7.Peanuts, Lottery ticket and Toddy

  

After taking my   pregnant wife home during the summer holidays, I was shuttling   between my native place and Calicut in most of the week ends.  I used to travel by night train on Friday, reaching home by early morning on Saturday and returning by Sunday night by bus from Alapuzha. Not many long distance buses were available at that time. One popular bus was Cannanore  Deluxe  plying between Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur. This bus used to reach Alappuzha  by   930 PM and often I used to get a seat among the last few in the rear side. This would take me to Calicut by early morning, in time to go to the college. I used to reach Alappuzha KSRTC bus station by 830PM. While waiting for the bus, I used to observe a few interesting characters. Here are a few of them.

1.     One who lives on Toddy alone.

 Don’t be surprised, I am talking about a person who had made KSRTC bus station as his regular ‘working’ place. He was an elderly person with a long Tagore like beard, just one dhothi on his body, top less and was a beggar. Quietly he will come near you and politely ask for just Rs.2/ as alms.  Why Rs.2/? yes this was the cost of one bottle of toddy (beer like drink  from coconut  tree). Even if you don’t give him full Rs.2/ he won’t mind, whatever you give, he will accept and give you a thanking salute. But the moment his collection reaches the magical figure of Rs.2/ he will move quietly to the nearest toddy shop, get one bottle of toddy and will drink it without any ‘touching’s or accompaniments. He will return to the bus station and continue his ‘fund raising’ for the next bottle.  I made some enquiries about this guy and was told that he is a bit eccentric, harmless and drinks only toddy without any other food. My research showed that it is possible for a person to survive with toddy alone as it contains sufficient nourishment for an adult. (Kindly don’t conduct any experiment and blame me for the outcome).

2.     Gandhian pea nuts

Another regular visitor at the KSRTC station was a middle aged man wearing a Gandhi  cap and in khaki  half trousers. He had in his hand, not Charkha, but a basket containing fried pea nuts in small  paper  packets. Just 25 paisa only for each packet. He used to come only by 9PM, a gentleman to the core and occasionally he may be singing the marching song ‘kadam kadam badhaaye jaa’ of the Indian National Army of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who tried to liberate India by from the clutches of the British by joining hands with Japan and Germany in World War II. It seems this guy was a freedom fighter. He used to sell ‘pappad’ in day time and now peanuts after 9PM.

3.     Offended Lottery ticket selling boy

Another day, I met a boy hardly 14 years old, who was selling Kerala  Government lottery tickets. The slim little boy was after me requesting me to take a lottery ticket. He was repeatedly asking me: “Sir, please take a ticket I could not sell even one so far. Please  help”

When he was not leaving me, exasperated, I asked him: “How much will you get if you sell a ticket?”

He said frankly: “Sir, the ticket cost is Re.1/ The total commission is 20 paisa out of which the agent will take 10 paisa and he will give me 10 paisa”

I told him I am not in the habit of taking lottery tickets as I have no intention to become rich overnight. But opened my purse and gave Re.1/ from   my pocket and said : “ Take  this and assume I have  taken 10 tickets from you “.

Suddenly the boy turned around and returned the money angrily and said: “ I don’t want any alms like a beggar. My dad is ill and my mother goes for daily wages work. I am now in 9^th class and am trying to help them as much as I can by selling these lottery tickets. Till now I could not sell even a single ticket, so I approached you. Please take back your money”.

I was really taken aback. Here is a boy, though he is poor, keeping his head high and dignified in his work to help his poor parents.  I saluted him in my mind. Took back the money and bought 5 lottery tickets, first and last time in my life, just as a penance for insulting such a proud boy.

Later, I came to know from many universities abroad that our boys and girls studying abroad in USA or UK used to do some sundry jobs like baby sitting or dish washing in restaurants to make a few extra bucks to fill the gap between the remittance from their parents in India by collecting a few USD or GBP. They could easily collect 8 -10 dollars by working for a few hours in these places. Only in our country, boys and girls are reluctant to work part time and make a few extra bucks to help their parents. The dignity of labour is given least consideration here and we have to do a lot to improve our work culture. See what is happening in Kerala now, the youngsters are not ready to do whatever work available here where migrant labourers from other states do all our sundry jobs as they get a regular and steady income than they get in their native states. This is the tragedy of our times.