on leave except when he came for the event to lecture and eat. Then also, he just cracked jokes and did not listen to the animals’ troubles.

The animals had had enough, they asked Sylvie Swan to be the new Queen of the Jungle. Raghu Raven was asked to leave the Jungle along-with his generals Pam Peacock and Pip Parrot. Unfortunately, no back-up plans worked for Raven that day. The Animals whispered among themselves that Raven was a rich bird as he had accumulated quite a lot of money (which, of course, the new Queen allowed him to take with him). The day he left Raghu Raven was shamefaced and unable to look straight into the eyes of any other animal.

Charlie Chameleon, Raven’s supporter changed his colour and mixed with the new crowd and survived, for the time being.

Sylvie Swan was an able ruler, she strived to administer well and worked hard herself. She did justice whenever any animal approached her with a problem. Everything worked smoothly under her. The lakes and the roads were clean, the hospitals treated patients diligently and there was enough grain stored in the animals' homes before the harsh weather set in. Sylvie was intelligent enough to understand when an animal was lying or trying to make a fool of her or doing something that was not good for the Kingdom. She, promptly, shooed away such animals. There were no more meetings or events like there had been under King Raven, but nobody did mind that.