Skip to main content

Chai Stop - no more.....

Five years ago, as a new blogger, I had told my readers not to miss the chai (tea) here if they happened to be passing by....

Two weeks ago, we were there - after a very long time. For old times' sake, we had had our usual chai & chaTTamboDe (daal pakoDas). While writing my earlier post, I was worried about an upcoming temple blocking the view from the tea-cart. My worries had not materialised. Things were more or less the same. This time though, there were lots of fearless monkeys....

While exchanging pleasantries with the affable owner of the tea stall, I asked him about his children. In the past he would always tell us about the daughter who did him proud by topping Tirthahalli taluk  in the Class 10 exams - not a mean achievement for a student studying in a place like Agumbe.

Happy as ever to talk about his children's academic achievements, he told us - amidst chasing monkeys- that both his daughters were engineers working for MNCs in Bangalore, while the son was studying to be an engineer. As an afterthought, he had added that whatever the achievements of his children, he would never give up on his tea stall.....

He then spoke about Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan and how India would have been a very clean place if the first PM of the country had initiated something on a large scale. His logic was that since the citizens had a servile attitude back then, they would have obeyed orders and keeping our surroundings clean would have become a habit with us by now.

 Pleasantries over, we had taken leave of him - exchanging good wishes, etc... little realising that this would be our last meeting with Mr.Premanand.....

Yesterday, local media announced to shocked citizens that Padiyaar Maam (as Mr.Premanand was popularly known) was no more.

From a common acquaintance, we came to know that he had contracted the Kyasanoor Forest Disease, commonly called Monkey Fever because monkeys pass on the deadly virus to humans. Many a time, this fever can be fatal, as it turned out to be for Padiyaar Maam.

A lover of books, one shelf of his cart was dedicated to books, mostly in Kannada. These books, he had told us, were gifts from customers. He would spend all his free time reading them. Customers could read them too - while waiting for their order.

Because people from all walks of life visited his tea-cart, had informal chats with him,... he was a well informed man.  He could talk about a wide range of topics. Thanks to our conversations with him, we knew that he had been featured on Discovery Channel (something to do with catching King Cobras), had done bit roles in the TV series Malgudi Days,....

Like the obituary from his friends (the pic above) says - he will be missed by all those who pass  through Agumbe Ghat. May his soul rest in peace.....   

Comments

  1. RIP...
    Scary to think that any of his customers could have contracted the deadly disease just as easily!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right! Nuisance, yes.... but, none of us had thought of the monkeys as carriers of deadly diseases....

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ash gourd & beliefs

Whenever a farmer comes to my doorstep selling vegetables, I buy them. The other day, one of the regulars dropped in. This time, he had only ash gourds. Since my own ash gourd vine was looking good, I had to tell him that I didn't want any. He then expressed a desire to see the vine - to check out the variety, etc... Soon after seeing it, he told me that the vine would produce only one gourd and that I should be offering it to some temple instead of using it! Well! I hadn't heard this one before! Though nobody knew why, every single person advised me against using the ash gourd if it turned out to be the only yield from that vine. And, 'Give it to some temple' was the final line that everyone added! You know, as far as vegetables and beliefs go, the ash gourd is one that has many attached to it... each one of them, meaningless and without logic. My mother believed that a whole ash gourd should not be cut with a knife by people whose parents were alive. Fortunat

Ganesha's water-pot!

You will not find this place on the tourists' list of places to visit in Chikmaglur. However, you'll find it on my list of favourite places in Chikmaglur. Let me take you there..... A half-an-hour's drive from home will take us to the not-so-sleepy town of Koppa. From here, onto  the road to Kesave village.  About 3-4 kms on this road, to the right - a rusty arch and the mud track beyond welcome us. Blink, and we'll miss the place! We are now on private property. This part of the estate is open to all. Because, it is here that the river Braahmi has her origins. The Braahmi is a small tributary of the river Tunga. Infact, she joins the Tunga within 20 kms. from her place of birth. The presence of an idol of the elephant-headed God lends some piety to the place.    Someone has done a neat job -  making it seem like the water is gushing out of a water-pot. This, and the presence of God Ganesh... the place is locally known as 'KamanDala Ganapati'. Lik

Temple Ponds

Temple ponds, or, 'Pushkarni's are such an integral part of ancient temples. I just can't get over the idea as well as the efforts that must have been made to build them.  Often, these ponds are quite polluted. But for the presence of some stagnant water, some of them look like dump yards :(  So, it was a pleasure to come across this clean one at the Janardhana Swami Temple at Yermalu on the Udupi- M'lore highway. Dakshina Kannada & Udupi districts can be called the temple districts of the world- there are so many temples that one would need a lifetime to cover all of them! So, not surprisingly, this was our first visit to this temple. If the M-S wedding didn't take place here, we would have missed this one. The idol here was installed by Saint Madhavacharya- social reformer & philosopher who lived 700 years ago. This pond has obviously been renovated since, but, surely, the origins date back to the 13th century, or, earlier? You know, according to t