Some elements of our society will always remain puzzles to me; like the grocery shopkeeper, the newspaper guy, and me for getting my mind boggled by them.
I went grocery shopping the other day and realized I am the same seven-year-old who had just learned to do ‘3 on my mind and two on my fingers’ to add two single-digit numbers. I learned to solve complex derivatives and integrations in high school and studied ultra-complex electronics engineering in graduation. But 7+5 in the unit’s place got me counting my fingers.
Our grocery shopkeeper weighs the lady’s fingers from my tray that I’ve handpicked from the heap. It will never be exactly 500 grams as my mum asked me to buy. But not to worry, the seller uncle knows how many more ‘bhindis’ I must add. “Get 2 small and 3 large size lady’s fingers, quick!” He then cuts half a kg bottle gourd without needing the weighing scale, while asking the farthest customer in the line for his list. The beetroot doesn’t weigh 225 grams, but he intuitively knows how much 205 grams of beet costs even though the vegetable rates change every 3 days. He’s got no tolerance for turtles shopping in his store. If I hand over my veggies slowly, he shrieks his favourite English word and probably the only one he found worth learning-‘nnnextttt!!!’
He then takes out the pen tucked behind his right ear and writes the price on the rectangular sheet of paper. Only he and his God are capable of understanding his handwriting. At lightning speed, he will weigh all the 31 items on my list, and decide the price of irregularly weighing items, while keeping a keen eye on the customers behind me. Not a grain of wheat can leave his store without his permission.
This is the time when the math god possesses his body and makes him talk unintelligible numbers to himself. He doesn’t use a calculator because it slows him down. He mumbles numbers that sound like a Hanuman Chalisa, adds them up and writes the total at the speed of an express train with failed breaks. All this happens within 2.5 minutes. Okay, add more 0.03 minutes, because, I forgot to add the lemons from the tray behind him.
I topped most of my school math exams. I even taught math to school students. But looking at the shopkeepers’ gift of number cranking, I often wonder how much money my parents would have saved in fees, had they sent me to these shopkeepers for learning instead of a school.
But then I lose the carryover digit in the tens place and my calculations go all wrong.
Comments
It’s rare about Maharashtrian vender or owner.
It’s rare about Maharashtrian vender or owner.