450. Sasidharan's Plans

"Sir, my father had employed you in this firm, paying you a hefty sum as salary and allowing you to just sit in this office, for the only reason that you were a friend of him. Now he is no more. Therefore, you don't have a job here anymore."

The employees in the office were stunned to hear Sasidharan talking so bluntly to Dhandapani. 

However, Dhandapani received Sasisdharan's words with a smile and said, "Thank you, Sasi!"and left the office.

That evening, Sasidharan called Thiruchelvam, the General Manager of the firm, to his cabin and spoke to him about the changes he wanted to make in the administration of the firm.

"Sir, I will implement the changes you want. But, I have a submission to make" sad Thiruchelvam, reluctantly.

"Tell me."

"About Mr. Dhandapani..."

Sasidharan cut him short, saying, "I know what you are going to say. Dhandapani had been with my father, since the time my father started the business. My father never did anything, without consulting Dhandapani. Dhandapan had been one of the prime movers in the growth of this firm. Anything else?"

"Sir, even after knowing about his contributions to the growth of this firm..."

Sasidharan intercepted him again, "I have heard these stories from my father many times. My father had been just sentimental about his friend. My father started this business, investing his own money. Dhandapani got himself attached to this firm, using his friendship with my father and remained here for many years, like a parasite, all the while creating an impression that he had been contributing to the success of the efforts put in by my father. He was sitting in my father's cabin, chatting with him and making him believe that my father got inspiration from Dhandapani's ideas. Mr. Dhandapani had been deceiving my father all these years. My father might have been deceived by him. I won't be."

"Sir, it was not like that. Mr. Dhandapani was a source of strength to your father. I have witnessed your father working closely with him on on many occasions" said Thiruchelvam.

"Let us talk bout something else."

"What is happening Mr.Thiruchelvam? During the past five years. I had taken a lot of new initiatives to take our firm to a higher level. But we have only been going down. We don't have much competition and our competitors are not strong enough to give us a good fight. Yet, For the first time in the history of our firm, we have posted a loss. Our auditor laughs at me and asks me derisively, 'how did you manage to take your firm down so fast!' I don't understand what you people have been doing!"

Thiruchelvam didn't say anything.

"It is true that we don't have much of a competition. We have been working hard. You have been trying several innovations too. But you threw out a person who had been guiding us in the right path. The results we see today are the consequences of your unceremonious sacking of a valuable guide'. But there is no way you are going to realize this!" thought Thiruchelvam.

Thirukkural

Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 45
Association With Great Men

Verse 450 (in Tamil):

pallAr pagai koLalin paththaduththa thImaiththE
nallAr thodar kaividal.

Meaning:

Giving up the association of a good person is ten times more harmful than earning the enmity of many people

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'thandhaiyin naNbar' by the same author.)

Verse 451 (Soon)
Verse 449