Mysore: On a mid-1940 evening, an eight-year-old boy playing on the wide New Sayyaji Rao Road stoned four to five lamp posts adorning the road. He felt himself lucky that his mischief of damaging the public property went completely unnoticed. Now, 76, and after having gone through the guilt trip for a major part of his life, he finally decided to end it, before walking into the sunset. N Rathna, a theatre personality and former director of the All India Speech and Hearing recently signed a cheque of Rs 2,500 and wrote an apology letter to Mysore City Corporation as an act of penance for the mischief he had committed more than 68 years ago.
In his letter titled ‘Regret for a Childish Act’, the author says that though he has contributed to the city in many ways during his life time, he always wanted to repent for his mischief. Rathna told Express that after the ‘penance’ he is feeling relieved. “My guilty conscience had only become intense, as the years went by. Whenever I used to pass through that road in Bannimantap I used to get nostalgic and my eyes used to become moist,” he said.
Rathna said that they were put up in a quarter behind the Deaf and Dumb School on Sayyaji Road where his father was the head master. “On the day I broke the glass lamp posts, there were none who noticed it. Though I escaped then, the guilt got etched in my conscience,” he said. He said that after thinking for years as to how he could punish himself for the damage, he finally decided to penalise himself.
“I met one of my engineer friends to assess the loss and decided to pay for it. The money I have paid may be more than the loss then. But it will not be more if inflation and self imposed penalty is taken into account.” Rathna signs off his letter to the Mysore City Corporation, by saying that he is ready to face any further punishment.
Mysore City Corporation Commissioner M R Ravi said that though there is no mention in the KMC Act that a fine can be collected for a mistake committed a long time ago, it was accepted to satisfy Dr Rathna’s soul. “His act is a lesson for the young generation,” the commissioner said.
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