Moral of the Story

Date: 25-Sep-2008

I was loudly reading one of the stories written by Sudha Murthy to my seven year old son. The story goes like this,

"Sudha surprised to find a tribal boy named Hanumanthappa whose father earns less Rs. 40/- a day to have topped 8th in a state level examination and wanted to help him.  She had sent a letter to the boy asking him to come and meet her. She also sends some money to him so that he could visit her foundation wearing new clothes. The boy later shows at her office and after a little hesitation expresses his interests to join a nearby college and wanted Sudha to fund his education for approx Rs. 300/- a month. Sudha promptly sends him money for the next 6 months. To her surprise at the end of 6 months she recieves a cover with some currencies along with a letter. The boy had mentioned that he did not spend Rs. 600/- as for the last two months the college did not operate. Sudha was touched by this gesture and closes the story by saying that "honesty doesn't come from the rank, power or money but truly from the heart"

At the end of the story I'd asked my son whether he understood the storyline and asked him to tell the moral of the story. I was actually expecting him to talk about helping the poor and needy or on the aspect of simple expectations from the poor little boy and or about the honesty part.

My son looked through my eyes and said "Yes! I understood the story and in my understanding there where 5 letters exchanged between Sudha and Hanumanthappa"

Moral of the Story: "Though he behaves like an adult many times I've realized that my son is still a little boy"