85. Ponnambalam's Experiment

Every day, before leaving his house for the paddy field in the morning, Ponnambalam would check whether the giant oven at his house had been fired. 

Every day, food for about twenty persons would be cooked on the oven. 

Ponnambalam's family comprised five people and including the three servants, the number of people in his household was only eight. Pnaambalam had made it a practice to have food prepared for twelve guests, in addition to the people in his household.

There were two ovens. Rice was cooked in the bigger over and gravy in the smaller oven. Vegetables would have been cut and kept in heaps for use in the gravy.

At eleven o' clock in the morning, plantain leaves would be laid on the pial of Ponnambalam's house. Anyone can come, sit before a leaf and have their food. People from the village, as well as people from other places visiting or passing by the village would take their food at Ponnambalam's house.

When Pnnambalam returned from the paddy field at about twelve noon, some people would be having their food, sitting on the pial of his house.

Ponnambalam would pay obeisance to the diners by folding his palms and then step into the house. Some people, especially those younger to him or lower in social or economic status, would  feel embarrassed by this gesture of Ponnambalam. While eating, they couldn't return his gesture either!

Ponnambalam would eat only after the guests ate. On some days, if the number of guests was higher, people in the household would cook rice and gravy again. On those days, it would be two o' clock in the afternoon for all the guests to be fed. 

Ponnambalam was firm in his determination that he would eat only after all the guests ate.

One of his friends asked Ponnambalam why he practiced feeding some guests every day.

Ponnambalam replied, "By God's grace, I have been able to harvest more paddy than required for my family. A thought why I shouldn't share sum of this surplus with other people occurred to me. So, I started the practice of offering food to a few people every day."

There was drought in that region due to the failure of the monsoon. Several residents of the village sank borewells, hoping to use the water from the borewells for irrigating their paddy fields. But with the borewells not yielding water, they decided to skip cultivation for that year.

After prolonged thinking, Ponnambalam decided to sink a borewell in his paddy field. The borewell dug on the adjoining fields didn't yield water. Therefore, many people thought that Pnnambalam was wasting money in a sure-fail venture. Some people even dissuaded him from sinking a borewell.

But Ponnambalam was firm in carrying out his plan.

To everyone's amazement, water gushed out from the borewell dug by Ponnambalam in his field.

Ponnambalam began to take steps for cultivating his fields. One of his friends cautioned him saying, "Don't go for cultivation relying on the borewell water. The borewell may dry up any time!"

"When I started digging a borewell, some people said that the borewell may not yield water. I also had such an apprehension. Yet, I wanted to make an effort. Fortunately, the borewell has been yielding water. The situation of the borewell getting dried up may also occur. Maybe, at that time it will rain and the cops will be saved. So, I am going to start cultivation, hoping for the best. I need rice to feed about twelve guests every day!" said Ponnambalam.

"Your hope will win. I won't be surprised if the crops grow in your fields, even without your sowing the seeds!" said his friend.

Thirukkural

Section 1
The Path of Virtue

Chapter 9
Hospitality

Verse 85 (In Tamil)

viththum idal vENdum kollO virundhOmbi
michchil misaivAn pulam.

Meaning:

If a person follows the practice of eating only what is left after feeding the guests, does he even need to sow his field?

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'thaNNIr' by the same author)

Verse 86
Verse 84