Perception

A memory from my mom’s school days -

She was a young girl from a foreign land filled with expectations and dreams. Anne her name was, there she stood looking lost among the South Indian crowd in a village near Madurai. She tried hard to pronounce the place she was in but in vain. The faces around her stared at her, some tried to start a conversation but nobody understood what she wanted. She knew there would be someone to help her and she need not fear being alone in that land because her mother had said her that the only reason their country ruled India for hundreds of years was because the people were friendly even to their enemies.

But at 18, in an unknown land, nowhere to stay and no one to meet, it was hard to not feel afraid. The only reason she was there was – education, her dream to learn from the people who belong to the land known for agriculture.

A man in early 50s with a black umbrella in hand, completely whitened hair; a little hump at the back which made his 6’2 height look like 6′ walking back home on a sunny afternoon noticed Anne. That was my Grandpa. He asked her why she was looking lost at the bus stop.  

My grandpa was not a degree holder. He had completed SSLC and started working as a clerk in agriculture office. Experience made him grow in rank and he was then an agriculture officer for land inspection. As he had to travel and meet new people almost every single day and also because he started working under a British officer, his English lacked the Indian flavor.

Anna asked Grandpa that she needed a place to stay and an officer who can be her guide. My Grandpa helped her find a 1BHK house for a rent of Rs.80. As my grandma was a great cook, food was not an issue for Anne. My Grandpa took Anne with him every single day for land inspection and taught her how to find the minerals the soil had and the dieses the plants were affected with just by looking at them & touching them. This (even now) was followed in India as it reduced the soil testing & sampling costs to a greater level. Anne was fascinated by this theory; cross verified all the suggested inferences with lab data and completed her thesis.

Incident 1:

She had provided my Grandpa’s name as her guide and submitted her thesis at university of London which was accepted there. But as my Grandpa was not educated enough, in India, the research was not filed under my Grandpa’s name but was under his superior (who had completed B.Sc.) and his supervisor was given M.Sc. degree.

When my grandpa asked her how her university can accept him as her Guide, she replied “In my country knowledge matters and not the degree”.

Incident 2:

It was on that day when Anne asked that she wanted to watch a movie like any normal person. During that time there was a theatre called ‘Chandra’ where people could sit on the sand and watch the movie (16 vayathinilae). My mother took her there and photos were taken. When they were back this conversation happened.

My Grandpa: Why you wanted to go to a normal theatre? So that you can show your people that India is still poor?

Anne: No, I want to show my people that India is the only country where a person can stay happy no matter how much he earns for his living. A person in India can live alone in a house, go for a movie, buy a chocolate and have good food. The brand, size & content may differ but everyone gets to have everything. But in my country a chocolate is always 20Rs. A person should work hard to taste it or should die without having it. My country makes people steal. But yours make your people happy. I wanted my mom to know this. That is why I took pictures.

And these incidents made my Grandpa to respect knowledge without education and to see the half full glass.