JHALAKA

It was a day for nostalgia. A new bunch of young recruits joined and took me back to the days when I had hesitantly taken the few steps in the outside world without the protective arms of a parent or guardian. The city was Hubli and I was to attend an interview. Alighting from a bus at Hubli in the wee hours of the morning, I looked around and located a lodge to station myself. A slingbag contained my original certificates and the change overs. All of about 5 ft 9 in tall and a thin mush cropping up on a slender frame the receptionist at the lodge placed me as a student. He quizzed me on my intentions of the visit as well as the location of the interview. The elderly man then decided that I was not in need of a room. He queried me in the Dharwad dialect -"Jhalaka adhare saakalla". The term Jhalaka was new. In South Karnataka the term used is Snana. Once he explained this to me, he offered to give me the facilities of refreshing myself as well as have a bath. My suspicions arose as to why he was doing this. He explained that the location for the interview was close by and he would offer the facility for a princely sum of rupees two as against the room rent of rupees fifteen. I saluted the man accepted his proposal and remember his good gesture. May be another day I would also be able to extend such a gesture to someone!!!!!!