March this year ended with the scary news of the collapse of the ship wrecked Baltimore Bridge and the persistent scare of an impending recession. But being an eternal optimist I can see light at end of the tunnel as nothing lasts forever, not even the bad things which happens to us. The first quarter of the year has just ended and the next month starts with April Fool's day, the first day of a new week, a new month and a new quarter. Time to gather some Foolish anecdotes while stepping into the All Fool's day.
April 1 is named FOOL'S DAY, after Steve April. He was born on 1st April of year 1579. He started 105 businesses in his lifetime, but none ever succeeded, losing all his father's assets. So everyone started calling him father of the fools.
At 19, he married a 61-year-old woman who divorced him after a month because of his foolishness. He used to carefully read all kinds of fake stories like we are doing now on social media. So we are no less fools than him.
Every year, 1st of April comes with its share of April Fool jokes. Even when we keep washing our hands to keep Covid and other diseases away, we shouldn't wash off our sense of humor. A few year's back April Fool joke from Google was - "Equator found to be slipping. Australia at risk of becoming a Northern Hemisphere country by 2055". Many actually believed it.
Not a whole lot are aware of the fact that Equator is an imaginary line. Once India's ex-President Giani Zail Singh was flying above the Equator. His secretary humored him - "Sir, can you see the equator below" ? Zail Singh responded "Yes. I can see it and a car is slowly running on it". What he actually saw, was a lice walking on his long strand of hair, which just happened to fall right in front of his eyes.
MIT, Massachusetts which has produced hordes of innovators and Nobel winning Laureates is known for sheer wit and sense of mischief from its bright and creative students. In 1998, on All Fools' Day, MIT's homepage was rebuilt to announce that the Walt Disney Company had bought the famed institute for $6.9 billion. In same year in Pittsburgh where I was living, 1st of April came with a freak snow storm - fooling all on April Fool's day.
One thing I can't fathom - Why the Utkal Dibas (Odisha day) coincides with the April Fool's day ? It would not have hurt our forefathers to chose 31st March or 2nd April instead. We have been living in a Fool's paradise ever since, fooled time and again by those ruling us.
Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you - said Joey Adams, American Comedian (1911-99). Happy Fool's Day.
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