SWAMI FROM MADURAI

                                     

SWAMI FROM MADURAI 

Before 1990, there used to be a low budget hotel in Karan Nagar run under the name  of Madras Hotel. I have seen many  people , mostly door to door sellers of ladies dresses, petty  traders who thronged Kashmir in summer season, foot path dentists, magicians , many hawkers from South India  staying in the Hotel and  paying rent on monthly basis in advance. That worked cheaper. The hotel provided normal accommodation and hot water bucket  on extra payment. Dosa, Vada, Sambhar , coffee and Idli was also served at this hotel's  restaurant. 

One Swami from Madurai (Tamilnadu) would stay at the Madras Hotel for full summer season. He would rent a bicycle for the season and move in the  localities inhabited by Kashmiri Pandits selling   Saris to them. He brought cheap Kanjivaram and Tussar silk  Saris and  sold them to Pandit families  who would pay in installments. These Saris were bought for dowry of girls. Swami had understood the entire social rituals in a Pandit household. I have heard him saying this :-

" Didi Kalavalinu anjah Sari  kam hoyenga. Ondeh Sari Saas Lenga . Nallah Tussar Silk ." 

( For distribution to relations in her in-laws house, five saris shall be insufficient for my   sister. Take one for her mother in law . I shall give one good Tussar silk Sari .)

 

It was through Swami  that I first saw the famous and graceful  Madurai Sungudi cotton Sari. Later , Swami also started selling bed covers and bed sheets .  With this new item, Swami became popular in some Muslim households. At my mother's insistence, Raja our neighbour and wife of Mohammad Sidiq baker , purchased two double bed covers  as dowry items for her daughters.Raja would save money that her husband gave her . She kept this money  with my mother who always advised her to buy something for her daughters. It was my mother who forced her to buy copper utensils for her daughters from Zaina Kadal . 

Swami would start clearing his stocks by October end and he would return to Madurai after Deepawali . He would devote his last one week exclusively for collecting what was due to him. This last collection he would carry by hand in the specially created pocket of his undershirt. A loose kurta and a Lungi was all that he wore . However, he would move with woollen gloves, woollen  socks, fur cap, muffler right from mid- October. No shoes , just simple Bata bathroom sandals with socks . Swami was a Shaivite. He would go to Shankaracharya Temple on Sundays . He was vegetarian and never ate anything except Dosa, Rasam, and his favourite Saapad-curd( Dahi -chawal ). Swami would come to my bank branch to exchange currency notes or ask for notes of bigger denomination when he had to leave Kashmir. 

Swami had a unique style of packing up after selling some Sari or bed cover or bed sheet. He would count the remaining stock  to be packed on his fingers saying softly, ' randeh, mund, naala anjeh...',  etc. Move his head in confirmation that  everything was okay. Thereafter, he would put his stuff neatly one over the other in  a cloth  and tie the bundle with a thin rope. The bundle was then tied to the  back carrier of the bicycle with a piece of similar rope . The back carrier was wide enough to hold the bundle safely.  And he would leave saying," amma , didi, thambi , vanakam vanakam ".

One day Swami saw  a purse falling from the hands of a woman as she boarded the  local bus at Surateng in Rainawari.  The bus sped away towards Khanyar . Swami picked up the purse and followed the bus upto Shiraz cinema where he fell down and got some bruises on his arm and leg. He put the purse in his pocket, went to JLNM Hospital to get the minor  wounds dressed up . Thereafter , he came to Rainawari Police station and handed over the purse to police . Later, Chuni Lal Watloo ( shopkeeper) , who was well connected with Rainawari  Police Station  , told me that the purse had three gold rings  and one gold chain apart from twelve hundred rupees in cash . It belonged to a Muslim lady of Khanyar who had come with  some ailing relative  to  JLNM Hospital. 

Beete huve lamhon ki khushboo hai meray ghar mein ,

Book rack pe rakhe hain yaadon ke kayi  album. 

( Avtar Mota )

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