Fair Deal.

Betma is a small hamlet some 14 miles from the heart of the capital of Holkar state, Indore. Those were the days when the erstwhile kings and queens still had lot of entitlement promised to them by Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel when he got them to sign the certificate of accession with the union of India and it was before Indira Gandhi had removed final feather in their caps, the privy purses and brought them equal to common man. Well not really, if you look at the life of the former Rajas and Maharajas they still behave somewhat in that fashion and either command respect or demand so when you deal with them. Just a day before in parliament when Jyotiraditya Scindia who recently moved over and shifted his place in the parliament, was speaking to another leader in the house addressed him as Maharaj, in jest or otherwise but he didn't feel awkward. Same way the road named after his father is still called Shimant Madhav Rao Scindia Marg.

Betma may have had some 1000 houses in those days with the population of under 5000 people. It was called a kasba, that is a bigger than a village and smaller than a tehsil, there was a weekly bazaar for locals and also for people living in nearby villages to do their weekly and sometimes monthly household stuff shopping of, spices, clothes etc etc. Like villages those days, there was a main road where most of the shops were located like grocery, pharmacy, tailors, barbers, pawn brokers, cloth merchants, utensil shops, veterinary clinic, doctors, dyers, it also had girls primary school, post office, etc. Rest of the village had only smaller shops catering to daily needs of neighborhood. Bus stand was not very far and was the main entry to the village from a highway passing through and connecting Indore to other cities like Ratlam, that would then enter Rajasthan near Chittorgarh and Jhabua that would further go to Godhra and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

Coming from Indore before you entered the village was a gurdwara where Nanak dev ji had come and stayed for six months during his world tour. So the village also has a holy significance. Little further when the village boundary started, was a government middle and higher secondary school founded in early last century around the time when the first world war broke out.

Most of the buses plying on the route on highway would stop at the bus stand that was the most happening place in the village with several eateries, chai shops, a civil dispensary and a police station. It also had an आरा मशीन ( a wood cutting factory with a giant machine to slice tree trunks into smaller pieces used in construction of houses as well as used in making bullock carts etc. 

Bus stand area was also frequented by people young school dropouts, idlers and their likes who had nothing else to do.. they will sit around and watch buses coming and going while they sat in a corner and played cards as part of their gambling routine. Amongst the eateries was one famous shop "Amma ke bade". Apparently Amma didn't have anyone in the family and used to run this small eatery assisted by one or two small boys, making just "aloo bada".. it was different in shape and taste and cheaper than other places, I think a bada would cost 3 paisa in those days and there would be a queue in front of her shop. Many a times a bus would stop there only for a few minutes just enough for passengers to have tea or a cold drink sitting in the bus. One of my friends' family used to have a tea shop with enough space for 3 or 4  people to sit where most of the business would happen by serving tea to people who stood in front of the tea stall. In the mornings you would also get poha there. One will pay 3 paisa for normal tea and 5 for special tea. Normal tea would be prepared with half water and half milk and special will be with full milk. There was a time when after school I would go to bus stand and help my friend in selling Gold Spot, Fanta, Rimzim and other cold drinks in the buses.

When we moved to Betma I joined class 4 in primary school which was next to kachehary (a local court cum Gram Panchayat office) in the middle of the village and on a mound that may have been as high as a flyover but back then it appeared as if we were climbing a hill. 

One day a couple of months after we moved, I was playing with some friends outside the house that was the main bazar called "poora" bazaar aka "bada" bazar that used to be crowded on weekly bazar days and empty on other, with barely few people crossing the road on foot or on bicycle. There were practically no motorised vehicles, once or twice a bullock cart will pass. My friends and I were playing a game called "pitthu" with a cotton-filled ball made by me with cotton chindi (rugs, cloth scrap from tailoring shop) into small peace of cloth and stitching it using a needle.  I had become an expert in that so much that I would sell it for one or two paisa. While playing a shot over the stone heap the ball bounced and hit a passer-by who was carrying a small wire-framed-cage tray that had 6 small glasses filled with milk for some customer. ( Same fellow who later became my friend, whose family was running a tea stall at bus stand). That ball hit the tray and there went all the glasses and milk, nothing was left of it, everything went flying here and there. I was so shocked and gripped with fear of what would be coming next.. there was no where to run and hide to, I didn't even made an attempt. Next I heard from the person " I lost all I had, milk and glasses, you either pay for the glasses or for the milk", I was stunned as to how could a person be so reasonable without even negotiating for the damages. However, I agreed to pay for the glasses that amounted to some 15 paisa and asked for a month to pay back.. that I did by selling the cotton balls that I dexterously made and saved my skin. 

It was indeed a fair deal.. isn't it?

Pic courtesy internet ( hualong motor company website).

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