On Top of the World

There is a child in everyone. The one in me is about 13/14 years old, extremely active and has a number of unfulfilled desires. I have no illusions about anything otherwise and I don't want to pretend it to be anything else. 

Among various things, I have often thought about getting a wooden top for myself. Something that I had played with as a child. I think the desire struck me when, about ten years ago, I was shocked to know that one of my junior colleagues at work had never heard about lattus. I found it terribly odd because he used to keep pigeons !!! Calcuttans would know the connection. These are kind of similar hobbies and pursuits for boys of a certain age and socio-economic-cultural background. 

I did some casual enquiry but realised that it is well nigh impossible to find a wooden top in Calcutta any more. 

The other day in Benares as we were loitering in the Biswanath gali, I tried to kill time on my own when Monisha stopped at some souvenir type shop to buy a few Benarasi purses. I was looking at the other shops and was quietly observing who was selling what. There were these shops selling small tin boats that children run in little buckets filled with water. Childhood memories rushed back. 

Then I saw a shop selling various old fashioned wooden toys for children. Yet another set of childhood memories rushed back in. We used to buy these toys from a very similar shop in Deoghar. There was a toy called "Happy Family" which was our favourite. A wooden toy of a man standing erect. If you opened him down the middle his wife would come out from inside him. You fix him back and open the middle of his wife. Their daughter comes out. Fix the wife, open the daughter and her little brother comes out !! We could identify with this family and would have endless fun doing this assembly and disassembly. 

This Benares shop had various wooden toys including the Happy Family. Suddenly the wooden top I was looking for subconsciously for ten years or more came to mind. I asked him: "apka pas lattu hai?" (do you have tops?) and he said yes. I was quite thrilled. But when he pulled it out I was a little disappointed. 

We used to hate this particular design. These tops would be very unstable. Bounced a lot. And spun for less than a minute perhaps. But the shopkeeper said, this is the only one left in stock. And it is lying there for a very long time. No one looks for these any more. I said give it to me. I thought even if I could not spin it, at least I could show people what a top means. He charged me Rs 50, which I thought was a little on the higher side. 

It came with a rope to wind. But I realised it is a useless piece to have. Upon return to Calcutta I went to Jogubajar to get a proper "letti". Luckily I got it in a shop with the right thickness and material. These days everything has gone nylon. But this shop had cotton ropes of various thicknesses.

Back at home I soaked it in water (my father had taught me this trick) and wound up the top. In two or three attempts it spun and how !!!! I was simply overjoyed. Ecstatic. I can't explain this feeling really. That familiar sound of the nail hitting the floor and sight of it spinning at full speed after some 40 years almost. 

I must say this top is a bloody work of art. All my doubts about its quality was completely unfounded. It is perhaps the best spinning top I have ever owned. It spins rock steady. For a long time. Very long. And once it stops I does not roll out of sight under the table. It drops within an inch of where it was spinning. 

I cannot yet get it to spin straight on my palm (they call it boomerang). As of now I can pick it up from the floor with the letti and make it spin on my palm. But I am at it. I should be able to make it spin on the palm directly pretty soon.

I did some googling about the wooden toy making industry in Benares. Apparently there is a place called Bhelupur where there are clusters of this cottage industry. As is the common refrain, the industry is in deep trouble with diminishing customer interest in the old products, government policies and corrupt NGOs.

Next time I go to Benares Bhelupur will be in my list of "to go" place.