My Hand in the Till

In these days when everybody is hood winking everybody else and fleecing the gullible and making do away with the loot, to wit, Nirav at the Diamond level and Kothari at the Rotomac Pen (of all things!) level, I wondered whether I also had any hand in this popular great Indian sport at some level. After all this sport covers an incredibly wide spectrum! And I do belong to the creed, if not the caste. I might have figured somewhere at the pen level at least, I thought. I sieved through my memories of three score and ten years of my life to come up with something worthwhile. If nothing came, my life would have been a waste! Lo and behold! I did have a part. Once as an accomplice and then as a tutor! Great!
After Nov 1967, I was preening about in Madras (she was beautifully called that then) with strong shoulders broad enough to support the world, like Atlas, since I had just cleared the SSB to join Army, after a well fought and won battle with Graduation the same year. (There is another reason for me to gloat in glee and in solid pride at that time, but that is another story). Walking around in the main streets of the then great city with a couple of friends was a pleasurable and educative pastime.
I knew Anna Nagar, very well then. It was a forest of thorn trees, ‘mullukadu’, full of ‘velikathan’, which I think is ‘keekar’ tree or something like that. Since this is not a botanical endeavour, I need not expose my ignorance further. Suffice to say that Anna Nagar did not exist but that whole area was full of thorny bushes/small trees. Oh, I have been through those bushes so many times, since this was adjacent to where we were staying.
In Jan 1968 the first International Trade Fair in India was to take place in Madras and it was to be in this area. The trees got cleared and a whole lot of beautiful pavilions came up. The pavilions were quite artistically done, representative of each State’s/Country’s culture and symbolism. There were also small stalls, of course.
Some of us, since we where whiling away time after the ‘completion’ of education by way of obtaining a graduate degree, thought it is a good idea if we could get a job in one of the pavilions/stalls as sales boys and applied  wherever we felt. None of us got any except that fellow Karunakaran. When I got no calls for interview or anything of that sort, I felt funny. Here is me whom the Army found worthwhile to make an Officer no less, but these goddamned stall guys? I was so pissed off that I did not get an opportunity for a little pocket money. To hell with them, I thought.
Well, Balakrishnan, Devadas, Ramadas, Unni, me and all, we friends, kept going, never minding the rejections, to this exhibition, with no money in our pockets whatsoever. Money was not the same commodity then, as one understands it now. It had a different connotation. A little bit was large enough. Tell you what? A four figure salary any one got, that made him the upper crust of society and normally by then you are middle aged! I do not think any 20 year old wet-behind-the-ears fellow getting anywhere near that.
Oh! I haven’t yet told you anything about my action for qualifying into today’s niche crowd? Sorry, in the next one, Okay? God promise, as girls then used to say.


Comments

  1. Unknown20 February 2018 at 02:57

    Eagerly waiting for the next instalment. Surely refreshing in a period when you get only alarming stuff to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Col Rajendran20 February 2018 at 08:12

      Thanks a lot Ramachandrettan. Feels nice when you put it that way! Sure, I intend posting regularly. Life was getting to be a bore with, as you rightly said, alarming stuff. :)

      Delete
    2. Unknown12 May 2020 at 05:27

      Wow, thank you, amazing narration. Lest I forget after a long read, I am I n total agreement with you

      Delete
    3. Col Rajendran12 May 2020 at 06:56

      I am so sorry! I am not able to place you! Agreement with what? Hand in the till? :)

      Delete
  2. Tonifia miranda20 February 2018 at 05:40

    Relished your piece of work...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Col Rajendran20 February 2018 at 08:14

      Thanks so much, Tonifia. With nothing meaningful happening around............well, I hope to post more. Be around! :)

      Delete
  3. Tonifia miranda20 February 2018 at 05:41

    Relished your piece of work....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Antony Vincent Amalaraj20 February 2018 at 07:03

    Excellent piece of work

    ReplyDelete
  5. ontherocks20 February 2018 at 07:49

    Colonel, your musing is quite amusing��.Get going... loved it..

    ReplyDelete
  6. ontherocks20 February 2018 at 17:52

    Colonel,y your musings are very amusing👌 keep going,loved it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Col Rajendran20 February 2018 at 20:49

      Thanks a million! With your encouraging words, I will try.

      Delete
  7. Unknown21 February 2018 at 00:04

    Good beginning, keep going,😀

    ReplyDelete

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