Episode 1: The Old Man
Total silence filled the Golden Jubilee Auditorium of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Bharathapuram. All students peered into the monitor broadcasting Doordarshan’s live news from Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi – the Padma Awards ceremony. The reporter highlighted the event’s stringent security, exquisite cuisine and elaborate decorations for diplomats, politicians, awardees and celebrities. In the awardees’ cabin, an elderly man, distinctly the oldest, sat with a shaved head, wrinkled skin, wearing a white dhoti and shirt, clutching a walking stick. His sombre expression deepened. As the ceremony progressed, seven awardees were honoured for their exceptional contributions to civil service, defence, sports, medicine, literature, art and social work. The speaker introduced the eighth awardee, prompting the elderly man to rise. The speaker’s eight-sentence tribute to the awardee echoed the old man’s eighty-year life journey.
(Continues)
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