Some years back in his hunt for residential land in Dehradun, my uncle set his heart on a far-flung rural site close to a ravine. The kith and kin did much to dissuade him and settle for another plot close to the city that was available at a marginally higher rate but the resolute uncle didn’t yield.
The riddle of his choice for location came to the fore at the Grah Pravesh ceremony a year later where I was present. Between his periphery and the ravine lay a barbed patch whose size was no less than his own plot.
Pointing towards the vegetables, fruits and flowers grown there, he proudly declared, “It is this ‘extra’ on no man’s land that gives much peace to my soul and heart!” Anyone could bet the exhilaration writ large on his face for having possessed that extraneous land would sure make his soul rest in peace.
Alas, the tradition of expecting a little extra over and above the measured or weighted quantity of milk, grocery, veggies, etc. and the shopkeeper faithfully doing it not as a favour but as duty, is losing to the culture of packaging.
As a child, the spoonful of sweets stealthily picked from the share of a sibling was tastier. It was certainly not craving for more but a playful mischief of nonage. Had I asked for more, my mom would have gladly obliged. It is a moot issue whether the desire for knowing what should not be known or transgressing one’s jurisdiction implies an exploratory mindset, helpful in expanding a child’s imaginative dimensions, a benefit denied to the normative lot. The precept of success writers to tread extra steps beyond one’s duty to achieve success lends credence to this proposition.
My other remembrance is that of buying groundnuts or other eatables on return from school. The deal would never be deemed complete without a bit extra added to the due quantity. A similar high could be tasted in cucumber plucked (read stolen) from another’s field in the village although our own produce was sufficient.
Sensing the customer’s sentiment, the marketers come out with ‘sales’ of various descriptions: pre-monsoon sales, monsoon sales, autumn sales, winter sales, end of the season/year sales, New Year sales, summer sales, mid-summer sales and so on. Buy One, Get Two offers are also in line with appeasing the customer’s urge for more. Incentives like conditioner with shampoo, pen drives with laptop, guaranteed gift on each purchase, complimentary stay and meals on a travel ticket also satisfy the same desire.
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Published in The New Indian Express, Edit Page, 16 June 2017.
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