It happened slowly. When the tamarind pond was first filled, heavy carts rolled by day and night over the road that passed in front of the tamarind tree. It was by this road that goods from the warehouses in Kottar went to towns in the east and west. What used to be the tamarind pond was now leveled ground—it became a playing ground, of sorts. There, in the evenings, boys played kabaddi and ball games. One side of the playground turned into a parking area for carts at night, and cart owners could be seen unyoking bullocks for a night’s respite from pulling travelers. When bus travel became prevalent, the playground turned into a bus stand, and a few shops and food stalls cropped up around it.

Gradually, traffic increased. The road that passed in front of the tamarind tree was now paved with cement. The area became a “junction.” Even though there were many other junctions and tamarind trees in the town, when people spoke of “the tamarind tree,” this was the tree they meant, and when they mentioned “the junction,” they were talking about this one. When the number of vehicles on the road increased exponentially and the traffic became uncontrollable, they shifted the bus stand and the parking area for carts to a different location.

The playground area—which had once been the tamarind pond—was once again empty, and so the municipality proposed a development project. Based on that proposal, comprehensive plans were laid out for a first-class shopping area around the tamarind tree. The playground area was divided into small plots and individual leases were drawn. Neelakantan Potri, who came from Udupi, built a two-story building and started a restaurant. Initially, he had to spend over a lakh of rupees, but gradually over the next ten years he did very well. He then bought twenty acres of prime irrigated land near the Putheri Reservoir. A dozen or so of his taxis roamed through town. He wasted no time in buying up all the empty lots in the vicinity. They say that years later, when he grew old and decided to return to his hometown, he had to be paid twenty thousand rupees over and above the cost of construction just to convince him to vacate his lease.

Next to the restaurant, and right in front of the tamarind tree, a row of stores sprang up. The shop nearest to the restaurant was a money changer, next to that was a barbershop, and next to that stood a snuff dealer (wholesale). Right across the road from the tamarind tree was Abdul Khader’s famous stationery shop. Next door to it was the big movie theater, which was always packed and busy.