Our hero

Most children feel their achan is a hero..... we surely did...i think most of the kids in our extended family also believed jayamama was someone daring, outspoken and the 'go to' person.
He just had this impact on people. We felt he could'nt go wrong.

Be it a family vacation where things needed to be organised, or some crisis in the family or among friends, a relative in trouble, to bargain for something, mediate or negotiate, he was in the forefront.

But as a kid what impressed me the most was whenever mum found that a rat had managed to sneak in to the house, our saviour and protector was achan. Like I said he was the jack of all trades , he was an expert at trapping the mouse and attacking it and then holding the dead body of the rat in his finger tips to show his achievement. I would scream my lungs out like a gigantosaur had landed and was about to swallow us.

The auto rikshaw drivers in bangalore are famous for conning people by charging more. It was customary for achan to have an argument , almost a brawl with the drivers everytime we came back from kerala and took an auto from the station to home. And the minute achan raised his voice, leave alone the drivers , amma, we and even our neighbours got scared.

Like all kids we were scared of achan too. Never asked him to buy us stuff, amma was always the mediator. If we bought something without his consent, we were scared that he would tell us off for paying more or not bargaining. Since achan was a business man, he knew all the business tricks, prices for things and the margin too. So he always insisted that we bargain and never pay the MRP.

In 1981 achan started the shoe shop - New Fashion Foot wear. Achan named it himself. When I was 3 - 4 years I used to spend a lot of time with him in the shop. I used to watch him closely when he spoke to customers, outsmarted them when they bargained and got frustrated with silly customers. He was so passionate about whatever he did, gave a 200% and was confident that he was good.

Achan had many friends, being a business man meant having a huge network and achan sometimes knew so many people by faces but would not recall their names. I think most small business men in yeshawanthpur knew him. After gaining a firm foothold in the veggies business he had started oil and egg business, he brought his nephew from kerala and helped him also set up a shop. A couple of others who came to work in his shop also went on to become independent businessmen later on.