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Yesterday we had a day-long family outing...driving 120 km in all.
First we went to the State Bank of India branch in SR Nagar.
Among other chores I had to get my Annual Life Certificate. I call this my Annual Exam.
The dame sitting smugly in her cushioned chair makes me stand on each leg by turns in a suffocating queue of oldies, mercilessly. After my turn duly arrives I pass on to her my Pass Book (that's why it is called a Pass Book). She would then open her 'system' and try and match my decade-old photo there with my wizened face now...peering darkly at both half a dozen times and sighing. And would decide that I am indeed alive and not faking it. And then sign and stamp the form and fling it towards me and say 'next' to her next victim...all my IIT- Professor-honor gone down the drain since I don't have Deposits amounting to a couple of crores in her branch in which case I had just to ring her up and she would drive down to my home wherever it is in Hyderabad and do the needful for such a 'high-value customer'.
And then we drove to Kalyan Jewelers in Somajiguda to do some low-value selling and buying of gold ornaments. While trying to exchange the 35-year-old bridal chain of my wife, my son asked me to leave my woolgathering-sofa and come over and watch the brand-new table-top X-ray machine into which the chain was inserted...the machine resembled a small coffin to my perverted eyes. And the output on the screen was in the form of a bar-graph showing the percentage content of gold, silver and copper in it...X-ray spectrography.
My son thought it was utterly foolproof but I knew that nothing is foolproof against a sufficiently talented fool. After all even the digital meters in our Hyderabad autos are tampered by their drivers without breaking their seals. So it is a simple matter to switch the vertical axes of the display...one for buying and another for selling.
As it happened, it turned out that our chain itself was pure enough gold with the permitted amount of copper alloy. And out of the two mangalyams (marriage-pendants) one was 100% ok while the other turned out to be 60% ok. I then explained to my son that the 100% one was given to my wife by my mom while the 60% one was given to her by her mom ;)
The high-point of our gold deals was the new ear-pendants (laulaks) bought for Ishani (3.11 now). The old ring which she had got on her last birthday went fragile and they decided to get her a new one, a bit more elaborate, with a stone embedded in it.
Ishani was told about it before we left home. For, the replacement would slightly hurt her...the old one had to be teased out and the new one pushed into her tender ear lobes. But when she heard of it, Ishani's joy knew no bounds. She was jumping with joy. I never saw such exuberance in my kid son whom I raised all of 30 years ago...not even the promise of a new bat and ball.
Ishani was dreaming about her new ornament throughout the long drive. She would keep quiet for a whole ten minutes (unusual for her)...daydreaming obviously. And would rise out of her coma and ask her mom what shape and size and color would her new one be. And whether it would be just a ring or a true pendulum which would swing whenever she turns her head on purpose or perchance. And then she would fall back into her dreaming to come up with another intricate question.
And finally when it came to choosing the right one among the dozens displayed, she had her veto...red stone with an inch-long suspension.
And she bore the pain of the ordeal with unfamiliar endurance...
And the salesman watched his high-value customer with glee and fetched a giant mirror for her inspection which took quite a while, turning this side and that.
And as soon as we came out of the shop and were waiting for the valet to fetch the car, she ordered me:
"Granpa! Take my photo and post it in your blog!"
And then we drove to the first birthday party of a cute kid in the Taj Mahal Hotel in Abids. And there Ishani would show off her new ear-ring to one and all, who were charmed.
And she went to bed in cloud-nine.
And she got up in the morning when the Dhobi rang the bell. And after he packed up the wash, she asked him:
"Raju Uncle! How is my new ear-ring?"
Raju was dumbfounded and could only smile wanly...he has just two kids of 2 and 4...both male...
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Yesterday we had a day-long family outing...driving 120 km in all.
First we went to the State Bank of India branch in SR Nagar.
Among other chores I had to get my Annual Life Certificate. I call this my Annual Exam.
The dame sitting smugly in her cushioned chair makes me stand on each leg by turns in a suffocating queue of oldies, mercilessly. After my turn duly arrives I pass on to her my Pass Book (that's why it is called a Pass Book). She would then open her 'system' and try and match my decade-old photo there with my wizened face now...peering darkly at both half a dozen times and sighing. And would decide that I am indeed alive and not faking it. And then sign and stamp the form and fling it towards me and say 'next' to her next victim...all my IIT- Professor-honor gone down the drain since I don't have Deposits amounting to a couple of crores in her branch in which case I had just to ring her up and she would drive down to my home wherever it is in Hyderabad and do the needful for such a 'high-value customer'.
And then we drove to Kalyan Jewelers in Somajiguda to do some low-value selling and buying of gold ornaments. While trying to exchange the 35-year-old bridal chain of my wife, my son asked me to leave my woolgathering-sofa and come over and watch the brand-new table-top X-ray machine into which the chain was inserted...the machine resembled a small coffin to my perverted eyes. And the output on the screen was in the form of a bar-graph showing the percentage content of gold, silver and copper in it...X-ray spectrography.
My son thought it was utterly foolproof but I knew that nothing is foolproof against a sufficiently talented fool. After all even the digital meters in our Hyderabad autos are tampered by their drivers without breaking their seals. So it is a simple matter to switch the vertical axes of the display...one for buying and another for selling.
As it happened, it turned out that our chain itself was pure enough gold with the permitted amount of copper alloy. And out of the two mangalyams (marriage-pendants) one was 100% ok while the other turned out to be 60% ok. I then explained to my son that the 100% one was given to my wife by my mom while the 60% one was given to her by her mom ;)
The high-point of our gold deals was the new ear-pendants (laulaks) bought for Ishani (3.11 now). The old ring which she had got on her last birthday went fragile and they decided to get her a new one, a bit more elaborate, with a stone embedded in it.
Ishani was told about it before we left home. For, the replacement would slightly hurt her...the old one had to be teased out and the new one pushed into her tender ear lobes. But when she heard of it, Ishani's joy knew no bounds. She was jumping with joy. I never saw such exuberance in my kid son whom I raised all of 30 years ago...not even the promise of a new bat and ball.
Ishani was dreaming about her new ornament throughout the long drive. She would keep quiet for a whole ten minutes (unusual for her)...daydreaming obviously. And would rise out of her coma and ask her mom what shape and size and color would her new one be. And whether it would be just a ring or a true pendulum which would swing whenever she turns her head on purpose or perchance. And then she would fall back into her dreaming to come up with another intricate question.
And finally when it came to choosing the right one among the dozens displayed, she had her veto...red stone with an inch-long suspension.
And she bore the pain of the ordeal with unfamiliar endurance...
And the salesman watched his high-value customer with glee and fetched a giant mirror for her inspection which took quite a while, turning this side and that.
And as soon as we came out of the shop and were waiting for the valet to fetch the car, she ordered me:
"Granpa! Take my photo and post it in your blog!"
And then we drove to the first birthday party of a cute kid in the Taj Mahal Hotel in Abids. And there Ishani would show off her new ear-ring to one and all, who were charmed.
And she went to bed in cloud-nine.
And she got up in the morning when the Dhobi rang the bell. And after he packed up the wash, she asked him:
"Raju Uncle! How is my new ear-ring?"
Raju was dumbfounded and could only smile wanly...he has just two kids of 2 and 4...both male...
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