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Air-filled fun
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For parents who cannot afford the exorbitant branded toys, air toys are the best buy. These are light, safe and great fun to play with for kids.
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A FEAST FOR THE KIDS: Air-filled toys being sold at Balfour Road in Kelly's. Photo: K. Pichumani.
IT IS a quiet evening on Harley's Road. The sun has retired from its perch. There is a let-up in the traffic. A man and a woman, dressed in jogging rags, walk briskly, their hands swinging up and down vigorously. Near the Kelly's Branch of the Indian Bank, stands a raintree. This tree is known in the vernacular as thunghu munjhi maram or sleepy-eyed tree, because the leaves fold up at evenfall, the way eyelids close over the eyes when we abandon ourselves to sleep. As if it has caught an infection from the raintree, a dog that is lying under it presents a picture of languorous ease. The canine's tongue lolls around as it rolls on its back.
No amount of looking around the place throws up anything interesting to take in. But, life being what it is, there will always be exceptions that will outshine any monotony. And this evening on Harley's Road does not give the lie to this notion. In a nook, diametrically opposite to the Indian Bank office, one could see some interesting activity going on.
Sridharan has pitched camp once again. He has spread an array of toys before him - fluffy animals, remote-controlled cars, video games... Some caps have been blessed with an aerial display. He has something for the grown-ups too - FM radio receivers in different shapes. The sizes are uniform in that they are all small and you can comfortably close a palm over them. You search in this assortment of playthings for the flavour of the season. Your searching glance draws a blank. You query Sridharan about the air toys.
They are in there, he says, pointing to a bag. He adds that if the bag is opened, you will have more toys than you can shake a stick at.
True to his word, there are dolphins, elephants, deer, lion and many other members of the animal kingdom. There are also human figures. But, flat as a pancake, they hardly resemble any of these afore-mentioned beings. You need to breathe life into them, with an air pump. Once you do that, they take on shapes that remind you of their originals in the jungle.
"I sell these air toys for Rs. 20 each," says Sridharan. There are many Sridharans around the city who are selling such air toys from their "street-side shops". While many of the air toy sellers do it part-time, some take it up as a full-time job.
"It is viable as a full-time job, if you know where to deck out your ware. It is a hit with the children. It goes well with the parents too, as they are dirt-cheap," says Ravi, who sells them at Kaliamman Koil Street, near Koyambedu.
Though Sridharan sells his air toys from a permanent place, most others dealing in the same commodity do not operate from the same area for long. Ravi changes his area of sales, from time to time. The nature of these toys lends itself to such peregrinating behaviour. The whole kit and the caboodle can be stuffed into a medium-to-large bag. Thanks to this, the trader can shift his area of business, any number of times on a day.
Only a few days ago, one such trader was selling air toys on Balfour Road. Now you see neither hide nor hair of him, on this road.
Sridharan conducts his business from 9 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. He has nothing to fear from the sun because a kathuva maram stands as sun-shield for him. Even the raintree (near the Indian Bank's Kelly's branch office) has flung its branches far enough to be a cooling overhead presence for Sridharan.
What such traders have to fear is the rain, as also the Corporation authorities who sometimes rain on their parade.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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