SMILERS SWEETS, CAKE MANS CAKE, BARBER AND THE MOCHI the sweet wala must have been around long before I came to know him 58-68. And must have been around long before I left. He was tall , well built and had the natural smile on his face, people say it takes two muscles for you to smile, well his too muscles must have been locked into that position, for he always smiled. No one was bothered what his real name was, to every one he was known as smiler. He would do his rounds with a helper who use to carry a trunk load of sweets on his head, I am not sure if the college officialy allowed him to come and sell sweets, but you could see him near the gate, and perhaps in the college, with his trunk on the ground and a lot of boys flocking around him. It was probably the rich boys around, or the ones who had a sweet tooth, diabities was not known then, or young boys never suffered from it then, there would be a mad crowd asking him to show this and this and how much for that, and people would have sweets in their hand, and in that mad rush some would pocket the stuff without paying. You could smell the gur ki patti, it gave you distinct two smells, one of the gur and the other of the mongphali. You could be blind but would still smell these two. The colourfull candies, the coconut barfies, all cut into uniform squares, the stick jaws. Those British had given us a lot of exotic sweets, which we could cherish long after they had left. They could be stored for long, and were not like the Indian sweets that were sticky and would not be kept fpr long without getting spoilt. The 6 Rs. A month didn’t allow me to buy a lot. But once I bought some stick jaws and took them on home leave. My dad said what are you eating, I said stick jaw, he asked for one, put it in his mouth , and chewed, and there on the stick jaw was one of his false teeth that had come off. You can guess what my dad must have said to me. Well smiler your stick jaw, was really a stick jaw. The cake man was another fellow who did his rounds, he was a thin dark man, who held a walking stick, he also must have been coming before I saw him and must have continued long after I had left. He had a thin man carrying a big box on his head, and when he would put that down on the ground he would have a crowd of boys around. Some bought the cakes, others marroed them in the crowd. It was fun, he had chocolate pastries, cream cakes, pineapple cakes, cherry cakes, they all looked so good, felt like marooning some, but lacked the guts to do so. You see marooing was a technique that you had to learn, seeing the seniors doing it .then have guts go into the crowd , and when the cake man was busy with the other chaps, you pick up a pastry, as if you were going to buy it, and then off you went. Now don’t feel bad about it, you were of the age to do these tricks, and feel that you had done a heroic deed. Yes you were a hero amongst your friend. The place that Bundu the barber and his three generations had occupied might have gone to some other Barbar, because Bundus son was not keen into cutting hair, he might have become a clock smith or something else. Bundu was feared for if he was not happy with you he would give you a Topi cut, and there was nothing you could do. While waiting for your turn in that small little room, you behaved your self, other wise Bundu would say I will report you to the Bara Sahib, the principal he ment. Bundu could manage his broken English, the Bundu English. He was a true barber, for he could not keep his trap shut while cutting your hair. I some times wonder what he must be telling the Bara Sahib while cutting his hair. I had encountered him in All Saints also. Now a days who is the school Barber, is he also respected like our Bundu. When we reached in class 8 we would get our hair cut from a descent barber in town, then Bundu would point out mistakes that the barber had made, and we would smile and go, what a jelouse Barber, or what a barber who thought us as his own children. The mocha was another old man, he could be seen climbing up to school, with his hammering anvil being carried on his shoulder by the shoe shaped longer end hanging on his shoulder. He use to make the sweeing thread in the college also, an ordinary white thread would with his leg out stretched and his thumb would be the one around which he would take the thread many a time, making about a yard length of shoe stitching thread which he would twirl around between two palms of his hand, then he would apply a wax mombatti on the thread, this probably made the thread water proof. He would sit in the back quad, under the stairs, you brought your torn shoes , haggled with him, and he would stich them in front od you. He was the Mochi, one respectfully called Chaudhrey. The old man must have died long time back, and may be his son also died, but who is the new Chowdhrey now days, and does he still sits under the back quad steps. Old memories haunt me, I cant forget. I can see Bundu light up a Biri and puf away. One nice thing Bundu told me, bad habbits are bad, if you don’t have a Biri with you, you will stop and ask a passing by colley for one, and not feel the least bit of shame. Bundu RIP, Chowdhrey RIP, Cake man RIP , Smiler RIP. You served us well we remember you even to this day. Boys can you coment if thry served you too. It will put a smile on their faces in their grave. G.Y.KHAN ( MULLAH ) 68. F.T.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:44:07 +0000
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