It is best to let such books fall open at random, so I did -- and found this:
Humorous Definition of 'Tiller of the Soil'
On the 24th of September 1956, during the Debate in the Council on the Madras Cultivating Tenants Protection (Amendment) Bill, 1956, a humorous situation erupted when the Minister (The Hon. Thiru M. A. Manickavelu) tried to give a "layman's definition" as he himself put it, to the term 'tiller of the soil' by saying: "As I understand, a tiller of the soil is a person who, with a very scanty dress -- he has no coat, no turban and no umbrella in hand -- takes a plough and ploughs the land. There is sweat on his brow."
The following exchanges then took place:
"Sri A. M. Allapichai: Is it a crime to wear coat?
The Hon. Sri M. A. Manickavelu: No, not at all, even a long coat can be worn (referring to the Member's long coat). (Laughter) So, the tiller of the soil is the opposite of one who wears a coat and turban holding a walking stick or umbrella in hand and goes round his field, comes back home, takes coffee and chews pansupari.
Dr. V. K. John: Is he too old or too young?
Sri. A. M. Allapichai: Suppose he applied his mind? Application of mind also is physical labour.
The Hon. Sri M. A. Manickavelu: Yes, Sir. He must very much apply his mind because if he wants to take away the weeds, he should not pull out the crops in the process. Mind also plays its part."
8 comments:
Nancy,
I think this is hilarious.
Charu
Nancy, this is good. One wonders how many of the Indian legislators of today have such sense of humor.
The exchange is remarkable for its candour.
Lawyers and legislators can argue for days. And when they reach the end of it, it's a revealing situation. Once they almost decided that sugarcane is vegetable!
Thanx, Nancy. I enjoyed reading ur post.
Nanda
http://ramblingnanda.blogspot.com
http://remixoforchid.blogspot.com
funny
Hi,
I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be very good.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog ‘under the fire star’ took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;
BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!
This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)
Cheers,
did you read this piece by Mani Suri. It was too funny:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/magazine/16food-t-000.html?scp=1&sq=manil+suri+coq&st=nyt
This is very cool indeed! Thanks for sharing!
I am a first time visitor of your blog.
Great work.
About this article.
The whole article gives us wonderful insight.
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