‘It’s the way he cribs to whoever listens,’ said Roopa to Sandhya in consternation. ‘Either he makes you mad by narrating how he’s being ignored in spite of his merit, or bores you to death by enlightening how the reservations are ruining the nation.’

‘That only shows his frustration,’ said Sandhya.

‘That’s okay, but there must be a limit to one’s lament,’ said Roopa, and added as though on a second thought, ‘more so in matters like these.’

‘I can understand your feelings,’ they heard Raja Rao tell Sathyam. ‘But, I for one think that it’s a subject that needs to be viewed with a broader perspective.’

‘I’m sorry if I’ve given you the impression that I’m unsympathetic to them,’ Sathyam said in clarification. ‘No, that’s not the case. What I feel is, and let me tell you, it’s the general perception, that the government could support them by extending all help to pursue their education. But let the job market be truly open for competition.’

‘I don’t think that’s how we should approach this issue,’ said Raja Rao. ‘Let me explain by way of an example. Would any father leave his plain daughter remain a spinster because none comes forward to marry her? You know that he would search the earth to find her a match. If it comes to that, he would cough up the extra buck for dowry. If her better endowed sisters were to grouse for that concern, won’t he say that he owed it to her to see her married as well?’

Raja Rao then paused to see how Sathyam reacted, and finding no bad blood, he said,

‘In case a son doesn’t shine as well as his siblings, would the father bask in the glory of his glorious sons, leaving the sluggard to his fate? Won’t he support him all through while bequeathing a little more in the end. If his other sons were to cry foul, the father’s soul might as well wonder in the heaven, ‘Why do these guys, enjoying the fortunes of a bright birth, envy the props I provided for their poor brother?’

‘It’s a peculiar feature of human nature that we love to see those close to us climb up the staircase of success, but, behind us,’ continued Raja Rao even as Roopa brought some coffee for him and milk for Sathyam. ‘If they happen to catch up with us, needing to share the space with them, we feel choked, and were they to overtake us, we feel morose, though they might remain friendly. It is because, used as we were to condescend to descend in our affections, we lose countenance, not counting our jealousy, that they too might seem patronizing from the altered stations.’




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