Tom, Dick and Harry Author: Dr. K. S. Kang

 

Tom, Dick and Harry

Author: Dr. K. S. Kang

It is a tale of state of orphanages and its three inmates – Tom, Dick and Harry, who entered it almost together and of same age when they lost their parents in sudden accidents. Their childhood was spent almost together till Tom and Dick were adopted by couples and went to live with their foster parents. Government had devised scheme of adoption of children by interested and childless couples in a bid to solve the problem of Homeless Children. Government even paid some amount to such couples who adopted the children till they were of 18 years of age. Not only orphans but even the children who were victims of broken families were also its beneficiaries.

To begin the tale, Tom entered the orphanage at the age of four years after he lost his parents in an air crash while going to attend some meeting of the firm in which both of them were working. Tom was left alone in the care of governess who after the demise of his parents handed him over to social welfare authorities who brought him to this orphanage- Home for Homeless. He managed to survive on the bare minimum food and other facilities provided by the orphanage. When Tom was six years old he was put along with other children of the orphanage for adoption and he was lucky that an elderly kind couple Mrs Diana Waltz and Mr. Peter Waltz, who had no children and a very thriving and prosperous business. Tom’s life changed at once as the kind couple took care of food, education, clothing and of his other needs quite well. They integrated him into their family like the member of their own family and Tom also responded quite well cultivating affection and regard for his foster parents and considered them just like his own real parents. After passing away of Mr. Peter Waltz, Tom inherited his property but he did not forget Mrs. Diana Waltz and continued to keep her with him looking after her needs in her old age treating her just like his mother and lived a peaceful and contented life with his spouse and two kids, and of course including his mother.

Dick was not so fortunate as Tom in getting kind foster parents. Though he was also adopted at almost the same time when Tom found his foster parents but his foster parents – Mr John Trapeze and Mrs Celina Trapeze were not as kind as Waltz. Their source of income was meagre and they were hardly able to meet both the ends meet. They had adopted Dick so as to get the subsidy amount from the administration so as to augment their income so that they can lead their lives comfortably. Though they were giving food, clothing and shelter to Dick but they were spending minimum possible amount on him and they did not even care much for his education. So Dick’s life was not much different from the life that he lead in the orphanages surviving on minimum of meals and other facilities. As per legal provision Mrs and Mr. Trapeze stopped getting subsidy amount the moment Dick was of eighteen years of age. So very next day they left him to his own resources. As Dick was not much educated so he could not develop any skill that could help him to earn his livelihood. After wandering for many days in search of some job that he could not get due to lack of any skill joined a gang of petty criminals who committed crimes like pickpocketing and shoplifting as he was disparate to survive in this world. Every day he would not succeed in his campaigns, sometimes he even had to stay in prison for a few days, and sometimes taking advantage of lenient laws he used to get off with penal fines only. Dick’s life was a classical example of misuse of the funds provided by the establishment to the childless couple to look after orphans and homeless children. How people in their greed were spoiling lives of young people even after getting the money in for keeping them in their house.

Harry was even less fortunate that Tom and Dick. Despite being paraded before couples a number of times nobody was ready to adopt him. So he had no option but to continue living in orphanage surviving on bare minimum supplies provided by the establishment. He was heavily dependent on the leftovers of food and clothing donated by the charitable people of the town. Even at the school he did not enjoy any social status like other children as he had no parents or support of anybody. He often became the target of rebuke, scorn and sarcastic remarks by other children.

Gradually he was alienated from the mainstream and did not like company of any body and led a solitary life that built anger and frustration against the society for the unjust treatment that he faced for none of his fault. Still ignoring these things he tried to concentrate on his studies and games in the school. One day his pent up anger and frustration burst up like a volcano when Captain of his school baseball team thrashed him as he held Harry responsible for the match loss of the team. Whereas the reality was that the tactical and strategic lapses of the Captain were primarily responsible for the loss of the team but so as to save his face he wanted to shift the blame of loss to Harry. Now this was too much as it was a boiling point for him. He immediately took out compass from his geometry box and stabbed Captain of the team repeatedly. Captain was taken at once to a nearby hospital but he succumbed to his injuries. Harry was put behind the bars of a prison called as Child Reform House, as at the time of crime Harry was not a full adult so he was put in the jail for juvenile delinquents instead of in the regular prison for criminals. After serving his sentence Harry came out of the prison and as he was moving towards the building of his school, he heard the teacher’s voice telling the learners “ I was simmering, simmering, simmering Emerson brought me to boil” Harry looked at the shining board of the school thinking for what crime the society has treated him unjustly and unfairly.