Sunday, July 18, 2021

Developed, But Is It?

I wrote before briefly about my uncle's remote village in Tamil Nadu.  There was no electricity.  There was no phone.  You have to cross a river to go to the village. There is no bridge and therefore you have to walk through the water to go to other other side.

Here are some more details.

There is a special street where only rich people live.  How many houses in that street?  Just one.  My uncle's house.  One has to cross that street to go to the other streets where poor people lived.  The unwritten rule is bullock carts can go thru that street from 6 am to 6 pm.  And, that too the people who are sitting in that bullock cart should get down and walk until crossing that street.  After 6 pm and until 6 am next morning,   no bullock cart can go thru that street because our family is sleeping in the middle of the street on our cots.  (There were only 3 weather patterns there.  Hot. Hottest, Murder)

My uncle had few servants.  They were  not allowed to come inside the house.  They came thru the side doors to clean the house, clean the dishes, milk the cows, and take the cattle and cows for grazing.

This was long time ago.

Now that village has electricity, bridge over the river, so many phones, high rise apartments, and even a high school.

Couple of years ago I went to India and visited that village where I used to go every summer vacation.

Unfortunately, my uncle's wife (aunt) died.  She was sick and not having good health.

Two incidents I noticed.

The daughter of my uncle's servant who used to milk the cows is now a prominent doctor in the nearby town.  My cousins called her to come and check up my aunt.  She immediately came to our village in a driver driven car.  She was hesitant to come into the house.  My cousins insisted she come inside the house and check my aunt.  The doctor came inside.  She was hesitant to touch my aunt,  Finally, she took out a silk cloth, put it around my aunt's wrist and checked her pulse.  Same thing with stethoscope.

With tears in her eyes, she said my aunt's life is only a few hours away.  And, she left.  I have never seen a doctor gets emotional in any country in the world about a patient.  I have lived in 5 countries.  (Doctors never show any emotion.)

My aunt passed way.  The next day my cousins were arranging a funeral for her.  

The body was inside the house.  There came a fancy car.  Who comes out of that car?  A prominent lawyer who is also the "Leader of the Bar" in the nearby town.  A few of his juniors were also with him.  Who is he?  He is the son of the servant who took care of the cattle and cows for grazing.

He came to pay his last respect to my aunt.  My cousins asked him to come inside the house to pay his respects.  He refused and stayed outside the house with his juniors.

Finally, the body came out.  The lawyer fell on the floor in the street in front of the body. Got up with tears in his eyes, got into the car and left. 

Are we developed or not?  You tell me.

PS: My wife used to make fun about these villages all the time. That remote village was my mom's where there was only one house in the agraharam.  But my dad's village, which was 3 miles away, had 24 houses in the agraharam.   My wife used to tell everyone that compared to my mom's village, my dad's village is New York City.

11 comments:

  1. True story is really interesting. By any chance, is it Ganesh mama's (uncle) place? In my opinion, the village has developed, the next generation of the rich people' s mentality have developed, but the poor people's next generation, though highly educated, have not come out of their inferiority complex, some may say they show their respect but I think they have disgraced their profession. Slavery attitude should not be encouraged. Do you agree with me?

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    1. Thanks for your comments Gowri. Partially yes. You know I had 3 mamas. All 3 jointly owned the house and the village and the lands. But my eldest uncle managed everything by living in that village. Other 2 mamas lived and worked in Chennai.

      I would somewhat agree with you. These 2 professionals (a doctor and a lawyer) have seen first hand their parents worked in my uncle's home. So their memories are still there even after they become prominent citizens. I certainly will not call inferiority complex. I will also not call they disgraced their profession. I think they could not erase their childhood memories. Will their children (who have not witnessed their grand parents work in my uncle's home) do the same thing. They will not.

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  2. They have so much of childhood memories associated with that house and family. They could have easily break the shackle with a rebellious mnid but instead they decided to follow the old custom during the last moments of aunty. Is it a social fear or genuine respect?

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    1. Thanks for your comments Madhu. Many people in this world are blindly following the footsteps of their parents. A lot of people in USA are either Republican or Democrat because their parents voted for that party. You may be surprised to know that Hillary Clinton was a Republican (until she got married to Bill) because her father was a devout Republican.

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  3. Interesting to learn.
    True life incidents like this show the culture.
    Much development has happened in the past couple of years.

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    1. Thanks for your comments Anita. You are correct. Much development has happened in the past couple of years.

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  4. In one of my jobs, a new employee was calling my boss, 'Sir'. This is not uncommon even in the cities, but what was uncommon was, he was still doing the same thing in spite of my boss asking him to call him by his first name - repeatedly.

    Childhood influences are deep. When the doctor's/laywer's children grow up, they may not even be aware of such practices.

    Destination Infinity

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    1. Thanks for your comments Rajesh. You are right. Childhood influences are deep. Third generation kids will not even know that such practices existed during their grand-parents' time.

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  5. A very insightful anecdote. This is what I call social evolution. It's by no means perfect. The good comes with the bad, as if it's a package.

    Different people react to the same situation differently. Many factors influence that behaviour. In the social fabric, there are so many interlinking factors, and the multitude of variables makes it very difficult for us to come to a generalisation, unless we do some in-depth scientific research.

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    1. Thanks for your comments Pradeep. Fully agree with you.

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  6. Enjoyed as if it was a fiction.Had it been in Kerala, first of all, such a lawyer without inviting him will not turn up. If at all his visit takes place, his VIP-ship would well be obvious. Doctor may come just as a doctor only. One thing, your uncle's family might have extended his hand in the required walks of their lives.

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