Dress Code and the Wisdom dawned

Madurai is a very unique city for so many reasons, good or bad. The sands accumulated by the sides of every street are one of them. It comes from transportation of sand from river Vaigai to different sites of construction. When talking about construction we cannot ignore the children working in that industry. This story is about a boy, about 10 or 12 years old, who was working on a house construction near my house.

We were a group of cousins. All of us were under ten that time, playing in the sand. This boy was busy carrying the sand over his head to mix it in the cement mix. His dress was very ugly. We were making fun of his torn dirty dress and he was in turn shouting at us not to mix the raw sand with fine sand (sallicha mannu). He said not to make fun of his dress and he too had nice dress. He would wear that after he is done with his work. In the evening he came to our house and knocked the door. When we answered the door, he said, “ippo en dressa parunga” (Now look at my dress). We all laughed again, as the dress too was torn at places but was washed one and we all shouted “Post box” by pointing at those tearing on his trouser. He was about to cry and left without a word. I could not forget his face and the pain on it. I felt a lot for that boy and wanted to meet him again. For some reason he did not turn up next day.

That boy really believed that his dress was nice and with our ignorance we committed a sin by humiliating an honest laborer. I could not even convey the lessons I learnt from that incident. Very importantly, from that day on I started laughing at people who give lot of importance for their dress. To me, that boy’s dress was most beautiful dress till date.

Once I was playing cricket in the street as it is normal in our city. I was 14 then. There came two “adult children” driving “Tri-Cycle”. A Tri-Cycle is a very important transportation mode in Madurai to carry most of the things (like furniture, vehicle spare parts etc). I called them adult children because, though with in 12 – 15 years, our people would be wearing a “kaili”, smoking “beedis” and earning to fill their stomach. But what I saw were younger looking than 12 years. All of a sudden, one middle aged man came to them, slapped them (any person can slap them and after growing up they slap us so hard…origin of all crimes) and took their beedi off. He shouted “indha vayasila beediya? Naaigala” (“beedi at this age? You dogs!”). The boys asked him back “pasikudhilla, 15 kassuku 2 beedi kudicha naan vandi midhipen, nee soru vaangi tharuviya?” (“I am hungry, a couple of beedis for 15 paise would give me strength to pull my tri-cycle, and else would you buy me food?”). Their question, made me feel like crying. I could not find an answer to their question in 15 years. I felt like wisdom dawned then. But I don’t know how can I help them, but for sure I will pay them the respect they deserve and will not look down upon them.

“Dharidhra devo Bhava”

Poor people are god, because they provide you an opportunity to help them. Hinduism believes god comes to you as needy.