Greed - A Short Story

 Greed

   "Money matters", said Balakrishnan. Balakrishnan was a farmer who lived in Pattali village. The village comprised of many castes, like tikku, pela, nima, saga etc. Among them tikku and pela were the dominant castes. The Tikkus liked the politics. Almost all the political posts were held by them. On the other hand, pelas were the business-class. They disliked politics as it involved corrupt practices. But in reality, they did not get opportunity to enter politics. The nimas and sagas were minority classes and were mainly involved in wage-works.

          Balakrishnan belonged to the saga caste, Tirumala belonged to nima, while Nata and Bati belonged to tikku and pela castes respectively. Bati was a businessman. He would run a large store-business. Having familiar with the business techniques from childhood, Bati knew how to make profit in business. His income grew day by day. But as his business grew so also his greed. 

     Whereas Nata was a political leader. He was elected from Pattali village in the election. After that, his wealth increased rapidly which caught the eyes of the villagers. They often spoke of Nata's corrupt practices. Bati openly criticized Nata. He used to say that politics was the worst thing on earth and only the rascals involved in it. For his outspoken nature Bati became popular in his neighbourhood. Villagers hailed him with great esteem while the despised Nata.

         Days passed. Bati became too rich and his greed became too high. He seldom got time to converse with the villagers. Then election-time came. There were rush in the party offices to select proper candidates. Nata fell into trouble as he belonged to tikku caste. Bati belonged to pela caste. So there was a rumour that Bati would contest in the election. But the people disbelieved that as they knew Bati's outspoken nature against political corruption. The villagers were confident that Bati would not contest as he disliked politics. 

       A few days later news became widespread that Bati would contest in the election. The villagers got astonished. They began to talk everywhere on Bati's nature. One day while he was at a tea shop, the people were talking that they still could not believe that man like Bati was contesting in the election, then Balakrishnan, a villager, said, "Money matters."

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