499. 'A Routine Job'

"You were summoned by our leader.. What was the matter?" asked Peter.

"It is about another routine job. Some guy has been creating a problem for our leader. We need to finish him off. That’s all!" said Masilamani.

"Who is the guy?"

After Masilamani gave him the particulars of the 'troublemaker,' Peter said, "He seems to be a nobody, who is not well known even in his village. Does it need people like us to handle him?"

"Whoever he is, we are just going to do our job!"

"Alright, tell me - what exactly needs to be done, and how?"

Masilamani explained the plan to Peter.

"We have taken down men much bigger than this guy! But, you are telling me that we can’t deal with this ordinary fellow!" said Masilamani, in a tone of reprimand.

"I thought the same way, at first. I even wondered why you had asked me to take so many men with me for this job. But what can I do? We couldn’t even get close to him!"

"What do you mean? We are supposed to go in, attack him and finish him off, and come back. Is he living in a fortress? Or does he have bodyguards to protect him?" asked Masilamani.

"If that were the case, we would have fought his men and then went after him! Remember Balraj? He had his own private security force. Didn’t we drive them away and take him down? This guy is not like that. He lives in a small house. But the moment we entered that street, a lot of villagers gathered in front of his house, as if they had sniffed us. They didn’t have any weapons, and they were not fighters. A single slap could have knocked them over. But the look of determination on their faces sent us a message that each one of them was throwing us a challenge: ‘You can only enter this house after stepping over my dead body.’ Realizing that we could enter the house only if we killed all of them, we said ‘We came to see someone about a land purchase, but it looks like we’ve come to the wrong address,’ and quietly left the place" said Peter.

"I am ashamed of you, Peter. Forget about this job. I will go and finish the job myself," said Masilamani, still seething.

He couldn't have heard Peter muttering ‘Even if you go, the same thing will happen! Go on then. Only then you will understand my dilemma.'

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 50
Knowing the Right Place

Verse 499 (in Tamil):

siRai nalanum sIrum ilar eninum mAndhar
uRai nilaththOdu ottal aridhu.

Meaning:

Even if the enemy is devoid of fortresses and exceptional valour,

it is tough to beat him on his turf.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'pIttarin thOlvi' by the same author.)

Verse 500
Verse 498