157. An Opportunity To Settle the Scores

Somasundaram looked exhausted, when he returned home after spending three days in the police lock-up.

It was only sometime later, after his wife Mangalam tried to rejuvenate him, by offering him water, snacks and coffee that she noticed the bruises and swellings on his body.

"Did they beat you?" she asked, shocked.

"Will the police ever refrain from beating a person arrested by them?"

"You are a person respected in the village. How could they do this to you? The brutes!" lamented Mangalam. 

"The police station is not located in our village. Moreover, the police inspector has come to this station on transfer, only recently. He knows nothing about our village and its inhabitants. Leave it. I have returned home, after all!" said Somasundaram.

Tears welled up in Mangalam's eyes. "Should that Manickam be happy, after doing this to you?" she said angrily.

Mangalam's brother Sivaguru entered this house.

"What is this, brother-in-law? How did this happen? I went to the police station every day to meet you. But, they didn't allow me to meet you. How did this arrest happen?" asked Sivaguru.  

"Manickam diverted water from our lands to his, by cutting the border between our lands and his, thereby making the water flow to his lands. When I went to the lands, I noticed it and tried to restore the border by digging out earth with a spade and filling it in the border, in order to close it. At that time, Manickam came there and started arguing with me. He left, after verbally quarrelling with me for a few minutes. Subsequently, he went to the police station and gave a complaint that I attacked him with a spade. Believing his complaint to be true, the police arrested me" said Somasundaram.

"How did they arrest you, without verifying the truth of his complaint?"

"It so happened that sometime before he quarrelled with me, he was digging the earth in his land with a spade The spade accidentally hit his foot and caused an injury. He showed that injury to the police and claimed that I tried to attack him with the spade and that when he tried to run away, my spade hit him on his foot. He claimed that I chased him with the spade in my hand and that he escaped from me and rushed to the police station to file a complaint. He had taken a person with him, to give false evidence in support of his claim."

"My goodness! The police arrested you believing his false complaint, just because he had an injury caused by a spade on his foot! But, how did they release you?"

"While the inspector arrested me promptly on receipt of the complaint, he came to the village and conducted an enquiry, only after three days. The man who gave the false evidence panicked and admitted that he didn't witness any such incident. People of our village also spoke in support of me. After that, the inspector released me."

"Why didn't the police take action against Manickam, for filing a false complaint?"

"Manickam still claims that I hit him with a spade. The police just closed the case, saying that there was no evidence to substantiate the complaint."

"See how they have beaten him!" Mangalam told Sivaguru. 

"They beat you!" exclaimed Sivaguru and then looked at the bruises and swellings closely.

"We should not spare Manickam" said Sivaguru, angrily. 

After a few months, when Somasundaram's daughter Bhuvana was riding a bicycle in the village, her bicycle accidentally hit Manickam, who was walking on the road. There was some argument between the two of them, each blaming the other for the accident.

After hearing about this incident, Sivaguru came to Somasundaram. 

"Manickam had a scuffle with Bhuvana. Based on this, we can give a police complaint against Manickam" Sivaguru tod Somasundaram.

Somasundaram gently rubbed the scars on his body, caused by police beating with his fingers and said, "Sivaguru! I have still not forgotten the pain and humiliation I suffered, when the police arrested and beat me up. If Manickam is arrested, he will also be subjected to the same kind of treatment. The police may treat him even more harshly, considering the gravity of the offense of eve-teasing. No, Sivaguru. I have suffered the pain of beating and the humiliation of imprisonment. I don't want to be the cause for another person to suffer the same kind of pain and humiliation. Though Manickam has caused me harm, I don't want to cause him pain like the one I suffered."

Thirukkural

Section 1
The Path of Virtue

Chapter 16
Forbearance 

Verse 157 (In Tamil)

thiRanalla thaRpiRar seyyinum nOnondhu
aRanlla seyyAmai nanRu.

Meaning:

Even if other people do you harm, it is better

not to resent and do harm to them, in retaliation.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'vanjam thIrkka oru vAyppu' by the same author)

Verse 158 (Soon)
Verse 156