Something brought to my memory long forgotten Arisi Kaarar of those days. Our Arisi Kaarar (the rice man) came from Nellore. Telugu man who never bothered to learn Tamil. He used to communicate in his broken Tamil with us. Every month before 5th, he used to come I think with his Arisi vandi (rice cart – must be one drawn by oxen; omg i don’t even remember how he brought home those huge rice bags!). Or I vaguely remember, the cart could be pulled either ways by men with the rice bags loaded from Andhra. He walked besides them I think.
We bought normally half a moottai (or half sack) I think. It was Andhra Pachcharisi. He used padi (measuring cups) to measure rice that was normally done in the front room of our house. For years this tradition continued since my birth or from before that. I don’t even remember what was the price of 1 kg rice then. Then when I was in higher secondary perhaps, he came home with a marriage invitation for his daughter. The wedding was in Andhra I think. We could not naturally go. After that he never came back.
We did not even have his contact address in those days. No phone number. Every month he came from Nellore on one big round of good old Madras with his rice bags. Only if he ever came, we saw him. Then one day his foreman/assistant came home for collection (i think). He told us that the marriage of the Arisikaarar’s daughter did not go through at the last moment. After that he never left the house out of shame. In those days, it was a big matter. People ended their lives over loss of respect and honour in the society. We settled the balance, whatever. After that no more rice came for us from Nellore. Like everyone else we switched over to Tanjore Ponni I think for the first time. A few families like ours never visited Arisi Mandi (rice shops) for years and stuck to Nellore rice. I think from late 80s we moved over from Nellore rice to Tanjore delta rice permanently.
Interestingly there is a street in Mylapore by name Arisikaarar street.
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This is not to demean anyone, but two smart Telugu girls who we used to call ‘lachchi’ came for bathroom cleaning every alternate day. I think the profession was then based on caste. We paid monthly 2 or 3 rupees to them at one point of time. Both were attractive teens in lambadi clothes. They wore colourful beaded necklaces and bangles. That much I can recollect about them.
Thankfully our society has outgrown of the ‘lachchis.’ I take this opportunity to think of them who used to clean others’ bathrooms/toilets. Now we have sophisticated so-called ‘deep cleaners’ who we can book online through apps if we can’t manage tiles/bathroom cleaning with our domestic helps. But how horrible we were as a community when we entrusted this menial job to someone for caste reasons paying them abysmally poor for their labour. Today when I see the Shahrukh Khan Harpic commercial showing Indian toilet, I am reminded how sparkling ours used to be without using bleach or Harpic in those days as maintained by those lachchis, who used only a thick short broom stick and soap powder or something like that for cleaning.
All these lines of work are now eliminated as I see. They got eliminated long back from our midst. They are not around since the 1990s.
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India is a lot changed for the better. We have a far more just and equitable society here now than we did until the 1980s. Less of caste/community prejudice or discrimination. Equal opportunities for all. Very high literacy in Indian history. Both of my househelp’s kids are graduates and are computer literates. So are my regular autowallah’s children. We see people develop all around us but these 2 families I personally have seen climb out of poverty as education paves the way for a better future for their children. India’s economic strength has not happened in a single day. Its years of reformation on every front – social, political, micro and macro levels, state and nation levels. Its good to see some cursed caste based professions disappear.
vijiravindran's 