Small but Big

Some things will be very small in our life but will leave a lasting impression and keep coming in front of our eyes as memories. It can be anything, a place, a moment with friends, a person, an encounter with a known or unknown person, an embarrassing situation, an accidental event. As I said earlier it can be anything. Some faces will keep coming in front of your eyes when u think of a situation, some words ring a bell in your ears when you think of a conversation. This will happen for years. I don’t know what we call these phenomena. I would like to register some of my own experiences.
Ajji Angadi : Believe me, this shop didn’t have any board and was of a very small size. May be 5X10 feet in size which was partitioned into 2 compartments. Front end was the shop and the back portion is where the granny used to live. I am not sure how old that granny was but from my UKG / 1st standard up till my college days, she used to look the same as if she had stopped growing. The shop was at a mere 100 yards away from my school and was buzzing during breaks with pupils. She used to sell limited items may be because of the budget constraints or size of the shop. Our favorites were lemon peppermint (in Kannda, nimbe huli), ginger mint( Shunti peppermint) and small biscuits. Peppermint will cost you 5 paise each and 5 biscuits for 10 paise. I am talking about 1983 / 84. What more can you ask for. Perfectly suites our bill. Carry 25 paise and fill your pocket. Granny was a totally unfriendly business woman. Always had paan in her mouth, no smile and don’t care attitude. I heard that she passed away, recently. I have not seen her at least for a decade now but I keep remembering my visit to this shop. The irony is, may be throughout my life I would have at max done 250 Rs of business with her. I really appreciate her for leading such an independent and simple life.
My primary school : To be called as Sri Vani Vidya Mandira, situated very much in a lower middle class and middle class area in Mysore. Govt aided, only Kannada medium and was only till 7th std. It was running in 3 different locations in which 2 were in rented premises. As I know, my parents selected this school only on one merit, that It was hardly 500 yards from our house. In fact, my two sisters and a brother also studied in the same school. Each standard had two sections, A and B with a max strength of 30 pupils in each section. Most of the students used to be from the same locality, all of them would get to school on foot, accompanied by his / her brother / sister who also used to study in the same school. No autos, no jatakas. Only two or three students used to come by bicycle. Except one or two, even the teachers used to come by walk. It was so local. I still remember paying 6 Rs fees / month of my 7th Standard. Used to have one Physical Training ( PT) session for a week and eagerly wait for it. Monday to Friday we would sing one prayer and on Saturday a different one. White shirt and blue ‘nikkar’ was the outfit and whites on the Saturday. There was and is a shop called “ Jain Appealrs” who sell only uniforms which is the place where we used to buy from. I bet pupils from Vidyaranyapuram and Chamundi Puram used to buy only from this shop. As far as I know, during my 7th standard my tie would cost 5 Rs and 3 rs for the badge. I always hated to go to school and my uncle Mr Govinda Rao used to drop me every day. The only reason I agreed to go with him was ‘cause he used to get me cream biscuit on the way from a cycle shop. Till today I don’t know why that cycle shop guy used to sell Cream biscuits !!!
Take Away : Small is not really small !!!