In the flashback, unlike his father, Thomas was not good at math, but was a child prodigy in mechanical and electronic gadgetry. He made an AM radio receiver inside a soap case, at a time when phonographs were the fad of the time. Thomas's talent astonished others, whereas his father saw them as a waste of time. He always compared his son to the best student in the class – Balu, adding to his pressure. His father asked his language teacher Ravunni master to grade his paper so as to fail him, on the belief that only low grades will provoke him to study harder. When Thomas found this, he became outraged and ran away from the village, after stabbing Balu on the palm with a compass. Fourteen years later, he returned as a changed man, no longer a prodigy. His father still hate him and profess to love his sister more, who lived up to the expectations.