Tizan and the stars

 

Long long ago (exactly 22 milions years ago) on a small island Tizan took life.

The island later would become very famous for having dodos and plastic bottles growing all over the place (that it was named the national flower ...well that is another story).

 

Tizan was born purple and with only 9 fingers, and this was very odd in those days. The island was populated by 4 tribes and they were each of only one color: Red, blue, yellow and green.

Interestingly beings of color red would only see the red things in the world and everything else appeared grey. Similarly for the blue beings they would see only blue and grey and so on for the yellow and green beings.

 

There was another thing... some beings had 10 fingers and some had 11 fingers.

 

Now we understand why Tizan was kind of odd.

 

The beings of different color tribes lived reasonably well with each other but were always suspicious of each other. Children in each tribe were always taught to be careful of the grey beings because you never know what they are up to. Now in each tribes those who had 11 fingers tend to be beings that lie around, move very little and wag the eleventh finger at each other or anybody else for that matter. They were believed to be more important as they could count upto 11...and not the others. Those with 10 fingers seemed to do all the moving and all the other work like feeding the children.

 

Those being on the island were not as developed as we are now...they were what we could call primitive. They believed that they have to move things around or otherwise they would die. So they would have to move a few things every day. 11 fingers can make a 10 finger moving things for them. Also traditions were important. The reds have a tradition of moving things in circles, the blues in lines, the yellows in rectangles and the greens in triangles.

 

The world in which Tizan was born into was very complicated. Outside the island there was many wars between the different tribes. It all was because tribes of a color would go and tell the other colors that moving things in a given way is better for the world. Sometimes they would convince some of the other colors to move things in the shape they wanted. For example some reds would convince some blues to move things in circles etc. Also in some places 10 fingers beings were treated like slaves. In other places they were treated nearly as equal as 11 fingers beings. A 10 finger can never be equal to a 11 finger as the former has no finger to wag.

 

The island was considered a haven of peace as the leaders in each tribe agreed that the fundamental thing they all agree upon is moving things. So they all said: " we are similar because we believe in moving things". But when they were not together they would say that: "Really our way of moving is better..it is the way...the others are going to suffer because of that".

 

 

Tizan was adopted by the blue tribe as the blue tribe saw him as blue. In those days children would just pop out of the ground and a 10 finger of a given color would adopt a child of the same color at the fair of objects to move.

 

As he grew up, Tizan, was taught to be careful of the grey beings and that the blue beings are more to be trusted and that moving things in a straight line was the right way for his life.

As he grew he was suspicious. The reason is he was handicapped, one by having only 9 fingers and also because he saw all colors. He could never understand the preaching that "Blue is us kind and grey other kinds". He saw himself all different with everybody else. He started becoming skeptical about everything he was told. So as he grew up he started going out and spend days by himself in the forest. And there he once violated a fundamental rule...he started moving things in cirles or square. And he saw that he did not suffer for it. As he grew older he grew bolder. Whenever he went in the forest he would tell his parent not to move things for him as he would do it in the forest by himself. We should not forget its a matter of life and death.

So one day he decided that he wouldn't move anything....and he found he was still alive.

 

Now he was all excited about it but he was careful as he has heard before that there were herectics who had proclaimed this before and they were sent to sea alone on a boat.

 

So Tizan kept going in the forest and experimenting with things...and he realized that one does not need to use fingers to count. He used to count till 9 only...then he started to count till 11 with 2 sticks plus his 9 fingers. Then he realized he can go beyond that and he invented 12, 13 etc...

 

This he could not keep for himself and he went to tell it to his parent. His parent then told it to the 11 fingers in the blue tribe. And the rumor started going to other tribes that 11 or 10 fingers does not matter because you can count more. Many of the 11 fingers fearing a revolution decided to talk to Tizan. He was told to tell everybody that there is no number beyond 11.

Some of the 11 fingers were saying " What heresy...What else if there are more than 11 we may as well believe there is no grey and our color !"

Tizan heard this and in his excitement he said:" Yes you are right all colors are different and its not just grey and us...its all different anyways. We are different colors and i am not colored like any of you and yet i am the same as you all"

 

That got everybody angry...and they started calling him a heretic.

 

That night he was put on a boat and sent out to drift at sea. As he drifted away he looked at the sky and saw stars. He could make different shapes out of them...so many shapes and so many colors. He started counting the stars ....and as he fell asleep he said: "Numbers are over and still there are more stars to count"