The Leader

The Leadertc "The Leader"

He came home, like summer rain, at four in the morning with a newspaper in one hand and a chocolate packet in the other.
His son had got admission to medical college.  The mother switched on all the lights in the house.  The son got up and sat on the bed like a flower.  The mother ran her hands over his face, made a gesture of warding off evil eye and shed tears of joy.

The son’s admission to medical college had been the life’s aim for the parents.  Every day in the early morning at four the mother would call “Raja, Raja” in a sleepy voice.  He would continue to sleep. The father would call in a slightly menacing tone. “Get up!”.  The boy would get up.  The father would intentionally walk by his side.  As if frightened, the boy would go to the bathroom.

By the time he returned, the mother would be ready with steaming coffee.  When he sat down to read, she would put before him the list of the lessons he was to read that day.
The father would come after washing his face and ask the boy, “What should you study in chemistry today?”  Thereafter all the sounds in the house would remain muffled.  Whatever the boy’s younger sister did –writing, speaking to mother, insisting on something—she would be doing it with an eye on her brother at his studies.  Nothing should disturb him.

If some guests had come, the lights burning in the early morning would enthuse them.  They would start gossiping…. “I think it was the seventh of last month … Suddenly there was Gopal at our door.  When I asked him….”  The mother would come hurrying, shut the guest’s mouth and say politely but bluntly, “Hush, the boy is studying”. The boy would be running about constantly – physics tuition at six, maths at seven, botany in the evening at five….

During meals the father would say, “Give him this, give him that ….” The boy would be moved.  Thereafter when he was spoken to, he could respond only with the head bowed and gazing at something else, as if he would be overwhelmed if he looked directly at his father.  He studied only for the sake of his parents.  Their hearts suffered palpitation when he did nothing or took rest. Even when he slept, they thought it would be better if he slept reciting his lessons.

In the course of study he would get tired.  He would become listless, every atom of his body would seem to plead “No more, no more!” The father would see it on the boy’s face.  He would come with a packet in the evening – the packet containing a new pants – length and shirt piece.  The mother would prepare vadai for him.  The parents would sit with him and intentionally indulge in jovial talk. The father would crack jokes. That night the boy would look refreshed.  He would read with renewed vigour. 

The boy would tell them his test marks.  If he said, “99” the mother would enquire with concern, “Why, what happened?”  The worried father would demand to know from the mother, “Why do you send him on shopping errands?”  The atmosphere at home would be glum.  That day the boy would study a longer time.  He would go to bed only after repeated urging by the parents.  From that day on they would let him carry on with his studies in a morose mood.  They would feel very sorry if he reverted to his normal self.  They would think that perhaps the boy did not take their worry seriously.

The father would give him pocket money.  He would decline, saying he had no need for it. He made friends only with good boys. He had no bad habit and did not use bad language.  The mother would remark, “Our boy still remains a child.”  However much the parents worked hard at home and outside, the boy had all the facilities of the rich.  At the slightest indication that the boy wanted something, the father would get it for him, even though he had to sell off in the process something that should not have been sold.
Only a fortnight was left for the college admission. The mother said, “I am very much worried that he has to be left alone in the hostel so far away.  The hostel food has to suit him…”  The father reassured her, “He is not going to be alone. There will be so many boys. Rather he is more lonely here. We are only four people here, but the hostel would be full of bustle like a marriage hall.”

The question of purchasing new clothes, shoes etc for him was seriously discussed.  They chose ten more famous shops.  They did not like to go in for cheap stuff.  They selected suitcases each big enough to contain a man.  After returning home they unpacked all their purchases and feasted their eyes on them.  At night, after the boy had gone to bed, the mother said, “See, he never says ‘I want this, I want that!’ whatever we get is good for him. Through today he has been simpler than a child, almost like a baby”.  The father wiped her tears.

When the parents and the boy entered the medical college they saw whole families standing there in groups.  They deposited wads of currency notes at the counters and showed the original certificates.  The mother looked with pride at the senior students in white coats, with books in hand, walking with brisk steps.

At last they reached the hostel, located the allotted room and placed in it the suitcases, the bedding, the bucket and other things. The father introduced himself with enthusiasm to the boy’s room-mates and the inmates of the rooms nearby. But the boy’s face began to look listless shortly after he came to the college in the morning as if he had seen bad omens.

The mother said innocently, “The boy looks more unhappy than we.  How will he live away from us?” The father had other worries.  He thought that something about the college atmosphere was perhaps intimidating the boy who had all along lived a secluded life.  However he himself was happier than all others.  At sundown they left.  The sister cried loudly.  The boy patted her, They took a bus and returned home.  All that night the son appeared again and again in their dreams.

In his office the father expatiated on the vastness of the medical college, the hostel, the town, the fees he had to pay etc.  When he returned home in the evening, he thought that the house looked empty.  He had asked the boy to speak to him the next day over the office telephone, but there was no call till the evening.  When the worried father returned home, he was stunned to see the boy there.

The boy started sobbing as soon as he saw his father. The mother and sister too started crying simultaneously.  The father took the boy’s hands in his – an unusual thing to do – and himself felt like weeping.  He asked, “What is the matter?” The boy said between sobs, “I don’t want to study there.  I won’t go there, you go and bring my things.”

The father said, “We too suffer without you.  But you should study.”

The mother said, “No, that is not the problem.  The older students are giving trouble.  He says it is called ragging.”

“I too had heard about ragging” the boy said.  “But this is much worse.  I cannot describe it to you…” He continued sobbing.  Probably he had been weeping ever since he reached home. 

The father became upset at this setjust when he had thought that everything had turned out very well.

Some neighbours came in inquiring “Thambi had gone only the day before yesterday.  Why has he come ?”

Just a fortnight ago the father had felt as if he was riding an elephant and yearned to be looked at and admired.  Now he felt as if he had been dumped in a corner.

After a long time he got up and asked, “Have the lessons started?”  “No, they will start after two days” replied the boy.  “All right, I shall look into the matter. Don’t worry” the father said and stood up. He had made some decisions.

He went on his scooter somewhere and came with a large sum of borrowed money.  Going to the wretched boy sitting before the TV, he patted him on the and said, “Let us go to the college tomorrow, I shall go with you.”

The boy shrank at the mention of college.  The father said to him reassuringly, “Don’t be afraid.  I am going to stay with you for a week, a month or as long as you want, If necessary, I shall even sit beside you in the class.”  The mother got frightened.  She objected, “You may be making matters worse for the boy by going there and saying something in anger.”  The father got annoyed but retrained himself from retorting.

When the two got down from the bus and entered the college, The father noticed that many more teachers – boys and girls – had come with their parents, uncles and guardians who were loudly asserting that they were prepared to fight.  The father was overcome by grief when he saw one or two boys accompanied by their widowed mothers.  “How heartless are these senior boys!” he moaned.  But the senior students were moving about completely unconcerned, as if they did not care about the groups of people standing under the trees.  Looking at a few of them the freshers gripped the hands of their parents involuntarily and bit their lips.  The lips of some puny boys trembled. 

The father spoke to the other guardians.  He collected a few of those who looked well – informed and were less excited and discussed with them.  Then they went and met the Dean.  The Dean said, “Give me the names of the mischief-makers.  I will dismiss them.”  But the freshers were afraid to reveal the names.

The guardians met again under a tree.  The consensus was that it was not desirable to create bad blood at an educational institution.  The parents of girls were particularly afraid to spoil things by an aggressive reaction.  They seemed to imply that their fear was of a different category.  They formed a separate group and discussed among themselves.

The father collected a few guardians who agreed with his plan.  Five of them joined together and went out in the night hunting for a house.  One house-owner asked them to come the next morning.

They rented rooms for the night in a lodge.  The father went to that house-owner in the morning along with the other guardians.  It was a self-contained flat on the first floor with a big hall and two rooms.  The landlord’s reluctance to take in college students as tenants was overcome by the pathetic entreaties of the guardians.

They went to the hostel with adequate security precautions and brought the personal effects of the boys.  They fixed up a mess in the next street.

It was decided that the students would go to the college that day.  The parents marched in front, The students followed timidly.  They went to the class, while the parents waited under the trees with books and notebooks.  Some students came out running in a few minutes with pale faces and began to cry holding the hands of the parents.  The trembling girls leaned on their mothers and cried.  One parent went on shouting that martial law should come into force and everyone should be shot.

The boy also came out running and wept that he did not want to study medicine.  The father patted the boy’s and sent him again to the class.  He, along with the other parents, met the Dean and the professors and complained to them.

The same story was repeated the next few days. The students came running out of the classes and the parents persuaded them to go .  In the meantime the father met some of the senior students and tried to make friends with them.  Those days he conducted himself with the steady determination of an ancient sage performing solitary penance in a forest with a rock-like objective before him.

After about ten days the boy had gradually become normal. He said, “Now it is all right, appa, you may go.”  The father did not leave at once.  He stayed for two more days and then only left.

Then, twice a week or so, the father would come to the town by bus at dead of night and knock at the door of the boy’s residence.  The boy would say, “Nothing to worry about, appa.  There was a slight trouble yesterday, but it blew over.”  Sometimes the father would arrive in the early morning and rebuke the boys for not yet getting up to study.

After about two months the boys vacated their residence and went to the hostel-whether because things had by then become normal or because they were fed up with the fathers’ pestering.

When at the end of the year, the boy came to his village they all sat together and merrily talked of the past events, which appeared so ordinary in retrospect.

When the boy was studying in the second year, he wanted a bike.  The father did not demur. He took a loan and got a bike for the boy.  The boy would sometimes come riding all the 150 kilometers and startle the parents by suddenly blowing the horn at the door.

During the third year he had acquired a he-man look with thick moustaches.  He had grown taller than his father.  When he walked with a swagger, wearing an over-size shirt, the father avoided looking directly at him.

When he was in the fourth year the father got transferred to Trichy on promotion.  Leaving his family in the village he stayed in a rented room at Trichy and visited his home on week-ends.

One day as soon as he sat at his table the cashier came and distributed sweets. The cashier looked happy for the first time. His son had got medical admission. The father shook hands with him and congratulated him.

A few days later the cashier came with an unshaven face and looking like a mad man.  On being asked, he said, “Sir, my boy refuses to go to college.  Horrible ragging is going on there.  He has come .”

The father told him, “Don’t worry.  My son is studying in the same college in the fourth year.  I shall give a letter for him. You go with your son, meet my son and give him my letter.  Everything will be all right.”  He put his letter in an envelope and gave it to the cashier.

That was on a Friday.  The father went to his village and returned to office on Monday.  He waited in vain for the cashier to come and report to him.  Then he himself called for the cashier.  The cashier came looking distraught.

“Did you go to the college?”

“No, sir” said the cashier.  “My son saw the name of your son on the envelope and burst out weeping.  He says that your son is the ‘leader’ now.”

English translation by S. Krishnamoorthy (Original Tamil story)