Thank you.

Most of the visually handicapped graduates , I read to ,have been appointed as teachers . Hence their attendance at the association premises has thinned down considerably . And my services are not in as much demand as it was earlier .

How ever a few months back I did get a call from a visually challenged young man , just out his teens ,asking me to read, rather brusquely.

He is thin , a little bent and partially blind.I regularly read to him .I learnt that he belonged to the scheduled caste. He hails from a urban and educated background but with poor means. Whilst each and every VI persons who sought my help ,rural or urban had thanked me politely at the end of each session , he never did.

During all the reading cum teaching sessions I could detect an under current of antagonism.I couldn't peg it. There was a barrier between us and the atmosphere permeating through was ,hostile.This was disturbing , in one to one inter action . After a while it dawned upon me that may be,it was my caste status which was bothering him.

He is aintelligent young man ,has a good grasp of the subject , his English is good and is up to date in current affairs and has a sound knowledge in history. His knowledge surpasses many of those poor VI persons I have read and taught to so far.
But the intangible ,yet obvious sense of discomfort persisted and I decided to take matters in hand.
I asked him during a pause , in a break we often take from reading the dry sections to discuss cases relating to them
"Do you resent me because I am a Brahmin"?
He blurted out "Yes "! And then started hiccuping.

I told him that I was really ashamed of the shabby treatment meted out by my ancestors to his .At once his hiccups stopped and he intervened saying
'' M'am , Brahmin's were only adhering to the existing social rules, that the entire society was following. You are not alone". And continued much to my relief ''this abhorrent practise was in full steam only before the times of Raja RammohanRoy [ a good 250 years earlier] and has gradually waned there after."

None the less I had to say what I wanted to ,that which was rankling within me all these years and had to unload it ,for my own relief and said '"I am truly sorry".
Hoping to administer some salvo of sort to his searing, age old wounds I said' 'The sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons. My sons , nieces , nephews and several others were under severe strain and reeled under intolerable pressures , during exams as they have to secure an impossible 99% to get admission in medical colleges or 95% to get a free seat in engineering colleges,due to reservations[which is a atrocious 69 %, for BC's,OBC's,MBC'S etc in TN,over and above the fair percentage constitutionally mandated for the scheduled castes and tribes ] and the stiff, nerve wrecking competition for those few seats amongst the FC's.

And added " kindly do not harbor any more hatred and resentments in your heart . You have been given a chance of good life by our constitution and law makers.Make good use of it."

As I took leave , for the first time in all these months he said " Thank you M'am ".