Kaam Chalaau

Often I feel overwhelmed with work. I think the reason is that I have not been able to find everything I need for living, in my vicinity. Starting from the groceries to snacks to a beauty parlour to a tailor to a place to buy crockery and another to buy steel vessels and a third to buy glass jars to store my home made Gujarati snacks. Another place where my mixer / grinder gets repaired. Actually I have a problem. The problem is I don't like the quality of groceries in a lot of the places. For dry fruits, I like another shop. I also don't like most super markets. They do not give a grocery store feeling and personalised approach. I still believe in helping the small shop keepers and the little vendors. I do not throw away the mixer grinder, at first signs of it not working and replace it with a new one. I am concerned about the electronic waste my household is generating every time a phone charger stops working. I like pulses and peanuts at Sarvodaya. I like my Dry Fruits at Crawford or Chhedda Matunga. I buy Khara Boondi from Regal, Citylight. I will get the clothes mended from a tailor in Santacruz as the stitching work the Dadar Matunga guys or women do is very 'Kaam Chalaau'. Kaam Chalaau is a very Hindi Gujju word. It just means the quality of work is poor but your work will not be stuck. So it is compromising on quality and a temporary measure. I am far from Miss Perfect, though sometimes I wish my life was perfect. 

My Grandmother Bai used to buy groceries from a store in our lane . We called the store Virji Bhai ni dukaan. My neighbour and best friend's maternal grandfather was Virji Bhai. Bai would go with a long list and sit at his store for all the groceries to be weighed and put in Thonga. Thonga is a brown paper bag.  Then someone from the shop would come and deliver it at home which was like four houses away. Whatever else we needed during the month, Sitaram, our house help, used to run and get it. One month credit was given by Virji Bhai to us. Then Bai used to go to the store to do the monthly 'hisaab'. It was a big event of the month. I am sure there was ambiguity and they used to argue if one kilo of peanuts was delivered or half a kilo. Certain items, they did not come in agreement. Then my Grandmother used to ask Mom if anything was ordered and what quantity. Then the final bill was cleared. All handwritten on small rectangular strips of paper. Grandmother had very good handwriting. Her Gujarati letters to me in my hostel were so full of love. I got the maximum letters in the hostel as I lived in a joint family and all my brother sisters wrote to me. Mom wrote one every week  without fail . This continued for most years of my  hostel life. Mom has a beautiful handwriting too. Very immaculate, clean and clear. The feelings of those letters can't be captured in Whatsapp messages and the sugar dripping Facebook greetings which some of my contacts post for their family members' birthdays. There was nothing 'Kaam Chalau' of the letters, calls and the birthday greetings that time. The ease and casualness of Facebook has made everything so 'Kaam Chalau' even the birthday greetings.