A troupe of children rush towards the cart, the congested street’s traffic instinctively clears a way for them like waters of the Red Sea parting for the Israelites.
One of the most wonderful sights to be encountered here surfaces in summer, with the arrival of “game wali kulfi” vendors.
The children will now gamble.
The Walled City’s lanes are composed of old and new ways of living that merge inexorably into each other. One of the most wonderful sights to be encountered here surfaces in summer, with the arrival of “game wali kulfi” vendors.
The excitement has nothing to do with kulfi, which is disconcertingly slim. It’s the “game” in the “game wali kulfi” that is the hero. The cart is fitted with a pinball game, in which the player aims to manoeuvre a green glassy kancha ball into the highest value square. If the ball lands in number five, the gambler gets five kulfis. If it lands in number two, then just two kulfis. (The player gives the vendor a 5 or 2 rupee coin to play the gambler).
It is rare to find these carts. The few game-kulfi sellers who are in the historic quarter tend to traverse from one lane to another, and have no fixed address.
But here is one exception.
Mr Ismail stands with his “game wali kulfi” at Galli Sooinwallan Chowk. His cart is fitted with the most basic version of the pinball game: there is no spring to hit the kancha, and there is no kancha either. The player gets a small green plastic ball, while lots of nails are stuck up at one end of a wooden block with numbered spaces between them. Aspiring for the greatest number of “khoya malai” kulfis, the player aims to hit at the ball with full concentration. The ball tumbles down into the array of nails and one follows its zigzagging progress with bated breath.
Now a little boy walks up to the cart, gives a coin to Mr Ismail, takes the ball and hits the mail board. The ball rolls down to number five. The boy screams with delight. He is richer by five kulfis. His mouth stays open out of sheer shock.
Mr Ismail stays in the Chowk from 10am to whenever the kulfi gets over, usually around 5 pm. He sells jackets in winter, and says he prefers summertime
E-Paper
