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In a small town in the north of Kerala where there was no electricity, lived a school teacher with his wife and nine children. He adopted another two children to make a happy family of eleven kids. Life was disciplined for this World War veteran.
Every day in the morning, he made sure that his children worked in the fields before leaving for school and did the same in the evening. He felt children needed to have the feel of the soil as they grow.

But one day, the principal of the school where his children studied called this teacher and his wife. One of the child had lagged behind in studies and the principal was determined that he will not make through the 10th standard examination. So he wanted the child to repeat the class with his juniors. The principal concluded by adding this sentence, "This is the dumbest child." But this child managed to file the SSLC examination forms, and to everyone's dismay, he passed the exam with 42%. That must have been the joyous moment in the teacher's life.

However, this dumb boy was not as happy as others with the results. He went by the river-side, paced blankly for a long time, and asked a question to himself, "Why am I born? What is the difference between me and the dogs in the street?" Instantaneously, the answer came out from within, "I am born to change the world." Well, that is exactly what he did in his next years of life. Now the principal's dumbest boy grew to be a young man with dreams to achieve big in life. He had just one thought to add to his dreams, "I am going to be a topper." As decided, he became a topper in all the three papers of the Indian Administrative Service Examination in 1977-78. This dumb child is none other than the bureaucrat-turned-politician, Mr. Alphons Kannanthanam.

As a collector, when he was posted in Delhi as an officer in BDA, he took a very risky and strange decision which no other officer would have ever dared to do. He ordered the demolition of all the illegal structures in Delhi. This included the 200,000 sq. ft. building of a politician, Mr. H. K. L. Bhagat, and 14,310 mansions of many other big shots. All the demolition work was over within 36 hours. The next day newspapers carried the headlines - 'The Demolition Man Comes to Delhi'.

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* Contributed by -
Sunny Abraham Devasia is currently pursuing PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management) at DC School of Management & Technology at Traivandrum, Kerala.
Article posted on April 11, 2009.