Lucknow Musings: Ashok ki Dukaan

His shop was located a little way off the Arya Kanya Pathshala in a street bustling with vegetable vendors, stationery shops, the odd-cake shop, a photo-studio-cum-video library and a few residential houses. His was the shop my parents most frequented coz he was the old avatar of the modern day Big Bazaar. He stocked everything- from grains to pulses to shampoo to maggi to dusters and mops. It was amazing, how he stacked the shelves with almost everything a household would need in a month (mind you, these were pre-liberalisation days and choices were a tad limited). To the untrained eye it looked like clutter but once a customer had placed a request, one of the shop boys would clamber up or down the product labyrinthine and produce just the desired thing- right down to the correct size.  Ashok ran the dukaan with his elder brother Pradeep. It was a decent sized largish shop- about ten square feet both ways- made attractive by the varieties of brooms and mops and plastic pails hung about the entrance. Some days we would see their father- a fat old sharp gentleman- a true Lala in the whole sense of the word- and some days we'd see their sons- who studied in one of the finest schools in town- helping around.  It was a convenient shop- and almost everything we consumed was provided for by Ashok. That, and of course the local going-ons with a liberal sprinkling of news on the corporate front (HLL was going to drop the prices of detergent so buy it next week- or- a new combo pack of Maggi had just arrived- P&G will offer a free soap next month...) We witnessed the spread of the Ashok empire. He bought the store adjacent to his own, and soon even started occupying the pavement with grains of rice and dal.  Then one day we were shocked to see a wall go up between the shop. Both brothers had decided to part ways. Most blamed the feisty Ashok for this wrongdoing as the stoic Pradeep bore it all tight lipped.  After this development things were nearly not the same anymore, as both brothers found loyalties divided weren't so good for multiplying profits. A lot of the neighbourhood sided with Pradeep which led to Ashok's dwindling misfortunes. Anyhow, he continued. Last I heard was that Pradeep had started free home delivery within half an hour to counter the Big Bazaar menace. He had even started heavily discounting some items but Ma had already shifted to Big Bazaar. True, she found great value and variety there, but she missed the gossip factor. That, and Pradeep's smiling face behind the counter.