சந்தைக்கு போலாமா ?

Many of my friends know my life began in Neyveli. People from Neyveli rarely have anything negative to talk about the township. I have been to many places in US, Europe and a few cities in India, but Neyveli has a special place. May be simply due to the fact, that it was my birth place...

Santhai (சந்தை) in Tamil means a market place. Usually people can get groceries at small stores next to their houses and for veg they tend to go to Santhai. This market place has to be described... Imagine a huge vacant land probably a size of two football grounds. A part of this is marked off for two-wheeler parking (I mean bi-cycles) and a bit for motor-bikes and scooters. The rest of the ground is neatly plotted into long rows of shops.

A mile early, you would know that you are passing the Santhai zone, simply through an unusual traffic and people carrying a lot of veg/other products stuffed in wire-knit-bags. These wire-knit bags have a place in Neyveli's home-makers (aka) house-wives' life...They buy bundles of nylon made wire and knit to make them bags with all sorts of designs. As in any town, people borrow such bags, lose it and get into a bit of tiff. Anyway with people carrying big bags of veg in bicycle handlebars and balancing those bags and their plump home-makers sitting in the rear (career-seat) and shouting at their husbands for not driving carefully, you can make it out, that the markets must be nearer...

Usually when my Mom, Dad or Brother/Sister calls me for aide to a market visit, i try and come up with new excuses every time. Simply coz' it's long way from the house and not only that, they go around haggling and sometimes it becomes a scene, though i would never realise that every one around creates a scene, it is just not my family folks. But more importantly it takes ages to go and come back. Sometimes they would chose to take a bus to this market which is a lot worse than taking a bicycle or our infamous lambretta.  A - is our home and B is Thursday market, and the round black circle over in no-man's land is Sunday market. There are certain key differences in these market places (according to my mom and other Neyveli folks). However I never got to understand those key differences. It would be along the lines that in Sunday market the prices are high and in Thursday market you get better green veg and the unsaid reason being everyone goes over to Sunday market as it is a day off. But i guess everyone just did go to Thursday market, simply coz' of this unsaid secret rationale.

The farmers would 'directly' bring their produce and sell it off. I have learnt the dynamics of life through shopping in these market places... Things like even though you see tomatoes at the front of market entrance, one should not buy it as the first choice of veg, but buy it as the last choice and that too while returning. (That depends if you came last, you got only leftovers... there is a lesson too). One is not allowed to mix veg like root-veg/ripe-veg/leafy-veg/fruits. But its a joy to watch people buying these vegetables in an order and packing them in different bags. In the end, you get to drink a coconut sometimes or a bit of sugar-cane juice.

Those Sundays were challenging, but I did enjoy my 'Santhai' day-outs. When I grew into a teenager, I started volunteering (no big secret here...), I just became responsible. So once there was a situation, where my dad was to do his annual Shrartham (click on hyperlink on what Shrartham means) rites to his father... I chose to go with him and support as we would buy a lot of stuff and more importantly a lot of long-banana leaves to serve food. He suggested that I wear a drawer (Half-pants/shorts) and not come in a dhoti. But I wanted to show I am a grown-up man and not a teenager. So decided to ignore his advice and chose to go wearing a dhoti. Needless to say, we took our embarrassing lambretta scooter and it is the best 'device' to get a girl notice you... I mean riding a lambretta, not wearing a dhoti and driving a lambretta. So

Interestingly all through the row of shops, every 10 minutes I would stop, re-tie my dhoti and it became such a nuisance. When we had finished shopping fully, I was loaded in both hands and my dhoti started slipping. Needless to say my Dad smirked and gave me a look-u. I learnt another lesson.

I guess as every grown-up in my teenage use to say -Gone are those days where the milk sold for 3 anas and oil sold at 12 anas... I can safely repeat the history.... Gone are those days of Santhai and welcome Wal-Mart! An elected government for 65 years could not get rid of agents and middlemen, an elected government for 65 years could not get the best price for its farmers, an elected government for 65 years with no means to control proper agri-chain has decided to put its trust on private bodies that are meant as profit-only organisation, is self-proclaiming defeat and has prostrated in front of capitalism.

We have Tirupurs and the Punjabs where with foreign investment the clothing and agriculture industry are controlled by different middlemen - the difference being its pocketed by a few individuals, whereas in erstwhile market, it was a shared livelihood. I am not against FDI, but not many know that FDI <51% has been there for years and has not resolved anything... (for many of our news-media, FDI and 51% still don't mean anything, they are just writing junk in the name of FDI - it bother me very much - am i the only one?) Siddarth Varadarajan with a leftist voice is a loner in the crowd like mine... I am yet to see some good arguments. But I want to build a 'Capitalism with Indian Characteristics' (Vasudeva Kutambakam)  and will write my thoughts in the next post... Jai Hind!