The other day, i went to the banana selling pushcart and asked the old man as to why doesn’t he have the cheetiyale mouse ... He looked at me in wonder and said... “ Kahan saap , aap jaise purane logaan bahut kamm hain... Assal mein inn logon ko kahan maloom ye sab”. ( In Jest, it means that, people do not know the value of that breed of banana which tastes good and they mistake them to be in the state of getting rotten.. That triggered off some nostalgia in me .. These push carts were a big part of me and my age groups cultural context. The way they would make their presence felt on the streets , in a kind of musical note for selling , attracted us ... The same was the case with the vegetable vendors on the push cart .. Women and children would spend quite a good time near them , talking , selecting etc and the exercise was a past time and also a regular group activity ... simple pleasures, bonding between people was a regular feature and there were several such situations in our child hood. I can’t forget the sounds and sights of tomato vendor and the way he used to sound musical about the price and tomato selling.. Honestly for me, they were the heroes as they simply exuded confidence.. Since the society was a majority middle class, even they would never feel threatened and always felt part of the group.. The bargains were not bitter and they were also like a tease.
The constables, the bus drivers, the bus conductors were our role models.. They are the professions and occupations which was visible to us and owing to their body language, we all felt that they were most happening.. Our games and play time would significantly involve playing those characters. I still remember playing Bus game for hours together. There would be a competition as to who should be a conductor and a driver. My sister would always feel that the driver is most powerful as he would decide as to where the bus stops. Likewise we would play train train , teacher teacher and many common life dramas. We would interestingly weave our own stories. Playing a doctor was fun without even apron but with some stick for stethoscope. Sometimes i would doze off acting as a patient and it was fun fighting after that.
Life was simple and so was our life style and perceptions.. Happiness and joy was all around. All we ever sought was simple time and space. We knew no cribbing, no complaints and no disappointments. Simple games, movie once a month, an ordinary park at central bank koti, occasional trip to Public gardens ( with food packed along with water) .. The only money spent was for commuting in the bus.. Hence there was no pressure of wanting money for anything..
And yes we would enjoy cheetiyale mouse once a week ... Good down the memory lane ... thanks to that comment of the push cart gentleman... Feel like saying kahan gaye woh din ... iss shaher ka . fond memories of growing up in a simple manner .
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