604. Father's Ceremony

"It is common for people like me, who are born poor and deprived of education and who can't find means to earn money in an honest way, to indulge in theft, for survival. One should be lucky to carry on, without getting caught. But, I was caught and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. What crime did you committee?" Satya asked Manickam, his co-prisoner.

Manickam did not reply.

"People like him belong to a different category. He is not someone who would be involved in activities like picking pockets, house-breaking etc. He looks like a gentleman" said Sekar, another prisoner. 

Other prisoners laughed, enjoying Sekar's wry humour.

"Did you commit what is called a white collar crime?" asked another prisoner, who was a little educated.

Manickam quietly listened to the chat, keeping his chin down.

Manickam's mother who came to the prison to see him, cried, lamenting, "Why did you bring yourself to this state?"

After conversing with Manickam for a few minutes on some general topics, she said, "Your father's ceremony falls next week. After he had passed away, we have been performing his ceremony every year, following the traditional practice by engaging a purohit* and observing the formalities. We won't be able to perform the ceremony this year."

Manickam thought about his father. What a noble person was he! What great esteem had he commanded among the people of his village!

The goodwill earned by Manickam's father had been a great asset to Manickam. But Manickam did nothing to sustain it or even take advantage of it. For a long time after his father's death, Manickam did not take up any job, due to sheer lethargy. It was only after his family's financial situation became so bad that he had to go for a job and earn an income for survival that he began to look for a job. He was able to get only a job with a modest salary.

Finding that his salary was inadequate to meet the family's needs, Manickam, in a desperate moment, forged the signature of his proprietor and attempted to draw money from the bank. But he was caught, while trying to encash the cheque, arrested and slapped a prison sentence.

Listening to his mother's lament about their not being able to perform his father's annual ceremony, Manickam told himself, 'My inability to perform my father's annual ceremony is not a severe fault, compared to my betraying his legacy through my act of bringing disrepute to his name.

*purohit is a person well-versed in scriptures, who is engaged for performing religious ceremonies. 

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 61

Not Being Sluggish

Verse 604 (in Tamil):
kudi mdindhu kuRRam perugum madi madindhu
mAnDa ujnaRRilavarkku.

Meaning:

If a person yields to laziness and fails to put forth efforts, the reputation of his family will be destroyed and faults will increase.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'thadaippattup pOna sadangu' by the same author.) 

Verse 605
Verse 603