Page 77 - #letter to son

#SangamNiti DUSK DIARIES
I asked if his business had been exceptional that day. He laughed and
said he was happy because he was going to a marriage for a few days.
He had not gone out for a long time and the trip for him was what city-
dwellers always yearn for – a short retreat from the mundane everyday
routine.

However, after a few days when I was going around that area, I saw him
in his shop and he was clearly in a sour mood. He had not gone for the
marriage and I asked him why. He said his family had disallowed him.
Shocked, I asked why. He told me something that, as I now see it, was a
turning point in my life. He said if he would have gone he would have
had to shut his shop for a few days and his family detested this idea.
A shut shop was an ominous sign, they said, a taboo. A shuttered gate
would mean loss of customers who could never be won back. It was a
sign that the man was incapable of running the business. It was as if loss
of face for the whole family.

Walking back home that day, I pictured a shuttered shop in my mind.
I imagined the snide comments of passersby. I imagined my friend
on a leash and thought that it is such a strong symbol of enslavement.
And I couldn’t stand that. A shuttered shop shattered my concept of
freedom. And I always wanted to remain a free soul. So the casualty
of this episode was that my visits to my father’s establishment trickled
down to a drop, even as I turned my full attention to studies. I saw this
as my ticket to emancipation. Education was empowerment, I thought.

After a struggle of eight long years, when I was finally awarded my
Chartered Accountancy degree, I was the first CA in my village. A
village always cherishes individual achievements and considers the
success as a part of their own. Soon, the other high point was when I’d
got the opportunity to go to London while working at the home décor
enterprise. The news was so big for my village that I made it to the local
newspapers that day!

Over the years, I’ve always held the philosophy that education is a hedge
against enslavement. It is true insurance to a future of meaning and
consequence. However today, the concept of insurance has been

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