Gole Bazaar 1960s - Mice & Men

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It took me a good 25 years to step into the Bhandaris. They were the sole sales people of all things Godrej and Ambassador cars. When my wife gave me an ultimatum that her shadi-silk-saris were being nicely punctured here and there by mice, I decided to buy a steel almirah for her. And my wise friend N told me to buy a Godrej one even though it is twice as expensive as local makes. He was right, as always. So, when the fourth or so Pay Commission gave me some decent arrears, I decided to spend it all on a Godrej almirah fit for queens.

Professor & Mrs N walked us into the Bhandari's where, as always, I took a comfortable seat, and after an hour paid a whopping Rs 8,500. The thing was delivered at my Qrs the next day and it was a pleasure to operate it....doors close snugly, handle turns like a knife through butter, and, don't tell others...there is a Secret Locker. 25 years on, it is now in our bedroom in Hyderabad, as good as new...not a scratch anywhere.

I was so pleased with it that when my son started his singleton career in Hyderabad, the first gift I bought him was another and better Godrej almirah (with a standing ghost-proof mirror 5 feet tall, that is more than the 3 feet mandated by that geometrical optics problem). It is now used by Ishani...girl kids are so much more enlightened...after her mom dresses her up, she runs to that almirah and gives herself finishing touches to her make-up. This is the very almirah that finds mention in Bharavi's Atonement:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/07/bharavis-atonement.html

Anyway, I got to know after a few trips to Gole Bazaar in the 1960s that there isn't a single shop in that High Street owned by a Bengali. All names were like Pujara, Thackers, Agarwal, Maheswari, Parikh, Vora, Ahuja...

Yes, there was an Umbrella Shop selling the famous Paul Brothers at the other end of the High Street and a Bengali sweetmeats shop: Sweet India, a little away.

Paul Brothers was a monopoly for a long while.

Sweet India turned into New Sweet India...but of course it remained the same old Rosogolla.

Talking of Rosogollas, I recall the visit to KGP of my eldest IAS B-i-L in 1993. He was then a Principal Secretary in the Tamilnadu Government at Madras. He was resisting a visit to KGP for the simple reason that it is not connected by Air. One had to fly to Calcutta and then undertake a painful train journey. But I convinced him that the Qrs B-140 to which I shifted recently was about the most luxurious in the Campus in the sense that it had 22 windows and two cute balconies from which you could see the horizon...not easy in his posh Annanagar home at Madras. And that tempted him...

That brings me to my shift from C1-97 to B-140, a twisted tale...

I was living in C1-97 doggedly for twenty long years and watching it crumble. My wife was asking me to shift to a better place but I told her that, lazy as I am, I would make only one shift and then stay there till retirement. And after long recces I found that B-140 was the Best Qrs in the Campus...it was a climatological marvel of architecture...warm in winter when everyone else was shivering...and cool and breezy in summer...and idyllic in monsoon since you can watch fleeting clouds and gorgeous rainbows...and in the middle floor.

Prof KVR was staying there for seventeen odd years since it was built and we used to be frequent visitors there. So, I told my wife that I will accumulate such an impeccable seniority that none could surpass me when KVR retires and his Qrs falls vacant (the House Allotment Committee had its own queer rules like everything else in a Govt Do).

When in 1993 KVR did retire and vacate his Qrs, I applied and the clerk told me I was the seniormost among the 20 odd applicants. But after a few weeks, RSS came down to my room and said sorry, my dream was shattered by Prof VVR, who was already living in a top floor of a similar block but decided to apply at the last minute for a Change of Qrs...and Rules decreed that a candidate for Change from a B Type to another B Type gets preference over promotees from C1 to B.

Sigh!

So, I spent a couple of thousand hard-earned Rupees to spruce up the C1 thing to make it livable for a lifetime and was resigned...taking solace in the Burns' line:

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"

A month later, RSS came running to my room asking for a treat. Apparently VVRs shifted from the top floor to the middle floor and, after spending a single night in B-140, didn't like the change, and reverted to their earlier Qrs before it was allotted to anyone else...rumor had it that she had nightmares and saw ghosts...of the gps variety {;-}

I then recalled once again:

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"



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