Woodpeckers - 1

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Over half a century I had interacted with four carpenters, each quite different from the other.

A few years after I joined KGP, my friend got married and was setting up 'home'. That meant a sofa set, a dining set and a double bed pronto. Inquiries revealed that the best carpenter in Gole Bazaar was Jaswant Singh presiding over his Cabinet Mart.

We pedaled to Gole Bazaar and entered the Holy Presence. For, he was unlike the run-of-the-mill jovial Sardarjee. He was fiftyish, sullen, gruff and looked at us like a Government Official disturbed in his chai pani by intruders.

When we announced that we were from IIT, he grimaced as if we were too poor to afford his seasoned teak handcarved beauties. He then beckoned one of his assistants to show us around his huge stock of teak planks all left on umpteen attics for seasoning over years. But that is all...there were no exhibits. You order and then he will make them and supply. You just trust him.

And the prices he quoted were double the next nearest. And you would be too scared to haggle. And he would levy the 6% Sales Tax and insist on giving receipts. You have to pay and take them.

But when the furniture arrived, one after the other, over a month or more, you would cuddle them as lovingly as if they were your babies...the finish, the curves, the Decolam tops, the whole thing would be dreamy.

And they have lasted half a century just as they were when they were bought and you are sure they will last another. A totally exhilarating experience.

And we were told that knowing folks would ship them to the US and sell them at fifty times their cost...handmade furniture is expensive there.

Jaswant Singh's eldest son was our Physics student about whom I wrote in:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/09/lincolns-precept.html

His younger sons acquired his business and kept it up...I bought a king-size single cot for my son from JS Junior and it is as good as new here in Hyderabad.

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Then there was this Ratneswar Das, an IIT Employee in the Carpentry Section. The good thing about him was that he was approachable and didn't scowl at you. That is about all.

In our Qrs C1- 97, there was this back door exit to the garden. I was unlucky that whoever made that door was a misanthrope and was in a hurry. It must have been made of raw mango wood and left there to the elements. Sun, rain and cold had such ticklish nonlinear warping on it that if the door closes in winter, it won't in summer. And in rains, it closes at the top but leaves a gaping slit at the bottom.

RD would come in, inspect it, and ask us to choose once for all whether we want the bottom open or the top. The choice is delicate and personal...if it is open at the bottom, snakes would be your visiting professors; and if you close it at the bottom, the top would be inviting bats to fly in.

We chose the bats.

This reminds me of the sorry tale of my close Bengali friend who narrated to me his howling 'first night' experience. He came from North Calcutta...maybe the Five Point Crossing (not Someone ;-)). He owned a chateau from generations down and he was most attached to it. But his bride hailed from the posh and mod New Alipore in South Cal.

And his mom insisted that their suhag raat be held in their ancestral home, like hers and her predecessors...

And when the pourparlers were through, more or less, he heard a scream and a faint from his best half. When she came to by and by, she jumped up and asked him:

"What are they...those black things hanging upside down from the wooden ceiling?"

And when he said they were just harmless house-bats and tried explaining how they use ultrasonar principle to navigate blindly over ceiling fans, cots and bridal couples, she fainted again...

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To be continued tomorrow...

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Tailpiece

Full Page Advertisement in DC by the Shipping Corporation of India (Golden Jubilee):

Valedictory Ceremony

of the Golden Jubilee Celebration

& Release of the Coffee Table Book

by Dr Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister of India

gps: Didn't know that our beloved PM is writing Coffee Table Books!

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