Xavier's cornucopia

The petty shop owner is only three houses away from my house and sells groceries and milk. A retired employee from Ashok Leyland established this shop three years before his retirement; was looked after by his wife when he is away for duty.  A charming personality knows how to deal with people.  A vegetable vender woman, slender carrying double her weight on her head used to park the load near this shop to have a little rest, also  to attract the nearby residents shouting in a shrill voice 'keere' 'keerai'. This is the time I go there for my two packets of aavin premium milk satchets. The woman will ask me with a cup of hot tea in hand, pointing her eyes downwards to the load of vegetables kept on the ground. I will reply with two nods of head shakes from left to right and back. There ends the bargain, but the dialogue of her ardorous journey in the wee hours by share auto, the procurement process etc continue. Sometimes feeling pity on her, used to offer her money f...

  We were watching the live telecast of homage to singer S Janaki, my neighbour's head appeared on the grill door.  She asked; is your water taps in working condition, and the water flow good? She was preparing for washing of clothes and suddenly water stopped from the taps.  Is there any message about the stoppage of water in the Mygate app.? It was 12 00 noon and my wife scanning the messages from mygate informed her that there is a warning for judicious usage of water, as there is an unidentified problem of pumping into the storage tank which is being investigated. By the time we checked the water flow for storing water into buckets for emergency use,  supply completely stopped.  Our anxiety had been, after lunch how to clean the utensils, and wash our hands and mouth. Yesterday's Hindu property plus edition became handy to clence hands and utensils until water is restored.  My anxiety was restoration of water supply after a compulsory brief nap(siesta)...