Skip to main content

Frust"Ration" Shop ...

After nearly 18 years I happen to visit the nearby ration shop to buy ration for this month, I will explain you the reason of why an "upper middle-class" family needs to go to a ration at the end of this post. I used to go to this place very regularly when I was in college, though 18 years have passed by, this ration shop has not changed even a bit. Still that evil billing guy is doing his duty of billing with the same intensity of evil. The building has not changed even a bit, with the addition of few more cracks on the wall. My experience of getting Rice, Palm oil and few grains turned out to be a cinematic experience...

I went there by 10:00 and with absolutely no experience in standing in a queue for a long time, I chose to stand a bit deviated from the main queue by excusing myself from those huge mass of ladies, I could see everyone standing in that ration shop looking me differently, later I realized that my Blackberry is the center of attraction there, so I kept it back into my holster and continued to give a blank stare on the floor, time crawled to 10:30 and I noticed that most of the people who were standing behind me have already gone ahead of me. I somehow managed to find a slot in the queue and by 11:15 I reached the billing spot. The same evil guy who used to threaten me 18 years back, still with the same ferocity barked at me "Enna venum sollu", I whispered "Rice 10KG, Palm oil, Thur Dhal and Keroscene".

He asked my ration card and the moment he saw the color of my ration card he threw that on my face screaming "Idhu adutha counter, kannu irruku la, number paarthu nikka maatta?", it took a while for me to get over that insult and I seriously don't know which queue to stand, as there were no signs or board which would indicate my queue, I yelled back at him "Endha counter la nikkanum nu enakku enna josiyamaa teriyum, enga yaa poturuka en queue idhu thaan nu ?", the fearing college boy is no more in me, this is a 31 year old "Performance Architect". I think he has not got back a furious reply from anyone for years, he stood up from his chari and closed all his bill book and went off, saying, he is not ready to bill anymore, as I have insulted him.

The entire gang standing behind me looked at me as if I did a big crime, I yelled back at him "Yov, ippo enakku bill podaati, ration officer kitta complaint panniduven, mariyaadhayaa podu". He came out of the room and looked at me like "Nambiyaar", I retaliated with a look like "Rajinikanth" ;-). He took me to a counter where they have pasted a small piece of paper which says "Mylapore - 3" and asked me if I am educated enough to read that. I gave him back by saying I am educated enough reading that, but the size of the board is more like "Kosu kusu vitta size la irukku", there was a roar of laughter in the ration shop including the guy who is sitting inside the "3" counter.

After this drama, I stood in the new queue, which is relatively empty. I asked him the same list of items and he prepared the bill, and finally he asked me 88.35, I was for a moment baffled after hearing that amount and produced him a 100 rupee note, he told me that he has no change and he asked me to tender the exact fare, I told him that I don't have change, he then asked me to wait till he gets the change and asked me to stand aside, I for a moment felt the needless use of all my credit cards, debit cards, cheque books etc etc, none can pay me that 88.35 rupee bill. I stood next to an electric meter which is well protected from shock by multiple layers of spider webs and there was an ugly big lizard which has its tounge stick out to catch some insect :-(

After nearly 20 minutes of waiting, the guy gave me the change of 12.50 paise, he has swallowed 15 paise by then. I proceeded to the next half of the building where they deliver the goods, I gave him my bill which read 10kg Rice, he pinned my bill in that traditional bill hook which has been the same way for 18 years now. It has a sharp needle such to a wooden plank and its edges have gone blunt. The guy placed a un-marked weight on the right hand side and poured a tin of rice on the left hand side, I asked him what is the metric of that iron weight, he gave me a nasty stare and told me "I don’t know", that answer really pissed me off and the "Anniyan" inside me came out, I shouted back at him asking "Weight evalo nu teriyaama thaan nee velai pannariyaa ?, Idhu enakku 5 kg maadhiri irukku, nee enna daa naa 10kg nu sollara, naa unna eppadi nambaradhu ?"

This argument brought back that old evil billing guy and he asked me "Enna prechana pannarathuku kadaiku vandhurukiyaa, unna thooki veliya potuduven, ozhungaa kdukaradha vaangikitu po, illaati avalothaan mavane", I told myself that he is digging his own grave, "Nee veliya thooki podarathuku naa enna un pinju pona bill book nu nenachiyaa, magane mela kai vechu paaru, apporam iruku di unakku kutcheri", usually I raise my voice when it comes to "fighting" which I am not used to very often, suddenly the in charge of that ration shop came to me and then inquired what happened, I explained him the sequence of the events and he gave his employees a nice dose and he himself gave me the things I wanted.

I warned that billing guy saying "Innoru vaati customer kitta ippadi karaaraa pesina, apporam un velai ku naa guarantee illa di, paarthu nadandhuka" even though I don’t have any contacts in the govt sector and I cannot do anything from my purview, I gave him this "udhaar" and came off running to my house, I got scared that he might gather some gundas and attack me :-)))))), see how bold I am ;-)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

கல்யாணமோ கல்யாணம் ...

"இந்த கட்டுரையில் வரும் சம்பவங்களும், வசனங்களும் வாசகர்களின் நிஜ வாழ்கையோடு ஒத்து இருந்தால், அது தற்செயலே. அதற்க்கு நானோ அல்லது என் வலை தளமோ பொறுப்பல்ல ... " என்ன டா பில்டப் பலமா இருக்கே நு பார்கறீங்களா ? இந்த கட்டுரைய படிங்க, அப்புறம் புரியும் ... நீங்களே சொல்லுவீங்க ... "Same Blood" நு ... நம்ப சமுதாயத்துல கல்யாணம்ங்கற விஷயம் மட்டும் ரொம்பவே காம்ப்ளிகேட் பண்ணிடான்களோ நு யோசிக்கறேன், அதுவும் குறிப்பா எங்கள மாதிரி "Brahmin - IYER" கம்யூனிடி ல அது ரொம்பவே வாஸ்தவமான ஒரு விஷயம். இந்த கட்டுரைய படிக்கற நீங்க இது என் வாழ்க்கைய பத்தின விஷயம் தான் நு நினைசீங்கன்னா அது தப்பு, இது பொதுவா எல்லாரோட வாழ்க்கையிலும் நடக்கற விஷயம் தான், அதையே கொஞ்சம் காமெடியா சொல்லணும் ஆசை படறேன், அவ்வளவுதான். வாங்க கல்யாணம் ஆகாத ஒரு பையனோட (ஐயர் பையனோட) வீடு எப்படி இருக்கும் நு காட்டறேன் ... தாத்தா, பாட்டி, அப்பா, அம்மா எல்லாரும் மும்முரமா ஏதோ ஒரு ஜாதகத்த பார்த்துகிட்டு இருக்காங்க ... ஏண்டி ... இந்த பொண்ணோட ஜாதகம் 2002 ல ஏ நமக்கு வந்துது ல ? இன்னுமா இந்த பொண்ணுக்கு கல்யாணம் ஆகல ? ஆமாம்

My Songs Collection ...

After a long struggle, i somehow managed to collect 800+ songs of SPB, which to me are the GOLDEN SONGS sung by that GOLDEN VOICE. Here is my complete songs collection. My target is to get 1000 songs of SPB (Tamil Songs). S.NO Name Artist Album 1 Unna Vellaavi Vechu Thaan GV Prakash Aadukalam 2 Ayyayo Nenju Alayudhadi SPB - S P Charan Aadukalam 3 Ottha Sollaala Velmurugan Aadukalam 4 Yetthi Vecha Nerupinile SPB - Chitra Aalapirandhavan 5 Ponnai Virumbum Boomiyile TMS Aalaya Mani 6 Oru Kili Urugudhu Janaki Aanandha Kummi 7 Oomai Nenjin Osaigal SPB - S Janaki Aanandha Kummi 8 Oru Raagam Paadalodu KJY - Chitra Aanandha Raagam 9 Mere Sappunoun Ki Rafiq Aaraadhana 10 Oru Kunguma Chengamalam SPB - S Janaki Aaraadhanai 11 En Kannukoru Nilavaa SPB - JANAKI Aaraaro Aariraro 12 Kanmaniyae Kaadhal Enbadhu SPB - S JANAKI Aaril Irrundhu Arubathu Varai 13 Meenammaa Adhi Kaalaiyilum Unni Krishnan - Shobana Aasai 14

Madras Tamil in IT Industry

Ah, thot of writing a new series called PITHUKULI, and i hope you all will enjoy this series. Here is my first try and please let me know your sincere comments. We all know that IT industry is a place for all educated people and english is considered to be the global language in this industry. Me hailing from the heart of chennai, i would love to see "Chennai Thamizh" being spoken at all s.w companies, so here is a small conversation between a Programmer and his Project Manager, in pure "Chennai Sen Thamizh". The situation is this ... Its appraisal time and Project manager is doing appraisal for his team member. ahhhh ... vaa kannu ... suresuu ... eppdi keera ? sokaa keerayaa ?? inaathuku unna itukunu vandhurukaango nu unikku message teriyumla ?? aahaann ... inaamo ... aapuraisalaa ... keepuraisalo ... ennamo oru ezhavu ... atha pathi kostin panna thaanae ittnadhukara ... kareeektaa putcha baa maatera nee ... seri ... nee immaa naalu inga kundhikinu inaatha kilicha