Triplicane nostalgia ! - Excellent Stores

It was almost 9 pm – Thiruvallikkeni aka Triplicane sleeps late and gets up early – still, not the time many customers would visit this shop, just opposite to Hindu Senior Secondary School in Veeraraghava Mudali Street (famously Big Street) – its owner – lean and tall Jalaluddin was sitting relaxedly.  This shop in Triplicane has completed 70 years !! 

For Office-goers and businessmen, life is dependent on ‘Excel’ing – every transaction including household expenses are often posted on MS Excel.  Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.  Excel forms part of the Microsoft Office suite of software. Using a grid of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-named columns to organize data manipulations like arithmetic operations, it is so easy to operate. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer statistical, engineering, and financial needs. In addition, it can display data as line graphs, histograms and charts and more.  You can sort, filter and do whatever with the data at hand. Excel 2016 has 484 functions. Of these, 360 existed prior to Excel 2010. Microsoft classifies these functions in 14 categories. Of the 484 current functions, 386 may be called from VBA as methods of the object "WorksheetFunction"  and 44 have the same names as VBA functions. 

So Computer Class this .. .. but something on the noun ‘Excellent’ !!! 

The adjective Excellent  - would mean : very good of its kind : eminently good : first classx : superior.   

Etymologically, the word is from Middle English excellen, from Old French exceller, from Latin excellere, excelsum – and has many synonyms like – admirable, attractive, distinguished, exceptional, exemplary, fine, magnificent, outstanding, sterling, choicest, distinctive, meritorious, notable, premium, prime, supreme, top-notch, world-class and more.  

The noun Excellency is - "high rank," c. 1200, from Latin excellentia "superiority, excellence," from excellentem; as a title of honor it dates from early 14c. Be that it may – no post on ‘language’ either.  

In 1970s and mid 1980s – Thulasinga Perumal Kovil Street [TP koil Street where I lived] started from Gangana mantapam [Gangaikondan mantapam for Perumal].  On the left side – no. 1 was Nataraja Stores – it had an Ayurvedic practitioner (Venkataramana Dikshitalu !!) and Hindi classes on the terrace.  No.3 housed another big Ayurvedha hospital .. .. and somewhat big store called ‘Excellent Store’ selling stationery, school note books, Pencils, Pens, toys, batteries, colour paper, wired bags and more .. .. 

A grand old man used to sit in the galla, and Jalaluddin seen in first para is the grandson, now continuing family business.  It used to bustle with customers in the mornings and evenings and was a premium shop, perhaps a bit costly.  

Jalaluddin was my classmate in 8^th standard in Hindu High School, Red Building – yesterday, as I passed by, took a moment and in a thrice both of us called each other name, remembering good old days.

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
28.6.2022