Years before, or I think I should say decades before, ours
was a rich family. In those ancient days when the feudalism was still
prevailing, our family had vast agricultural lands and many people used to work
on those lands. No doubt, our ancestors might have made good money on those
days when the law of the land was the words of feudal lords. They might have
enjoyed the life too very much as they were the undisputed kings of the region.
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| Feudalism in India |
As the time passed, the generations became lazy and started
living on the wealth accumulated by the ancestors. They neglected agriculture
which was the main source of income for the family. The lands that left
uncultivated turned venues for their unholy practices. With the power they
still possessed they could make the life of common man miserable. They forgot
the truth that they cannot multiply the money without putting a bit of hard
work. Slowly they got exhausted with the stock of money.
The long gap from the work took its toll as they forgot how
to cultivate. However they have not worried much about it as they got somebody
to do the work for them. They leased out the land to those who worked hard on their
farms and produced gold out of it. At the same time our ancestors were quite
happy with the lease amount they receive regularly. They spent the whole day on
the easy chair placed in the courtyard and nights in the huts of hapless
slaves. They got acquainted with a new lifestyle which earned them money
without much hard work.
As the time passed, several social reforms occurred and the
agricultural lands have gone to who cultivate there in real. Family lost acres
of land in the land reforms bill introduced by the newly appointed communist government
and thus lost the income from those lands. Nobody knows to work as all of them
spend the life on easy chairs. There
were many valuable jewelry and utensils in our house which all have been
amassed by our ancestors. One by one start going out of the house for a price.
Thus the old days have returned for quite some time. But there is a limit. As we
got exhausted with valuable articles, the same repression period returned.
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| Traditional Utensils of Kerala |
However, there was an easy solution for all problems if you
are lazy. Solution has been found immediately and the same was to sell pieces
of lands that still rest with us. Time and tide did not wait here too. The money
raised from selling lands too got exhausted. Everybody was thinking hard about
the next step to take. There is nothing more to sell other than the house where
we stay. Nobody is still ready to go out and work hard to earn some money for
the family. We need some easy solution. We all spent days together in
discussing various strategies and ideas.
During that period one of my uncles had a dream that there
is a huge amount of treasure hidden in our compound. The god who came in his
dreams clearly told him that the treasure is located beneath a mango tree that
was in the south west corner of the compound. We did not have time to lose. We
all started digging work on the very next day. The first day has gone on
cutting down the mango tree. The very next day we have started digging. After
three or four day’s continuous work, the pickaxe touched on a metal surface. We
all became more enthusiastic. Now we are very near to a good fortune. At last
we found the treasure and now the remaining task is to remove the soil around
it and to take it out. Our shovels worked fast in removing soil. By early
morning next day we succeeded in bringing the treasure box outside the pit.
It was a huge and heavy wooden box locked with three locks,
but no keys were seen in the vicinity. We did not have patience to wait so we
broke open the box. To our utter shock, there was no treasure inside that, but
there was a walking stick. Just beneath the walking stick there was a bunch of palm
leaves. Such leaves were used in the ancient days to write scriptures.
“Yes, here it is. The exact way to treasure will be
mentioned in that leaves.” Shouted my eldest uncle, who was the head of the
family. He took both the leaves bunch and the walking stick in his hands and
started looking at the bunch of leaves closely. AS it was fully covered with
dust, nothing was visible. He wiped the leaves with his hand kerchief and then
started staring. There was something written on that, but he could not read it
fully as it was not clear. He rubbed a wet cloth on the leaf surface to remove
the remaining dust too. That was a successful effort and this time the written
scripture was very clear.
My eldest uncle read it out loudly.
“When the head of the family has to dig for the treasure
accumulated by his ancestors, he is eligible for this walking stick. This is
the right time to show him the way out, because if he continues here, the house
itself will become somebody else’s.”
As soon as he finished reading, somebody handed over the
walking stick to him. He had nothing more to say. Even without saying god bye,
he started walking out of the compound. And we all heaved a euphoric sigh of
relief.
And India was going for poll on that day.
