196. Chronicles Of Ajoy Ron. P S Remesh Chandran Story

196

Chronicles Of Ajoy Ron. Story

P. S. Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image 01 By Joel Filipe. Graphics: Adobe SP.

PART ONE 

An explosion wiping away an institution, an employee, and a whole lot of rare and essential medical supplies.

It all began with an explosion in the employees’ state insurance dispensary at Aashraamam, Quilon which institution was then a part of the state health services department of Kerala before being bifurcated into two, as Employees' State Insurance and Health Services Department. An employee of the institution was resealing the hospital spirit bottles which he had unsealed earlier to pilfer a few mille litres of surgical spirit from each bottle, adding to his collection of liquor, which he usually drank a little and sold in bulk to others outside. In fact, this institution was functioning as a liquor shop too where there was only the retailing, and no distilling. Suddenly there was a blast caused from the flame of the burner acting furiously on some vapour escaping from one bottle which was not resealed properly. It was a huge and fatal blast that the whole hospital building collapsed and no bodily traces of the perpetrator could be seen left anywhere. The department lost a building, an employee, and a whole lot of rare and essential medical supplies. 

The perpetrator’s family was sanctioned pension and his widow was given government employment.

The widow of this employee approached the doctor in charge of the institution requesting pension in lieu of her late husband and employment assistance for her. In those times, the government of Kerala had not introduced the scheme for employment assistance under dying-in-harness. In spite of a crime been committed, the doctor out of sympathy for the dead employee recommended for both- the pension for the family of the deceased employee and the employment assistance to the widow. It was the first case of such appointments in Kerala and the widow was posted as a cook- the only job she knew- in the health services department. In the newly introduced scheme, it was stipulated that the pension and the employment assistance will be taken away once the widow was remarried. However she remarried another cook in the same department and somehow managed to retain her job as well as her late husband’s pension. It can happen in the State of Kerala and nowhere else. She was very handsome, so it was said.

Article Title Image 02 By The Digital Artist. Graphics: Adobe SP.

The second husband dies mysteriously and there was a second pension for the bereaved widow.

The new husband one day, while standing on the road in front of their house, was hit by a car which came back fast reversing, resulting in his instant death. It was a hit and run case in which the car could not be identified. Some said it was not an accident but revenge on some past deeds. Anyway, our lady was blessed with an additional pension thanks to the caring authorities in the department. She had her monthly salaries from her job in the department besides. This too can happen in Kerala, but only in Kerala. Her son by her first husband, our character Ajoy Ron, was growing up along with her second son by her second husband. Ron, though the lesser devoted in his studies of the two, was actively interested in youth affairs and in forming rowdy retinues of his own. The Indian communist party sent him as a delegate to Russia to participate in a training programme for the young men of world countries, organized by Comsomol, the youth organization there. After returning from Russia, the rejuvenated Ron claimed that his mother was not looking after him well, that he was left at the mercy of his relatives, had no way for living and was in poverty and hunger, and that she had cunningly snatched away the job of his deceased father which was rightfully his. He also moved the elected communist government of Kerala to appoint him in the health department in a suitable post on compassionate grounds. 

If we look to the very tip of our nose and try to see beyond, we will know we cannot see beyond.

The unscrupulous officers who always give out crumbs to lesser people to save the cream for their sons and daughters promptly took care to appoint him as a scribe in his deceased father’s department on compassionate grounds. It not at all concerned them how many times the job of a deceased person was secured by his family relatives and descendants. It should here be noted that all these things happened in Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala, under the very nose and eyes of the government’s highest administration. If we look to the very tip of our nose and try to see beyond, we will know for the first time that we cannot see what is happening right under our nose. The nose obstructs our view. So theoretically speaking, a government which supposedly sees everything can not see what is happening right under their very noses. But that is not the case with the ordinary people.

Article Title Image 03 By Mystic Art Design. Graphics: Adobe SP.

The natives sensed how well the rules of government were bent and there was an avalanche of complaints.

The residents of Ron’s part of the city knew well that his father died while indulging in a criminal offence that caused the collapse of a government institution and which incurred heavy losses to government, warranting immediate arrest and dismissal and prosecution and imprisonment. But here the culprit succumbed to death during his criminal act and the people were quite willing to pardon the widow for securing a job in place of her dead husband, assuming that she was in no way involved in the blast. But the son when he attained maturity again claiming and easily securing that very job of his father, and the ruling political party, that too a communist party, yielding to unnatural pressure to look beyond this unlawful act, was beyond any view of leniency adopted by the ordinary citizens in the locale. So there was an avalanche of protests and written complaints made to the government by the natives. 

This order was the first of its kind in Kerala and once precedence is established, there is no limit to the number of persons who seek the protection of that order.

The matter was taken to the chief minister of the state. Ron submitted before the government that his securing the job of his father even after his mother had been given the job was an act which originated out of his ignorance in government, was an act of his ignorant childhood, and so may please be excused by the government. The government instead of dismissing and prosecuting him excused him and kindly allowed him to continue in the employment. The government magnificently and kindly excused him on behalf of the Governor of Kerala. This order was the first of its kind in Kerala and we know that once precedence is established, there is no limit to the number of persons who will seek the protection of that order. 

So this was only the beginning and if it is so how will his entire service in the government stretching some Thirty six years in future be? The legal implications of the incidents in this case will the least affect the conscience of the people in government unless it is a poor man like you or I involved. Someday we will meet again to read another chapter from his chronicle.

 
Article Title Image 04 By Thomas Budach. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Written in: 2000
First published on: 27 March 2020  

Tags:

Chronicles Of Ajoy Ron, Dying-In-Harness, Free Student Notes, Government Stories From India, Kerala Life Society People, Pilfering In Hospitals, P S Remesh Chandran, Short Stories, Surgical Explosions,

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:

00. Author Profile Of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/psremeshchandra.trivandrum
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You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bloombooks/videos
Blog: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/
Site: https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/
E-Mail: bloombookstvm@gmail.com

Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.

030. Father’s Help. R K Narayan Story. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

030.

Father’s Help. R K Narayan Story. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

  
First published: 11th Jul 2011
 

Children are very reluctant to go school due to various reasons, especially on Monday mornings. They will find many excellent reasons for not going to school, which are not new to us as we all had taken out the same excuses in our childhood days to evade going to school. But it is good to be very sympathetic and considerate to them in their little problems which to them are big. Who knows whether they would be having big genuine problems in school or not? 

A tale from the banks of the imaginary Sarayoo River.

R. K. Narayan is a famous novelist and short-story writer from India. Many of his stories are pictured to be happening in the Malgudi District in South India which never existed. These stories became famous as the Malgudi Stories. Malgudi is an imaginary district situated on the banks of the imaginary Sarayoo River. It is widely believed that this Sarayoo River made its appearance on this earth from the heaven and in the middle of forgotten ages decided to disappear below ground. The scientists and explorers did try to prove the once-existence of this mythical river. R.K.Narayan’s Malgudi District stories are in this respect identical to Thomas Hardy's Wessex County novels. Narayan's style is simple, lucid and humorous. Narayan's father's name was Krishnaswami Iyer of Rasipuram in Tamil Nadu, who was a provincial school headmaster. His brother R.K.Laxman also is a renowned cartoonist.

Would anyone enter the mind of children going to school unwillingly after protestation? 

Dream of a nation, future of a generation.

The South Indian boy Swami is reluctant to go to school on Mondays as boys everywhere are which a universal phenomenon is. He told his mother that he cannot go to school that day because he had a headache, which also is universal. Going in a Jutka (cart) will only make things worse. Moreover, he had no important lessons for that day. He convinced his mother who was very easy to be convinced as mothers everywhere are, but his father was a very stubborn person. He lied to his father that Samuel teacher would beat him mercilessly if he went to class late and that it was very late to go to school already. The teacher was a very violent man who would cut him to pieces with a cane and twist his ears. He also told his father a few false stories about Samuel teacher's cruelty to children. His father became such furious that he wrote a very lengthy letter to the Headmaster which would bring Samuel teacher's sure punishment and eventual dismissal from service. Thus Swami was forced to attend school that day with this letter. 

One day is enough for a boy to provoke a teacher into doing some horrible crimes against him. 

The Cuba School Bus.

On his way to school Swami had many thoughts. Samuel teacher was not a very bad teacher. Of course he beat boys, but he was not totally unkind as the other teachers. Swami could not find any fault with that man that would make his dismissal from service deserving. By the time he reached the school gates, he had resolved to hand over the letter to the Headmaster not in the morning, but only in the evening. Within that time, he was sure he could do something most mischievous to provoke the teacher to do some horrible crime against him that would make his punishment justifiable.

The astonished student found that the teacher has developed tolerance and gentleness overnight. 

Educational authorities fly in imported cars. From India.

Samuel teacher taught Arithmetic in Swami's class in the morning and History in the evening. In the Arithmetic class he was not punished for coming late or for not doing his homework. He was not minded but just ignored. His headache was readily accepted as an excuse. To his astonishment, the teacher seemed to have developed tolerance and gentleness overnight. He waited for the History class in the evening to come. In the History class he tried in many crazy ways to provoke the teacher to beat him. He asked many wayward questions, shouted several times in the class and answered questions that were asked to others. Finally he succeeded in obtaining eight hot cane cuts on his palm. Thus, when the evening bell rang, with satisfaction and without feeling any guilt, he went to the Headmaster's room to deliver the letter from his father. Alas, the Headmaster was on leave for a week and the Assistant Headmaster Samuel teacher was in-charge of the Headmaster. He did not dare deliver the letter to the man. When he returned home his father called him a coward, and tore the letter to pieces. 

Had there been no problems in school, would the child be unwilling to go to school? 

Going to school by Tuk Tuk.

This story was written by R.K.Narayan in the beginning of the Twentieth century, based on the experiences of a child in Indian circumstances. The times have changed and the perspective has now become universal. Academic syllabuses and the modes of students' travel to schools have changed much. But what did not change was our attitude to children's problems. Had there been no problems in school, and had the school atmosphere been very interesting and stimulating to children with their friends and play opportunities, would a child be unwilling to go to school? There of course are genuine reasons for a child to be refusing to go to school.

Sadism and masochism now prevalent and dominant in the teaching world. 

Protective shield of her elder sister.

Pestering and persecuting teachers are the prime reason for the child trying to keep away from school. Sadists and masochists are now in plenty among the teachers. Professional quality of teachers has also dwindled. Ethics in profession and pedagogical values are never kept. Trade unionism consumed and ate into excellence. Corruption is the face mark of educational administration. Governments shamelessly accept money from bargaining private managements and license opening and running of schools as they like including medical schools. Politicians and legislators are no more ashamed at the guilt of getting in the middle of auctioning of school permits. In India, if we give bribe to educational authorities and the private school managements, any low class graduate can become a teacher. Even talented teachers have to secure their jobs through bribery. This dissatisfaction and hatred they feel in securing their jobs are extended towards children in the form of intolerance, leading ultimately to unrest in schools. The child has nothing at all to do in this except bear the brunt of things.

Educators around the world have become one of the obstacles to education. 

Laughter often fades when they reach school.

Another factor that make children loath going to school is their backpacks. It weighs often up to 20-25 kilos. When we ask children why it is so, they answer that everything has to be taken to school each day, if not the teacher will beat them, put them out of class or send them away from school. We will wonder whether drug companies manufacturing medicines for back pains and back bone deformities are bribing the world educational authorities to continue this practice and keep back from bringing about humanitarian legislation. Why can't the world legislate and limit their daily burden to below 5 kilos, including water bottles and food? When one of the world renowned teachers, writers, philosophers and former Presidents of India Dr.S.Radhakrishnan said "we are faced with the paradoxical fact that educators have become one of the obstacles to education," it was very true. The morning face of a child going to school is the most beautiful thing in this world to see. That radiance there is the guarantee that human beings are taken care of in the Universe. Will it continue to be so in the coming years?

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Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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Dear Reader,
If you cannot access all pages of P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, kindly access them via this link provided here:
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Tags

Behaviour Of Children In Schools, Boys In School, Novelists, P S Remesh Chandran, Reintroductions, Reluctance Of Children To Go To School, Sahyadri Books Bloom Books Trivandrum, Short Stories, Short Story Writers, Stories, Writers, Writers From India
 

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book. 

 

025. Good Manners. J C Hill Essay. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

025.

Good Manners. J C Hill Essay. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

 
First published: 4th Jul 2011.  
 

We are staying on this planet only for a very short time. Before it is a hundred years, our times are out. We will never see those who we live with again in our lives. Perhaps we will never see a human face again. This is our only chance to see, acquaint with and deal with human beings. So why not behave politely, and please them and help them? A famous British writer's observations are reintroduced here. 

Are you a Boy-Scout? No, I am an egg on toast. 

A young boy scout of 1914. Australia.

The famous writer J.C.Hill has written a few things on the various factors constituting what good manners are. Men are fragile things come to live in this dangerous world. We are unimportant humble little human beings who shall not pass this way again. During our short stay here, we should help the world as much as we can. A child would not be knowing about the sufferings of his parents, which they would not be willing to tell him. So children should make life easy for them. Good manners come from sympathy with others and from understanding our own limitations. We should strain and train ourselves to remain calm before irritating questions. Once when an old lady, seeing his dress, asked a little boy whether he was a Boy Scout, he was irritated and rudely barked that he was 'two eggs on toast'. She only meant how nice he looked in a nice uniform and there was really nothing silly in her remark. This is considered improper behaviour towards older people. 

Good listeners get enough time to think so that when they speak, they can speak clearly. 

Listeners to Orpheus: Nymphs by the stream.

Suppose an old man is crossing a young racing cyclist very slowly. The speeding cyclist would be annoyed and irritated at this unexpected obstacle and barricade on his way. Do not scold him for being that slow. He may be weak and losing his agility. A healthy young man who never cared for others once became seriously ill and when he recovered, he was very weak and had to remain so for a few days. Even walking became very difficult for him. It was then that he realized the misery of weak and old people who get no seats in transport buses. He will get back his strength someday but those old people will never get back their's. So from then onwards he promptly gave up seats for the weak and aged in buses. While in company, we should be very careful in observing good manners. We should speak clearly and sufficiently loud for others to hear us. It is our duty to make ourselves understood. And do not talk too much. Always give others a chance to speak.

Delighted to hear one's own voice resounded from everywhere. 

Eve listening to Voice for the first time.

Some people are delighted to hear their own voice resounded from everywhere and always, and some young men and young women talk away their lives, thinking the company is delighted to hear them, but every one there would really be exhausted and angry at their unpolished and rude behaviour. Good listeners get enough time to think. Don't say unpleasant things about some one on his back. Such remarks will usually find its way to that person. Always adjust your remarks, thinking that the very person would be overhearing you.

It takes two to speak the truth-one to speak and another to hear. 

Slacken our paces when passing the infirm.

Many often, what we speak will not be the truth. We shall not hold it that what we speak is truth. The acclaimed American writer Thoreau once said that 'it takes two to speak the truth- one to speak and another to hear.' Truth differs from person to person. Socialism might be control of commerce and industry to some, but it is robbing the riches of others to some others. What we think to be true needn't always be true. J.C.Hill sites an example. Some students were once shown a picture of a bull-fight and asked later to describe it from memory. One said, a bull's tongue was out. Actually the bull's mouth was closed, but because its head was turned to the side, its ear had looked like a tongue. So whenever we argue with somebody about a point, think that always there is always a chance of us going wrong.

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Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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Dear Reader,
If you cannot access all pages of P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, kindly access them via this link provided here: 
https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/wiki-nut-articles 


Tags

British Writers, English Literature, Good Manners, J C Hill, P S Remesh Chandran, Sahyadri Books And Bloom Books Trivandrum, Short Stories
Comments 

PSRemeshChandra
4th Jul 2011 (#)

When I am walking a way, sometimes I would see old men, women and sick people on the way who strain to walk. I know how they would feel when somebody passes them from the back in full health, vigour of strength and agility of body, for I am a quick walker. So I slacken my steps in whatever hurry and urgent need may I be, so that they may think they are not the only persons who have lost strength. It is our duty not to make them offended, hurt and pining in hearts for their lost health. 

Steve Kinsman
5th Jul 2011 (#)

Very nice article. Thank you.

PSRemeshChandra
5th Jul 2011 (#)

Thank you Steve Kinsman for reading it. I have gone through and very much enjoyed your works. I am trying to improve myself to stand in level.

  

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book. 

024. Spring Time. O Henry Story. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

024.

Spring Time. O Henry Story. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Image By Kirsten Ivatts0. Graphics: Adobe SP

First published: 6th Jun 2011.  

 

O. Henry’s stories are famous for the twist towards their end. William Sydney Porter was the real person behind this name. He wrote more than Two hundred short stories, almost all of them equally famous. His stories are noted for the great sympathy they show towards human life. Here in this story he is describing how the happiness of spring is returning to Sarah’s life after the cold of a winter. 

Typewritten menus for a restaurant in exchange for three meals a day.

The O. Henry family in 1890s.

Sarah made her living through type writing. In the cold winter times, food was a problem. She made an agreement with the Schulenburg (Shoolenberg) Restaurant near her home. According to the agreement she would type the bill of fares for their twenty one tables each day and they had to provide her with three meals a day. When spring finally arrived it had no character of a spring. The snow of January still lay there in the streets even though it was March. And spring was already delayed a little in that American City of Manhattan. When spring arrived, there were changes in the menu of the restaurant. Soups became lighter, meat dishes changed and fried foods altogether vanished. 

Life in distant farms in the countryside can be as calm, quiet and peaceful as a gently flowing river.

Typing away dreams.

While Sarah was typing the bill of fares for the restaurant, her mind flew back to the country side she visited during the last summer. Life in distant farms in the country side can be as calm, quiet and peaceful as a gently flowing river. After the tediousness and monotony of life in a city, the life in the country side seemed to her appealing and pleasant. She had there fallen in love with a young farmer by the name of Walter. He was a very clever and modern farmer who had a telephone in his cow-house. He could even calculate cleverly the effect of Canadian wheat crops on the American prices of commodities.

Heaven sent Dandelions to show how pleased and delighted the ethereal realms were with earth.
 

Distant farms can be as quiet as a flowing river.

Sarah and Walter loved each other and he had decorated her hair with dandelion leaves and flowers as an expression of his love. She had left those flowers there for his caring and walked back home happily. We living in cities great and small can assume how much she might have wished to stay forever in those glens, vales and coves. How much will not an insecure girl wish for a safe and secure life under the protection of a loving husband! Her wishes were granted. They had agreed to get married in spring but he has not yet arrived in her town. She is awaiting him and she wept on her type writer.

No human beings are left alone. Teardrops of a loner are wiped away by invisible hands. 

Two dandelion friends catching the Sun.

In the evening the waiter from the restaurant brought Sarah’s food and the next day’s menu. While typing, a dish item in the menu caught her attention. It was ‘Dandelion with Eggs.’ Dandelions are not only a food but a symbol of love also. While typing, the very word Dandelion made her remember her long awaited lover and weep again. In her grief and tears a strange thing happened. One tear drop fell on the type written menu and one word was mistyped.

It is an invisible God that leads the way and walks a few miles with us.

The last Typewriter Factory closed in 2011 in India.

The next day, Walter from the country side arrived Sarah’s town, Manhattan searching for her. She had moved from her old address and the letter she sent him from the new address unfortunately had not reached him. Therefore he was not in a position to know about her whereabouts. He by chance stepped into the Schulenburg Restaurant and was given a menu of that day’s dishes. But what a bill of fare! There was the all distinguishable mark of a tear drop on it. ‘Dearest Walter with Eggs’ typed in place of 'Dandelion with Eggs'. And there was the tell tale characteristic of his lover- the capital ‘W’ typed above the line! The instant he sighted this strange bill of fare, Walter knew who the typist who created this laughable thing was. Without waiting, obtaining her address from the restaurant, he rushed to her house.

Image By Kirsten Ivatts0. Graphics: Adobe SP

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Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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Tags

American Literature, American Writers, Appreciations, English Literature, English Short Stories, English Short Story Writers, O Henry, P S Remesh Chandran, Reviews, Sahyadri Books And Bloom Books Trivandrum, Short Stories, Spring Time, Stories, Studies, William Sydney Porter

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book.