“Once there was a King. Every morning, when he would take a morning walk, he used to notice a happy and contented gardener, humming a tune. The king was wondering how this poor gardener could be so cheerful, when as a King, he could not be so. He had a palace, an empire, rich coffers and yet, he was depressed. So the king asked his Minister if he knew the secret behind the genuine joy of the gardener. The Minister said the gardener was happy as he had not joined the 99 Club?

“99 Club? What is that?”

“We are all members of the 99 Club, Your Majesty”, said the Minister. And, he advised the King to place a bag of 99 gold coins in front of the gardener’s hut that night and watch him the next morning. The King did it and discovered the very next morning that the gardener was gloomy, depressed and miserable. The King had no clue to this turn in the mood of the gardener. In fact, the gardener should have been happy, as he is richer by 99 gold coins.

His Majesty’s Minister cracked the secret. He said, the gardener naturally believed that some goodhearted philanthropist might have placed 100 gold coins and during the night someone must have stolen one coin. He was after the ‘missing’ coin. The gardener was unhappy ever since then.” This was narrated by Rotarian Sivakumar at a recent Rotary meet.

He also narrated an incident in the life of LaGuardia, who was the mayor of the New York City. ‘One night, when he turned up at a night court, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. LaGuardia sighed. He told the woman, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exception. Ten dollars.” As he pronounced the sentence, his hand reached his pocket for a ten dollar bill. “Here is the ten dollar fine, which I now remit. Further, I am fining everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread for a living!” He handed over $45 to the old woman.

Those days the Mayor had to double up as a Magistrate as well.

And, incidentally, one of the airports in New York is named after LaGuardia.

At a Book release function recently in Chennai, Nalli Kuppusami Chettiyar narrated an interesting incident in the life of the great vocalist Kancheepuram Naina Pillai, a legend in his lifetime. ‘Naina Pillai was fond of chewing betel leaves. While on his way to Karaikudi for a concert engagement, he alighted at Tiruchi, in order to take another train. At the waiting room, he started enjoying his usual betel chew. Applying lime on a leaf of betel, he was humming a tune and got lost in the melody. By then, Muthu Chettiar came running to inform him that the train was about to leave from the adjoining platform. Both of them rushed to catch the train, in vain.

After this incident, Pakkiri Pillai made it a point to add a postscript in his letters to Naina Pillai, “Please apply lime to the betel leaf after boarding the train."

I enjoyed reading the following lines from a poem penned by R G Rajaram, who retired as Station Manager, Madras Egmore Railway Station.

“Taj-no more a burial ground,

But a birthplace of true love.”

H Ramakrishnan