( old photograph of waterways of Rainawari near Jogilanker Bridge )
( old photograph of waterways of Rainawari
near Jogilanker Bridge )
( old photograph of waterways of Rainawari near Naidyar Bridge )
( old photograph of waterways of Rainawari Near Naidyar Bridge )
( old photograph of waterways of Rainawari )
GOSSIP
SHOPS OF JOGILANKER RAINAWARI ( SRINAGAR
KASHMIR)
“Have you seen
Mughale Azam ? If only you see the movie
,you shall come to know what Soshali
-Azm and seculari -Azm means .”
This is what Shadi
Lal Koul told Rehman Galdhaar ( Abdul
Rehman ). Abdul Rehman was asking me the meaning of words socialism
and secularism. He had joined National Conference party headed by Sheikh Mohd
Abdullah and had heard his party leaders
speaking these two words in most
of the meetings . He had sought meaning of these words from many muslims and pandits
but none could simplify these terms so as to bring them down to his level of
understanding . I did it . He was happy .
Shadi lal koul lived near Jogi Lanker bridge . Quite often I found him sitting in Abdul
Rehman's shop and passing on skills
of TV and transistor circuit
repairing to him . Shadi lal had also joined National
Conference .They would also gossip while sipping tea with some new National
Conference recruits .Prior to his transistor and TV repair shop, Abdul Rehman
sold rice and pulses from a small shop below the Jogi Lanker mosque. Once he
moved to a new shop , his old shop was
occupied by a naughty and
mischievous person known as Ali
Mohd, a tailor by profession who
was nicknamed ‘National’.
Shadi Lal later
worked as a freelance cameraman with Srinagar Door_Darshan. His father was a police
man who retired as ASI. We used to call him Shadi Police . Alas! This poor chap
died in a tragic road accident at Jammu post 1990.
During my college
days , I noticed that Many shops in
Srinagar actually opened for gossip only. We had our share of such shops in
Rainawari. In jogilanker ,we had one Ram Joo Handoo who had a chemist’s shop .
Come evening time , many pandits would enter the shop for pure gossip.They
would occupy entire sitting space in the shop. At a certain point of time , no customers entered the shop and the
shelves ,which used to be full with bottles and tablets, revealed dust and emptiness .
Another Gossip shop
of Shamboo Nath kalpushu also met the same fate . Shamboo Nath kalpushu had a flourishing chemist shop once. Dr Khashu , a well known allopathic Physician of srinagar would practice from this shop .
Another chemist shop
run by Chuni Lal Watloo in Jogilanker chowk fell victim to this gossip virus and Chuni Lal finally became
a broker cum agent for local police officials . He would intervene in all police cases or
disputes that were brought to police station Rainawari.
This virus of gossip
also entered a dry cleaner’s shop (Moon
Light Dry Cleaners proprietor Abdul Rehman
) in Jogilanker chowk. Abdul Rehman washed his hands
off the flourishing dry cleaning
business .
A cloth merchant
named Radhey Nath ’ Massarat ‘ also fell victim to this virus .Come evening
time , we would see many educated pandits
and muslims from Rainawari unwinding their day’s exertion inside this cloth
shop .Radhey Nath ‘Massarat’ is a well known
kashmiri poet.
Maheshawar Nath
Zutshi popularly known as Mahe-kaak had a stationery cum cews paper selling
shop in chowk Jogilanker . There was a small sitting space of about 3 feet by 2
feet in the front portion of his shop. Though Mahe-kaak was not a gossip monger
nor did he keep track of current affairs
or news , some pandits still sat on
that small space with ulterior motives .
I have seen many people sitting by rotations on his shop and discussing settlement of Mahe -Kaak 's children
with him while reading
newspapers, magazines and
Illustrated weekly of India free. Mahe-kaak
had two or three sons . They were not educated enough to compete for a government job. They would
render help to their father in procuring newspapers from Lal Chowk or in selling of kerosene to public. Mehe- kaak had permit for retail sale of kerosene
.
Nath ji , A kashmiri pandit from Machama
family of Karapora khushki had also a shop in Jogilanker chowk near post office
.It was a small triangular shop close to the house of Basker Nath Raina
contractor . This man had retired from CID
police and gossip mongers started pouring in to his cosmetic and maniyaari shop from day one.
He had enough to tell. Stories of tough police officers like Gh Qadir Ganderbali
. Stories about 1953 episode in kashmir
and stories about various visits of Pandit Nehru to kashmir. This shop was destined to close as the proprietor had brought the
Gossip virus with him from day one . Add
to that, as and when a female customer
would visit the shop and ask for some facial cream or talcum powder or perfume , the proprietor would say:
‘ Kyaa guv yimun
saanienn koreyun. Tche chheyaa na saaf shakal . Zaroori chha falila ta cream
laagun ‘. or… ‘I do not know what has
happened to our daughters .Your face is
clean and clear. Why should you go for all these creams, perfumes and oils ?’
The ever present gossip mongers sitting inside
the shop would immediately second the
proprietor’ s message to the customer.
We had a saintly
Baker named Nil Kanth Bhan in Jogi lanker . He was thoroughly professional .
Beginning his day at 4 AM , he would be free by 1 PM . He would start with
morning Tsoet ( Kashmiri bread) upto 9
AM and then he would bake kulcha , telvoru and katalam etc. Before closing his
shop, he would prepare his tea and call for
one Gh Mohd inside his shop. They
would have tea together with freshly baked kulcha. Gh Mohd had lost his mental
equilibrium and one could call him insane .His family had abandoned him. He would roam aimlessly on roads but his
command area or area of movement was from Jogilanker bridge to kralyar chowk. While sipping tea there was no
communication between Gh Mohd and Neel
kanth .Summer or winter , Gh Mohd never abandoned his pheran and kangri.
And Hell broke for Gh
Mohd one day. A muslim family known as Maliks
had a cloth shop near jogilanker
Bridge. A boy from this family saw Gh Mohd taking tea inside Nil kanth’s
shop . He immediately told every boy in the street about this discovery . That
day onwards , every boy in Rainawari
would cry “ Batta Chai ” (meaning pandit tea ) when Gh Mohd would pass by. Neel
Kanth found a solution to this problem . He would daily pass on a small
tin with milk , dry tea leaves and sugar water to Gh . Mohd. He would also put burning charcoal in Gh Mohd’s kangri
. The Tin with ready made tea mixture was put on charcoal and Gh Mohd would prepare his tea on sitting space near a
closed shop just opposite Neel Kanth's bakery shop. When some boys saw this new arrangement , they started
crying “ Dubba Chai “ ( tea made in tin
).A butcher opposite Neel Kanth’s shop
whom we called Ismaal Pujj would also pass on a piece of raw boney meat to Gh Mohd for roasting it in his kangri .Ismaal Pujj
was nick named as Batta Pujj
(pandit butcher ) by the shopkeepers
because his customers were predominantly pandits . When the boys saw Gh Mohd roasting the mutton piece in
kangri , they started calling him ‘Takka addij’ ( bone eater ) . This new name Takka addij caught the fancy of one and all . Even the shopkeepers would then call him
Takka Addij. That made him aggressive
and violent .He would pick up stones
in frustration and throw on any
person who called him Takka Addij.
Another man who had
lost his mental equilibrium would always
be present in Jogilanker market. He was
known as Gaffara .Gaffara wore shabby clothes and remained aloof . He would sit
and sleep on the pavement or some times on shops . His family had also abandoned him.Some times
some pandit lady from Braroo family living nearby would bring him food . Many
pandits and muslims said that he was a silent darvesh. I do not remember the
name of another hindu baker who would give
tea and kulcha to Gaffara . This baker was known as “Nikka Kandhur ” (
baby like baker ) by people in
Jogilanker .Nikka kandhur was a charas ( Cannabis ) addict. Some
times he would pass on a charas ( cannabis ) filled cigarette to
Gaffara .
A kashmiri pandit
known as Gopi Nath was the president of the shopkeepers association of
jogilanker .Anytime i visited his shop, i found him writing which made
his customers wait even for a match stick box. Keen to know as to what actually was
being written by him , I found one day
that for every item he sold ,he would
write the cost price , sale price and the resultant profit . This writing went
to such a proportion that he focused
less on selling and more on writing and finally a group of gossip mongers
brought the virus of gossip to his shop too
resulting in total dwindle of business.
There was a
mischievous Tailor Ali Mohd by name. He had his shop below Jogi Lanker mosque
.Many people told many stories about
him. He would sing while stitching clothes on his old Singer sewing machine. Pandits came to his shop for repair work while people
living in Dal area or the haanjis ( boat people ) got
new clothes stitched from him. He was nicknamed as National .
Word ‘National ‘ had got attached to him as he was a staunch National Conference sympathizer /
activist . He would ensure that his shop was open at 9 AM . That had a purpose
. The moment he saw some people leaving towards Jogilanker bridge for going to
office , he would Cry:
‘ Aur chhu Traeta
buzun . Tche boozuthh na . Kaeni Jung ha sa zabardast. Raathh chhu na sheikh
sahbun taqreer kormut. Khaanyaar pyathha chhe saarisee military chhakkarithh.
Vaen khassi jaloosa . ’
‘ Situation has suddenly
taken a very tense turn. Didn’t you hear that ? Crowds are throwing stone missiles . Yesterday Sheikh sahib (
Sheikh Mohd Abdullah ) has spoken something in his address to people .You will
see army in the entire city right from khanyaar .A violent procession is about
to pass that way . ‘
Having spoken these
words , he would suddenly go missing. Innocent pandit and muslim ladies and some office going people
would get frightened. This rumour would spread like a wild fire to Jogilanker market. Many would decide about
not going to office and staying in their homes. There was no immediate source
to verify facts . Later in the day , people would realize that they had
been fooled by ‘ National ‘.
( A scene at Govt Ration Store on river Bank in kashmir . Ration Ghaat )
There was a milk
seller's shop in Ghat Jogilanker chowk near Vishwa Bharti college . This milk seller
had a large family . one of the boys in the family was educated and we would
call him Maam Kol.He joined Jammu And kashmir Bank. This milk seller also
worked as head hamaal ( labour head ) in Food and Supplies department’s ration store
at Bagh Jogilanker .The rations especially rice , atta and sugar were
stored in big boats ( near Jogilanker
bridge ) known as bahuch . Each government ration ghat had a ghat munshi (
Clerk ) , Kanda Coolie ( weighing man )
, head hamaal and labourer.
Whenever any pandit would see the head hamaal
in the market he would ask him :
‘ Kyaa saa ghattus
trovukhah tomull ?’ or ‘ Have the fresh rice supplies come ?’
The head hamaal's
replies would be different to different persons . He
would generally say :
‘ Thahar veini kharizi na tomull ‘. or… ‘Wait, Do not go for the rice as yet .”’
‘Praar daah doh .
Saaf tomull iyee . ‘ or ‘Wait for ten
days , fresh rice stocks are
awaited .’
‘Thaav piece mey aithee
. Baa khaarai paanai .’ or ‘ Keep the ration slip with me . I shall buy myself.’
.’First class tomull
chhuyee . Khaar subahanuss .’ Or ‘We
have good variety of rice . Buy it tomorrow.’
I never saw any muslim
asking this question to the head hamaal.In fact they would go and buy straight
what was available at the ration depot.
We had another shopkeeper
doing brisk business in provisions who
was very popular with pandits and whom every person called Naba Bakhor .
While he enjoyed gossiping with
other shopkeepers and customers , he had
kept no space for any body to sit inside his shop .Behind his back , pandits called
him a Pakistani agent . Muslims owing allegiance to National Conference called
him a mischief man from Jamaat ( Jamaat e Islami ).
He was all praise for Maharaja's rule .According
to him , all ills in kashmiri society had come after the awaami raj
( public rule ). This was his indirect way of hitting at the National Conference sympathizers apart
from appeasing his kashmiri pandit customers
.You had to keep standing outside his shop for
gossiping . He would sit in the shop
during morning hours whereafter his sons would take over . They did not
indulge in gossiping. I would often hear him say one line to close his argument
:
‘Ye chhe markazitch
chaal ‘.. or….’This is a trick played by central
government .’
For him every
disturbance or unpleasantness around was a ploy of central Government . He was
intelligent , sharp and focused on his business.
in Our Mohalla ,
there lived an old kashmiri pandit lady Raetch Maal ( meaning good women ) by name
. During discussions with my mother ,
She would often comment satirically about
Gossip mongers of Rainawari , who according to her , wasted their time
and energy . She woukld say :
‘Talla neythhanon
Pyathaa Phernaa zyooth
Akki peinjji vothh taai beyii peinjji byooth.’
( Look! he is naked within
But donning a long pheran over
his body ,
And there he gets up
from one gossip shop and moves to another . )
( Avtar Mota )
Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at
http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
