People want to earn without working

Professor Sudhakar finished his lecture on electrodynamics and Maxwell’s theory to a post graduate class and returned to the faculty club. On the way he was thinking about a question he dealt with while lecturing. To him, physics is a passion since childhood. ”Physics is my first love”, he often said to his students. He retired from his regular service four years ago and now teaches for no remuneration. Once, his son even asked him to write to the Vice Chancellor requesting for an honorarium. Sudhakar told him that he was anyway paid a pension by the government, so in someways he was being paid for what he did. As an emeritus professor he drew a lot of respect from the faculty and students.

As he entered the club hall, he was pleasantly surprised to see his old friend Ramayya and his wife waiting. Prof. Sudhakar and Ramyya were classmates at school. Ramayya was a brilliant student and always stood first in the examinations. He went to IIT-Madras for his engineering. Later, he served the Indian Railways for over 30 years. He retired as the General Manager. His family and friends judged him as a very successful man, friends often said that he had an illustrious career.

Ramayya was conscious of his success, he often narrated how in his railway bungalows, he had several servants attending on him and one of them was exclusively for putting his shoes on. Studying engineering is highly cherished amongst the middle class in India and going to an IIT is even a greater achievement. Ramayya himself told his grandson once, “Do hard work and get into an IIT, and for the rest  world around will work hard for you”. Sudhakar studied physics at a local college and started as a school teacher. After completing his Ph.D., he got an opportunity to become a professor in the university.Dr.Sudhakar always liked teaching advanced courses to postgraduate students than school children.

Sudhakar greeted his friend and ordered for tea. Ramayya said that he was going home from the railway office where he went to get his pension dues corrected. In his characteristic style he said, “these days there is no respect for retired officers, do you know how these petty clerks deal with officers?”. He narrated an instance where he made sure that a clerk in the accounts department was reprimanded for being disrespectful. He said,” I told that person, people like you changed my shoes and served tea when I was in service”. He felt furious that his pension was not raised adequately by the government in the last pay revision. He lamented that the railways withdrew the perk of free travel in a special coach also.

After finishing tea Rammayya offered to drive Sudhakar home. On the way, Mrs. Ramayya told Sudhakar how her husband used to fight for his promotions, training-trips abroad and perks. Often he used to argue that people who were less qualified  got equal benefits at work. "My husband is from an IIT but they chose some Mr.Murty, an engineer from an ordinary college to the board", she lamented.

They stopped at a road-side temple. Mrs. Ramayya submitted some flowers and prasad . A young lad peeped into the car window and asked for some alms. Sudhakar pushed a few coins into the seeking hand. The lad gave a clumsy look at Ramayya and disappeared. Ramayya said to his friend “I don’t like this, one should not encourage these guys. People want to earn without working .. these days”.