Schlemiel

By Veeraswamy Krishnaraj
June 7/2016
Here is a story told to illustrate a Tamil proverb about an Indian counterpart
of Yiddish Shlemil.
Schlemiel: an awkward and unlucky person for whom things never turn out
right. Yiddish shlemil
viiy-mci: ( in Tamil) Unlucky person; one who never sees the end
of ones troubles.
Thindi was a prosperous town, where the people held jobs in all walks of life.
The adjacent villages were agricultural country, producing paddy, peanuts,
fruits, and vegetables... There was also a thriving fair, where goods and
animals were bought and sold. There was no homelessness. Beggars were
scarce. Unemployment was less than 3 percent. There were schools, colleges
and technical institutes. No one went hungry.
There were temples, mosques, churches People celebrated religious
festivals regularly and attended each others festivals irrespective of
religious affiliation.
Such a town had one soul named Kuberan. He stopped with elementary
school education, while his siblings went on to colleges. The family had thin
means and could not support Kuberan. He wore his dhoti (long loincloth) so
long the white became brown. He shed the dhoti because it tore every which
way it can from overuse.
There was a weekly fair in town. He wore a strip of cloth covering his
genitals, buttocks and the loin. It looked like a tight-fitting flimsy itty bitty
tiny weeny loin cloth commonly called Ilaktu ( = la- ga =
= Strip of cloth fitted to the loin). He went from shop to shop in the bazaar
asking for a job. After about ten stops, a donkey trader felt pity on him, gave
him the shirt off his back and asked him to tend to the donkeys. His job was
to walk the donkeys up and down the fairgrounds, when a prospective buyer
checked the health of the animal. He did well walking the first donkey with
the rope around its neck. All donkeys had their hind legs tied at the ankle so
they did not take off. Kuberan untied the legs of a robust donkey with his
face below its tail. The tail whipped his chest and the hind legs in unison
delivered a hard blow on his chin. Down went Kuberan with his face buried in
the slush with donkey dung. How could that be possible? He did not fall on
his back, as expected. The kick was so strong his body and face turned a full
180 before they hit the mire. He was instructed beforehand to untie the

legs from the front and to the side of the animal. He simply forgot the
instructions.
His borrowed shirt tore off and was stained with dung and mud. Some good
souls walking by tore off his shirt to look at the wound on the chest. There
was a big bruise. Kuberan clutched his jaws in pain. The ambulance came
and took him to the hospital. The doctors x-rayed his jaw and found a
fracture of the lower jaw. The doctors applied pins, aligned the lower jaw and
wired the pieces in place. He ate liquid diet through a straw. The hospital
staff removed and threw away his loincloth. He sported hospital uniforms.
That was the day he wore clean clothes.
It took three months before Kuberan felt fit enough to look for a job. He was
back in the fairgrounds. This time, he was not going near any animals.
He was wearing a Kmaam (), which was skimpier than the Ilaktu.
Again a good soul came to the rescue. A peanut farmer was selling peanuts
by bales. He had large bowls containing peanuts for the prospective buyers
to sample the peanuts before they bought it for retailing roasted peanuts in
their shops. Things were going well for a few hours.

Suddenly a large troop of monkeys about a dozen in number came, attacked

Kuberan, ate the shelled peanuts, filled their cheek pouches and took off. The
bowls were empty and the dirt floor with spilt nuts was picked clean. Luckily
this time, he was not injured.

Both times, Kuberan was not paid for his work. Kuberan was afraid to ask for
his wages, since under his watch things did not go well and the merchants
either did not make any money, lost clients or sustained a loss.
This was the basis for this Tamil Proverb.
98. , .
Though the unlucky seek work, he will not find it, and even if he gets work he
will get no pay for it. Translation by Rev. Herman Jensen
viiy-mci.

Schlemiel. Unlucky person; one who never sees the

end of ones troubles.

=

kli = wages, pay. Commonly kli means a daily wage earner and not a
salaried employee. Coolie is derived from the Tamil word = kli and refers
to an unskilled laborer. Krishnaraj