“Appa, I want to quit my job. It’s brain dead. There is nothing challenging or interesting. I want to quit and move to a small company where my job will be interesting and will help me get exposure and experience. I might be able to move to a better company after that.”
I just don’t understand. For the past twenty nine years of my life, I have slogged my bones out. My hair is all gray, my knees are weak and my skin is burnt out. Well, that is obviously bound to happen if one spends their life under the sun. Every season, even when I was sick, I have ploughed the fields myself. During planting and harvesting, I have never cared a damn about getting into the muck. Why? To save one labourer’s coolie! He earns in a single month what I manage to scrub through in six months. Greedy moneylenders, cheating procurers, stupid government officers… no, nothing! How much have we been through? When he was born, I did not have a single penny; the jewellery had to be pawned. Thankfully, we were better off when the second one arrived. But we still had to sell a bit of the land to pay for her operation. And he has company provided insurance! I just don’t understand.
This is nothing but madness, the folly of youth. If I don’t save him from his delusional ideas now, he himself will accuse me when he comes back to his senses.
“No. You are not quitting. This is what you will do – You will go to that air-conditioned office of yours, do whatever they ask you to do and get your salary at the end of every month. We will get you married in two years.”
Appa – father (typically Dravidian)
coolie – Usually refers to a labourer. In TN, it is also used to refer to wages; usually a day’s wage of a labourer
