The Katha Upanishad

The Katha Upanishad, possibly the most famous of these ancient writings, is naturally set in ancient India.

What if it were set in today’s America?

That’s the premise and this is the result.

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Mr. Arthur Thelonious Sherry of 46 Rexford Circle, Birchdale, was doing tax battle again. That is to say, not he personally of course, but by way of Waynemore Bland, his accountant of many years, a 43-year-old man who still lived at home with his mother, and who had lost none of his hair and made a point of wearing it long to prove it. Mr. Sherry, who was losing his, no doubt about that, and wore it cropped to hide, or at best obscure that fact, now sat in Bland’s deep visitor’s armchair and chewed his bottom lip, which made him look a bit like smiling, which he was not.
Not at all. He was not happy. Not happy to be sitting in Bland’s office, for one. Bland should have had the foresight to arrange to come to himâ€"even if the filing deadline was tomorrow, and his schedule was fullâ€"instead he had gotten a lame ‘sorry Art, can’t get away. You know how it is.’ And not at all happy that he still showed a profit. Too damn much of it. He looked across a yellow sea of lined paper at his accountant looking back at him. Way too much, in fact. And lastly, not at all happy that he had had to bring Gerald. So, unhappy all around, pretty much.