Shop is closed. Picture was taken early in the morning. I am intrigued by
the fact that the shop owner has not bothered to shift some of the sacks
inside, before closing the shop at night. On close inspection I found that
they contained packets of salt. And that's why the owner never bothered
to shift them inside ! This is all that I had to say. But I have said much
more and made a story out of it. If you are interested in the story, please
continue reading. If not, you may shift your attention to other people
clogging your screen and calling for your attention !
During my childhood in Bangalore, we had a very cordial relationship with
almost all our neighbours. We are especially indebted to one particular family,
the Reddys, for their affection towards us and also for various favours we
received from them. We used their phone, their water, their car and other
facilities as if they were our own. During my half-hearted and short lived
dental practice at our out house in Bangalore, my waiting room furniture
was from their house. In my tight budget I did not have enough funds to
buy them. I was about six years old when they built their house opposite
ours and started staying there. I left Bangalore when I was twenty six. It
has been forty years since I shifted from Bangalore. But the good relations
with the Reddy’s family has remained. They continue to live in the same place.
There were no grocery shops near our house and it was quite common for
members of both families to cross the street with a box or bowl in hand to
borrow some Sugar, dal, oil or flour when there was an urgency. This give
and take extended to cooked food too when some relative arrived without
notice at lunch time !
On one such give and take occasion their boy came to our house with a small
bowl in hand and he placed a 25 paise coin in my hand before asking for some
salt. (This was before the onset of packed/ iodised salt. Coarse salt used to be
brought in a hand cart and sold on the street. The vendor used to come about
once a week calling out ‘uppooo, uppu’ - uppu is salt in kannada - we bought
salt from him and stored it) I did not understand why he was giving me money
but my mother took it smilingly and she handed over some salt to the boy.
Later she explained to me that while we can request for a loan of any item that
we may need, one should never take a loan of salt. Salt should always be paid for !
I don't know how to explain the meaning of the kannada/sanskrit word ‘riNa’. You
may simply call it a debt, but it is something more than that. I may say that it is
owing someone something and the compulsion to return/repay the same. This
something could be cash, kind, goodwill, gesture or favour. There are many
types of ‘riNas’ - Anna riNa, Dhana riNa, Pitru riNa, Guru riNa, Deva riNa, so
on and so forth and there are various ways to repay/clear the riNas. Our
philosophy believes in cycles of birth and death till one attains salvation or
‘Moksha’ - and I think (apart from other requirements) one will not be eligible
for ‘moksha’ unless all the ‘riNas’ are cleared. You keep being born again and
again till it is done. “Punarapi jananam, punarapi maraNam, Punarapi janani
jathare shayanam” - be born again, die again and lay in the mother’s stomach
yet again. While the concerned authorities may waive off some ‘riNa’ if they so
wish, the ‘rina of salt’ is never waived and one has to clear it by taking another
birth or many more births if necessary ! Well, that is the belief.
That is the reason why people are always very wary of getting into the ‘salt rina’.
I was under the impression that during these modern days, we have gotten over
the unfounded beliefs but the sentiment seems to be very deep and prevailing.
That's why the grocer near my house never bothers to shift his sacks of salt inside
when he closes shop every night. He keeps piles of sacks containing rice, dal
and salt as well as boxes containing bottles of oil on the sides of his front steps
during the day. And, while he shifts all other items inside when he closes at night,
he never bothers to shift the sacks containing packets of salt because he is sure
that no one will take a packet of salt without payment !!
I had attached an extra length of plastic drainage pipe to the drainage outlet we
have at the bottom of our compound wall and it was stolen two days after I
fixed it. It cost three hundred rupees. But nobody touches packets of salt
costing more than five thousand rupees, lying outside the shop day and night,
and the salt remains safe!
My story is almost over except for a short ‘upakathe’ - a side story on salt.
A group of thieves decided to burgle a nobleman’s house and wanted to get the
inside information about the layout of the house etc. They joined the crowd of
hundreds of strangers who thronged the nobleman’s house every afternoon for
free lunch. Someone connected to the household got the information about the
group of burglars operating in the vicinity and their modus operandi. But it was
a tough task to identify the burglars amongst hundreds of strangers. The cook
got a bright idea. He purposefully avoided putting salt to the dishes and served
some salt to every guest separately. People serving the dishes were asked to
keep an eye on those who did not touch the salt. Everyone added the separately
served salt to the dishes but the burglars stuck to the adage -“ಉಪ್ಪು ತಿಂದಮನೆಗೆ
ಎರಡು ಬಗೆಯಬೇಡ” “don’t harm those whose salt you have consumed” and they
ate what was served without mixing salt to it. They were noted, watched
carefully and were caught when they attempted the burglary. I had heard this
story a long long time back.
With this I end my salt story. Sorry for testing your patience. Have a good day.
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