OLD IS GOLD

OLD IS GOLD

I was travelling by train from Mumbai to Palakkad in an Onam Festival special train.  I was not physically well and had no reservation for that journey.  I was in a hurry to reach my native place which is at Vadakkencherry in Palakkad District in Kerala State of India.   My friends managed to get me a place in the upper birth of the compartment.  I climbed my way to the birth and started dreaming about my new career as Manager of a Co-operative Hospital which was very near to my house.

The train began to move and after sometime I woke up from my dream and heard somebody talking loudly.  I looked down and saw an old man in a shabby dress talking vigourously to a bunch of listeners and most of the listeners were young men.  The young people were trying to get in pace with him but they were not able to reach to that level.  The old man looked up and saw me and asked me to join them.  I said I am not well, but he compelled  me to get down and join them.  He advised me not to isolate myself from others which will only increase my bad physical condition.  The discussion was improving and I felt the old man’s advice was correct, since I  felt  better when I began to listen to them. 

The old man was an amazing perosnality and I began to feel  respect  for this man.  He told us that he had studied only upto the third standard in a school at his native place.  But his knowledge about the whole world and the people around him was quite extraordinery.  I was spellbound to note the way in which he carried the discussion.  Actually that was not a discussion but a lecture by this old man and he talked about everything under the earth.   One young  engineer tried to disarm the old man by talkng something about his low academic level.   Then the old man asked the engineer about something about which he was not able to answer.  Then the old man briefed him about the subject and the engineer asked him where from he got that answer.  The old man’s reply was this: “ I HAVE MADE USE OF MY EDUCATION  UPTO THIRD STARDARD AND YOU HAVE NOT”.  What he meant was that by his education he had learned how to read in his native language and he had made use of that to acquire knowledge.  But the engineer was proficient in his mother toungue as well English and Hindi but he didn't  make use of it properly.

Later on when I read the novel SORBA THE GREEK written by Nikos Kazanzakis,  I saw a trace of that old man in Sorba.  I would like to say that the old man was one of the enlighening factors of my personality.  He taught me that ignorance is not something to be ashamed of, but you should have the thirst for knowledge. 

Reading has become an old fashioned habit and we can see that many of the libraries throughout India are not functioning properly.  My native state is Kerala which has the highest literacy level among the Indian states.  In Kerala you can see a reading room & library in almost every nook and corner of the villages.  People were making use of these libraries very much and it was my habit to become a member of the local library, wherever I went and stayed for some period.  I had seen many young and old people coming to these libraries and making use use of this facility to aquire knowledge.   But now the present generation neglects the role of these libraries and almost all of them has an aversion for reading.  This is maily because they have everything at their fingertips in this e wrold.  But my advice to the young generation is to read as much as they can and try to know how much is the contribution of our ancestors to this modern world.