Hole in the wall shop - Shetty Angadi - ಶೆಟ್ಟರ ಅಂಗಡಿ

This year during the lockdown and later also saw a rise general stores or pretty shops. Largely due to the fact that it allowed social distancing naturally. MM calls them as hole in wall shops.

I am very happy about it as one I never liked the impersonal Malls and two I loved the relationships that are built at such shops.

One of such ordinary yet very unique shop was the general stores at Hassan. While growing up in 80's , I visited this shop almost daily for varied reasons. We used to call it as shettara angadi (ಶೆಟ್ಟರ ಅಂಗಡಿ).

It was run by father son duo. May be I never knew the name of the shop or the shop keepers. Though it was a 8×6 ft shop but had commodities more than a BDA complex. This shop was frequented by children and grown ups alike. It was a Miniature Super Store.

1. They sold chocolates of those days - Shama cholcolate, peppermints, neembu chocolates, haalkova(ಹಾಲ್ಕೋವ), kadle mitayi(ಕಡ್ಲೆ ಮಿಠಾಯಿ) etc.

2. Bun gulkan was another best seller.

3. Condiments of all kinds.

4. It was a small library. May be the first library I visited as a child. They had many kannada novels of Anupama Niranjana, Usha Navarathnaram and many others. Magazines like Sudha, Taranga, Prajamata etc. Mostly ladies would rent them. I had rented few Anupama Niranjana novels from here.

5. Then it was a Savings Bank too. They had a card  something like a post card with small circular prints of coin denominations for 10, 25, 50 paise. May be even for 1Rs.

All of our siblings had a card each and wherever we get any coin, we will run and give it to the shop and get it marked on the card. When the card is full which is  probably ₹ 25 or ₹50, we collected the money with a lot of pride and happiness.

Now I realise that it was a smart way of collecting coins needed for the day to day trade at the shop. But as a by product this taught me joy of savings at an early age.