Rangadurai's wealth brought him a lot of influence, as well. No public activity was carried out in that village without consulting Rangadurai.
Verse 406 (in Tamil):
But, after Rangadurai's time, the situation changed.
Three of his four sons got educated and went to other places for taking up jobs. However, Rangadurai's second son Selvam discontinued his education at the primary school level and continued to live in the village.
After Rangadurai's demise, his four sons divided their father's properties among themselves. After partitioning the lands, they sold their house and divided the sales proceeds among themselves. From the share of the proceeds received by him, Selvam bought a small house in the village and lived there. He was running his family from the moderate income he received from the lands.
Muthu was the only close friend Selvam had in that village.
When Selvam went to Muthu's house, Muthu was coming out of his house.
"You seem to be going somewhere!" said Selvam.
"Where shall I go? I am going to see my lands. Sowing seeds is going on. Only if I go and supervise the work, the workers will do the job properly!" replied Muthu.
"I don't have this problem. Even from my father's time, our lands are being looked after by tenants!"
"Your way is different. You belong to a wealthy family!" said Muthu, smiling.
"Don't make fun of me! You know my present status" said Selvam. He added, "I will come along with you. Let us talk, as we walk."
After walking a few steps, Selvam told Muthu, "Muthu! You are my friend. I can share my feelings only with you. As you know, during my father's time, our family commanded a lot of respect and influence. But now, no one in the village respects me. They don't involve me in any public activities. If I give any suggestion during the village meetings, no one attaches any value to it."
"The world respects only those who have a lot of money. During your father's time, your family was the richest in the village. After you and your brothers had partitioned the properties, your economic status has come down a little. That might be the reason why the villagers have not been giving you as much importance as they had been giving your family earlier" said Muthu, trying to make his friend feel better.
"Initially, I also thought that could be the reason. But now I am convinced that it is not the reason, because, when my brothers come to the village, the villagers treat them with respect."
"Since your brothers have been coming here as visitors, people here might have been more considerate towards them!"
"No. That's not the reason, again. The villagers respect my brothers because they are well educated. Since I didn't have a good education, people of this village seem to think that I am a worthless person!"
"I don't think of you that way" said Selvam. pressing Selvam's shoulders with his palm, in a gesture of reassuring him.
"Though you don't think of me that way, that is the bitter truth!" lamented Selvam.
When Muthu was concentrating on the work going on in his lands and giving instructions to the workers, Selvam was sitting under a tree.
After some time, Muthu came to Selvam and told him, "Let us go!"
Selvam pointed to a piece of land a little away and asked Muthu, "Does that land also belong to you?"
"Yes" said Muthu.
"Why is that land not cultivated? It appears arid!" asked Selvam.
"Nothing will grow there. I tried cultivating it, with no results. It is a barren land" said Muthu.
"It is like me, isn't it?" said Selvam, with a dry smile.
"It is like me, isn't it?" said Selvam, with a dry smile.
Thirukkural
Section 2
Section 2
Materialism
Chapter 41
Lack of Education
Lack of Education
uLar ennum mAththiraiyar allAl payavAk
kaLar anaiyar kallAdhavar.
kaLar anaiyar kallAdhavar.
Meaning:
The unlearned are counted among men because they exist; otherwise, they are like barren lands.
(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'selvaththin mana varuththam' by the same author.)
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