24 Hours

24 Hours

03:00 AM in the morning

Into the deep darkness and silence, local tea vendor of highway was opening his sheet-metallic store - most of its exterior was eroded by sustaining extreme weather conditions - seasons on seasons of burning sunlight of summers, rippling rain of rainy season and blood frosting winters.

He opens the doors of store by unlocking the lock and enters in. switch on the light- the one and only hundred watts bulb which was enough to conduct his business in chilling morning - (not just chilly - which describes burning of tongue) - and keeps his lock in safe place so that he can use it at store closing- though he is aware of that his entire store can be stolen away if stealer burglar wants to, but no one wants their stores remains open at closing to increase the probability of (retail – hehe - in local term Bhoorta - not the Baingan one – again LoL) theft by bypassers.

He quickly checks the inventory – very less in count – as amounts of sugar in sugar box, tea powder, liters of kerosene left- though he always uses gas cylinder, and most important of them- enough reserves of different sets of currency notes and coins to return when Amirs - the group of lords- lends him with heavy denomination and having no change. Although he is used to - to let the rounding amounts fly away – most of which carries very share of profit.

After taking a count of inventories, the very first thing he used to do was to open the box of agarbatties – the thin sticks of sandalwood covered with scented coatings to cold burn it when lit up – took away three to four sticks and match box – [unfortunately the sticks of this box have not enough fortune as that of previous’s as it were to be made of the (scentless) cheapest wooden material available, and coatings too not to be covered with fortunate scents on but (horribly) of explosives – which let it burn whenever messed with the side coating of the match box. Though sticks of same were not disappointed by not having scented coatings because whenever Sticks of match box and agarbatties have (heated) arguments, then sticks of the match box delivers the dialogues as

“Mere bina tu kya kaam ki re, jab main na rahu to tuze uthane wala bhi na ho koi” – you are of no use if I am not there.

“Ek chutaki machis ki kimat tum kya jaano Agarbatti babu.” – You never know the value of single stick of me.

Or While scratching the skin of throat – gala khujake - “Jaani, ye koi bachho ke khelne ki cheez nahi, ek baar jal jaye to nikalne ke liye khoon bhi nahi chodati.” – Don’t mess with me, otherwise you will be spoiled entirely.

She feel proud when any of the girl says, “Muze toh machis ki tili jaise banna hai” and blushes while realizing that she is the ‘symbol of sliminess’] – he then took a stick of match box and gently lit it up and cross lit the couple of agarbatties up. The smoke with sandal frangrance spread across the store. He used to feel freshed and energetic when this fragrance spreads over his surroundings. Not alone him, rather all retail (even middle sized) business owners used to adopt this practice under the roof of religious practices by keeping the fragrances of their choice – LoL.

The cars full of youngsters crosses him and after travelling certain distance either it stops or get reversed to him. Many of times he (along with his store) get surrounded by pausers – who take the short tea break to get refreshed after travelling for hours -  all have to have their tea with or not with the (cream) rolls – the very popular partner of it – and to leave for their journey. He has various classes of people to visit his store – the Line drivers, passengers of travel buses, the groups – collegiate or corporate -  which are out for holidays.

Most of the newbies who visit, ask him the common question when they look at shutter head of store – the covering box of shutter which rolled up to have store opened – and giving the expressive loud laugh by asking,

“Yeh kya, Baniyan ki dukaan ko chai ki dukaan bana daala kya ?”

Because “ROOPA Tea Stall - Our brand, your future” was the name plate of the store.

He never fed up on this common question, because he used to tell askers that,

“ Chalo, kam se kam meri pyari biwi ka naam to sab desh janane laga.” – Roopa was the name of his loving (not get confused with beloved) wife who nourished his entire life.

03:15 AM in the morning  

          One middle sized cargo container bypassed him and applied sudden brakes,

‘Kirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Karrrrrrrrrrrrrr Chukkkkkkkkkkkkk’ – loud sound he heard.

He was busy making his first lot of fresh tea with couple of litres of milk he purchased yesterday on fifteen days of credit from his friend cum milk producer and supplier. He used to get the delivery of in the evening and to heat the purchased milk at his residence on the giant stoves which he purchased at the inception of ‘ROOPA Tea Stall’. It was his practice since last fifteen years to heat the milk at evening and after it get cooled down, take away the cream and to produce the very demanding household item of his country – Desi Ghee.

Though his countrymen treat ‘Desi – the country side (most probably uneducated) people – like a swine, but when it comes to ‘Desi Ghee’ same are willing to embrace the item only not the (Desi) seller.

The sound of container’s brake broke his concentration over its preparation of tea. He everyday used to see the opening of the container doors with clumsy frictitious sound, and minute later hundreds of bundles of newspapers of various publishing houses thrown down from the container – nobody to catch them down there on roadside. Teamaker was very used to to do the both tasks together, stirring the boiling tea and to observe the rhythm of the downing of the bundles.

Everyday a man used to sign some copy of document and handed over it to the driver of the container – who never used to get off the at the time - which used to drive away that giant as an express by leaving a great cloud of carbon dioxide and monoxide behind.

After arraigning the bundles according to the area of distribution – usually it used to take twenty to thirty minutes – a man used to approach his stall and after reaching there he used to turn back and observe the bundles as there was nobody with him to give him a security services.

‘Tickle’ – after listening the similar sound of cup while placing it down on the table – he used to look back again and to have the cup of tea. His entire body used to sweat up in this mordant chilling morning as he was the only one who used to through down these hundreds of heavy bundles down from the container. He used to have the tea while trapping his sweat of face and neck into the napkin he used to carry all the time.

After some time later retail distributers used to gather there like the group of ants gathers at a place where someone has dropped the piece of sweet. After looking at locals gathering he used to leave the tea vendor by throwing his order like,

“ khaate mein likh le bhawa” – “post my bill in account, buddy”

He used to tell to the tea vendor and leaves the stall for his distribution work and after that leaving the place where our tea vendor still standing, waiting for next consumer by thinking,

“Chalo, hamesha ke jaise khate mein hi sahi opening to hue. aur waise bhi peechle dus saal mein ess aadmi se ek rupaiyya kabhi bhi toh dooba nahi. Apni bohni to direct savings me hi jaati hai. Achha hai. Uss bahane savings to ho rahi” – “Great,  as usual on credit. Let it go. Never lost a penny from him since years. My opening sales direct to savings. Nice to have it.

03:30 AM in the morning  

………………….to be continue

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