In the function held to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of 'Benefactor of Education' Doraiswamy, the speakers were extolling his praise.
"Mr. Doraiswamy has always considered providing education equivalent to providing eyesight to a person with visual disability."
"Having been born in a poor family, Mr. Doraiswamy did not get a chance to get good education. This deprivation inspired him to make a resolve to provide the opportunity he couldn't get, to poor boys and girls of our country. It was this resolve that made him establish various educational institutions."
Karunakaran, sitting among the audience on a rear seat, murmured, 'There should be a limit even for making false claims.'
Ramanan sitting next to him heard Karunakaran's murmur. He turned to Karunakaran and smiled.
After a couple of minutes, Ramanan asked Karunakaran, "Can we go out and get some fresh air?"
Karunakaran nodded his head and stood up from his seat.
Both of them came out of the meeting hall and stood on the open area outside.
"Though the hall is airconditioned, its ambience is no match to the fresh air we breathe in the open" said Ramanam.
"Listening to the false claims made by speaker after speaker suffocated me so much that air-conditioning had no effect on me!" said Karunakaran.
He added, "This 'noble man' won't give admission, if there is a shortfall of even one rupee in the donation demanded by the college. And they say such a person has been running educational institutions with the noble objective of providing education to the poor! Though my son had scored high marks, I had to shell out a lot of money for his admission, in the form of fees, under various heads, in addition to the donation and the tuition fees. Even for conducting this function, they have forcibly collected donations from us. What more, they have asked the students to bring their parents for this function without fail, threatening them of consequences, if they failed to do so."
"Your son and our daughter had secured good marks. Doraiswamy's people would extract even more money from students with poor marks. Parents of many poor people have borrowed money much beyond their means, for paying the exorbitant sums demanded by these people. Not only the students, but also the teachers are harassed in Doraiswamy's institutions.
"How? Are they not being paid in time?"
"They will get their salaries, alright. But the teachers are made responsible for making the students score pass marks in the examination. If they fail to ensure this, they will lose their jobs. Desperate to save their jobs, the teachers give vigorous coaching to weak students, by taking extra classes for them in the evenings and during weekends. During the annual vacation, the teachers will be asked to come to the college and do administrative work. Apart from work relating to the colleges, work relating to the other businesses of Doraiswamy group will also be given to them."
"Oh, my God! I was upset about my being forced to attend this kind of meetings. But, it is shocking to know that the teachers are harassed so much! How did you come to know of these?" asked Karunakaran.
"A professor working here is known to me. He would often share with me the ordeal he and his colleagues are being subjected to."
"A man with no compassion is being glorified as a benefactor of education and as a person born into this world with the objective of providing education to the poor and downtrodden! How atrocious!" said Karunakaran, expressing his contempt.
"...It is only because our 'benefactor of education' has considered education as his eyes, he doesn't have the need to wear glasses even at the age of 70!..."
Speeches lauding 'the benefactor of education' were being carried by the air and delivered to their ears.
Thirukkural
Section 2
Materialism
Chapter 58
Compassion
Verse 575 (in Tamil):
kaNNiRku aNikalam kaNNOttam ahdhu inREl
puN enRu uNarappadum.
Meaning:
Eyes are adorned by compassion; but for it,
they would be considered wounds.
(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'kalvi vaLLal' by the same author.)
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