Two types of parents

To parody the immortal Jane Austen's iconic novel's ironic first line, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that parents generally want their children to do better than themselves." But there are also a few who do not want their children to surpass them, probably due to a misplaced sense of parental egoism.

Chandrayya Gowda, of Kuvempu's famous novel, "Kanooru Heggadithi" was one such. At the beginning of the novel, his son & nephew come home for the holidays, during their college vacation. He forbids them from continuing their education, saying he wants them in the village, looking after his property. He even resents them being better dressed than himself. He himself was just literate enough to keep his accounts & sign his name.

In the present time, we have Sri.X, who in spite of having many degrees, has no interest in anything except property & money.  The degrees were also acquired only because they would help him in earning money rather than in any interest in the subject. He has no interest in literature, music, sport or cinema. As a matter of fact, he cannot understand sport even if watched on TV. He doesn't watch films or serials on TV either for the same reason. Earlier also there were such people, but they realised their shortcomings & ensured that their children developed other interests also. The unfortunate uniqueness of Sri.X is that he has also brought up his children to have no interests, & even takes pride in the fact that they take after him in being "frogs in the well" with no interests in the outside world!