Chapter 6: chapter 6

When the Beaches Had Flour, Not SandA very, very long time ago, a village in the southernmost part of India was the most peaceful place on the land. It was blessed with abundance—water, fruits and greenery. And the beaches on the village coast didn’t have sand. In those days, beaches didn’t have sand on their coasts. They had wheat flour!Life was good for the gentle, peace-loving villagers. Every day, they just had to wake up, step out of their homes, go over to the fruit-laden trees and pluck what they wanted, walk to the beach, collect some flour, and return home to make piping hot rotis. No family went hungry, and everyone had a warm, cosy home. And since nature had blessed them with its bounty, no one had to go to an office to earn money or even go to school. This was God’s way of rewarding the villagers for being honest, generous and kind.The villagers were also thoughtful. They would take only what they needed for the day and leave the rest for their neighbours. And they’d always share their own pick of fruits and flour with each other, so there was never any rivalry or conflict. But, as you probably know, good times don’t last forever.In this village was one man who was not like the others—Murugappa. He was selfish and lazy. He only thought of himself and no one else. Whenever Murugappa’s wife Sundari told him to step out and get some flour from the beach, he would not go before grumbling about it for a long time. He was too lazy to carry back a bagful of flour, so he would only bring half a bag. There was never enough flour for his kids and wife. When he felt particularly lazy, he would delegate this task to some unsuspecting friend or neighbour, and they would have to bring home his share of flour. Sometimes he would forget to get flour at all, and his family would have to go hungry.One day, Sundari had had enough of Murugappa and scolded him harshly. ‘Stop being so lazy! Go to the beach and get flour for our dinner. Make sure you get enough for all of us. Take an extra bag, just in case. Else I will make you go back to the beach and do it all over again.’Murugappa picked up the bags and left, muttering under his breath. At the beach, he began filling his bag, checking the weight now and again to see if it was too heavy, when an idea struck him.‘Why don’t I fill both bags to the brim and take them home? This way I will have enough for two meals, and I won’t have to come back tomorrow. Sundari will also be happy and won’t nag me. I can rest all day tomorrow,’ he said to himself.He brought home two bags and a pail full of flour, much to his wife’s happiness, and declared, ‘Sundari, I have brought enough flour for two days. Don’t nag me to go to the beach tomorrow.’The next day, Murugappa wore a big smile on his face as he watched his friends and neighbours go to the beach to get their share of flour. He was already scheming how to take a larger container next time so that he would have enough flour to last them a week. That way he wouldn’t have to go out for ages!The next evening, he filled four buckets at the beach and dragged them home with the help of his son. Then he rested all week long. This became a habit.Soon he was hoarding huge amounts of flour in his home. Murugappa’s friends also started wondering why he never came to the beach anymore and how his family could feed themselves without flour. So, the neighbours started keeping a watch on his comings and goings. One evening, they spotted him lugging four buckets of flour back home.The neighbours decided they would also begin hoarding the flour from the beach. After a few weeks, the other villagers discovered that there was far less flour on the beach. Worried that they wouldn’t get enough for their daily food, they also started going to the beach early in the morning and lugging flour back.Some days, the flour would be over by noon. And the villagers were hoarding so much flour that a lot went to waste. That was the last straw. When God realised her generosity was being misused, she became very angry. She couldn’t believe how lazy and selfish humans could be. She immediately decided to punish the villagers for their cunning.With one flick of her fingers, she replaced all the flour on the beach with gritty sand. This sand was white and powdery, like flour but dry, rough and tasteless. When the villagers next went to stock their flour for the month, they realised that it was all over.When they all prayed to God to give them back the flour on the beach, God replied, ‘I am afraid there will be no more flour on the beach. Go and plant some seeds and grow your own food. Work hard to feed yourselves. There will be no more food for lazy, undeserving people.’And that is how, because of the selfishness of Murugappa and his neighbours, people were forced into earning their own living to feed themselves.