The Paddy Boy

He was the only son to be proud to help in the crop fields with his mother. She always had faith in him saying everyone that he was very hardworking and most intelligent in cultivation. His best part was that he never disobeyed Amma and would follow word to word. Thus Amma gave him a nickname “Kannan” while his school name was Purushottamam. Kannan’s father had his own world and nobody could intrude into his space, even nobody was allowed to interrupt in his privacy or lifestyle, so all the responsibilities after mother were paid by Kannan only. Thus Kannan would find himself as the eldest member of the family and behave like that.  

It was the time of Paddy crop and greenery was spreading all over the field crops. Peasants of Tamilnadu were busy with their fields taking care of crops from insects and other harmful creatures. One day the young boy Kannan received an order from mother to go crop fields and clean the area by weeding to let the crop grow healthy.

 Before moving to the fields with Kannan let us come to know some facts about him- Kannan wanted to carry his studies with cultivation and interested in Chemical engineering. Whenever he had time he will do some new experiments like the mixing of Neem oil, phenyl, waste material edible oil, or other available liquids and will explain proudly to the people who would yell on him for wasting the things. He would explain his experiments by organizing small lectures among the young lads within Choupal or during visits to the crop fields or while taking palm fruits or coconut from the trees. Many of the times he forgot even his routine work due to his long lectures and got a good scolding’s by his parents. Still,] he loved giving lectures to others as he would get a chance.

So the day Kannan was busy in weeding paddy fields and enjoying the song sung by him, basically used by the local folks. An old man came and asked, “Kannan what are you doing in this field”? Kannan wished that Granduncle and Replied “Don’t you see Thatha, I am obeying My Amma’, as she told me to weed the paddy crop and there are so many benefits of the keeping field clean. That’s Okay but why you are weeding this paddy field only, asked the old thatha sitting on the divider vestige made and maintained between two crop fields to show the separation. Kannan replied, “Thatha just sit quietly and I will explain all the benefits of weeding especially.”

Hard-working Kannan was making duel efforts! One was related to cleaning of the paddy plants while another to describe the benefits of weeding paddy e.g. weeding soften the mud and let the plants grow healthy and healthy plants produce more rice etc. He also described how he will use good chemicals mixing with manure after experiments to grow better paddy and also remove all the waste without hard efforts. The Old man was listening patiently sitting in his place.

After long hours when Kannan finished his work and was busy tying the bunch of grass weeded out from the paddy field, the old man came and thanked Kannan saying he was such a nice and hard-working guy. He blessed Kannan saying never saw such a nice and kind person.

Kannan was surprised that why he was praised by the old man even why the old man accompanied him for such a long time? He could have cleaned his own field in the meantime? Kannan asked simply why the old man was praising him a lot because he was doing his routine work only. The old man replied “Kind one! You cleaned my paddy field working hard and without any rest and didn’t get angry even I was just sitting and watching rather than helping you”. Kannan was astonished fell from the sky and looked at the old man and weeded paddy crop with bulging eyes. Surprisingly his mouth was open. Old Thatha took the tied bunch of grass and went off suggesting to him that he should focus on his career instead of giving lectures related to other subjects. Speechless Kannan was jammed looking his own field still awaited for weeding. Nodding his head took the way for home thinking what he will reply to Amma?