The Story of My Life ( My father's side)

Hi all,

In my previous blog ( which I actually edited to include more information on the Chitradurga clan), I had stopped at the point where I had given information on my maternal grand uncles and aunts and their children.
I've not yet come to the point where I've talked about first cousins from my mom's side. I'll come to that later.

More on my dad now.

Arkalgud Chaluvaiya Hiriyanniya was born on 31st May 1923 in Mysore to Gowramma and Arkalgud Narasimhaiya Chaluvaiya.

He was born under the Jyeshta Nakshatra and was promptly named Hiriyanniya, meaning elder brother.The belief is that by calling a person elder brother, other children will follow to whom the person becomes the elder brother and thereby the family does not stop with that child.

My dad was the second of 10 siblings-- 7 brothers and 3 sisters ( naming my father Hiriyanniya must have done the trick!!).The brothers were Kanteeravaswamy, Hiriyanniya, Sathyanarayana, Subrahmanya ( Chubbadi to us) , Sethuram, Ananthaswamy ( Anti to us)and Ramaswamy ( Papanni). The sisters were Lakshmidevamma, Sharadamba( Chambi) and Lalithamba( Lambi).The survivors now are Chubbadi, Papanni and Chambi.

Chaluvaiya was a Chartered Accountant ( very rare in those days) and served in various places such as Mysore ( Secretary, Krishnarajendra Mills) and Bhadravati ( Mysore Iron & Steel Co) before finally settling down in Gavipuram, Bangalore and starting his CA practice under the name of A N Chaluvaiya & Co at Raja Market, Chikpet. I believe this company is still in existence to this day, though I am open to correction.

A.N.Anantharamiah was A.N.Chaluvaiya's brother and he and his wife Pathamma had 13 children ( Narasimhaswamy, Subba Rao ( Subbu), Venugopal( Venu), Shivaramiah ( Mari),
Padmanabha( Paddi),Devaraiya( Raju), Vijayasimha, Sampath ,Suryaprakash( Gundu) . Lakshmi, Saraswati, Lalithamba ) Lily) and Vani.

Chaluvaiya and Anantharamiah's mother died at an early age, so their father Narasimhaiya married again ( Pathakka) and had more children--- Subbuswamy, Ramanna, Narayanamurthy, one sister who married Dr.K.Thimmappiah, another sister who married A.Venkateshiah( a leading lawyer in Mysore)and perhaps a few more that I'm not aware of.

Anantharamiah was in the Mysore Revenue Service and practiced law in the Mysore High Court after his retirement. He and his family stayed in Langford Town ( Berlie Street Cross) and my dad used to take us to his house frequently on our visits to Bangalore.

Arkalgud is our family name and is a small town in Hassan District.I've never been there even though I studied my Engineering in Hassan for five years.

We belong to the Babboorkamme clan of Smartha Brahmins and it is widely believed that the Babboorkammes came over to Karnataka from Andhra Pradesh in the 1700s or 1800s and settled down on the banks of the Cauvery and Hemavaty rivers in Karnataka and formed their own Agraharas.

Another theory says that we are called Babboorkammes because we have come from Barabara Nadu ( modern Punjab).The Babbar Khalsa is supposed to have some connection with Babboorkammes though this is something for the experts to study and agree upon.

My Gothra is Chikitha Vishwamitra. I'm aware that most of the Gothras have come from the Saptharishis so I presume we are all descendants of Vishwamitra--- though I'd still like to know what Chikitha means.

Our family deity is Sree Yoganarasimha at Melkote.Typically, the family deity comes from the father's side but my mother's family deity also happened to be Sree Yoganarasimha at Melkote, so this was a happy coincidence.

We are Kalla Vokkalu as far as Lord Balaji of Tirupathi is concerned--- which means that we can go and visit the Tirupati temple only if we are accompanied by someone who pays for all our expenses in Tirupati. We are not supposed to make any offerings also. This is one more so-called tradition for which I'd like to get the background.

One more tradition in our family is that the male child has either his Juttu or Munji at Melkote.I had my Juttu in Melkote in 1952 or 1953 and my dad had hired a bus from Bangalore to Melkote for the occasion.

Dad completed his BSc from Central College, Bangalore and majored in Chemistry and Geology. After graduation in 1946, he joined Mettur Chemicals for a brief while as a Chemist and then joined John Taylor & Sons, Kolar Gold Fields as a probationer in 1947.

John Taylor & Sons were a British Company and were operating the Gold Mines in KGF since 1881.

Kolar Gold Fields is like no other town that I've seen in India. It had a vast area running around 15 kilometres lengthwise called the mining area.This was where the mining acivity took place and where the officers' bungalows and the clubs were located.Then there was the "town" area which was called Robertsonpet where all the commercial activities took place.

During the 40s and 50s, it was populated mainly by Britishers and Anglo Indians and was a mini England in India.

More on KGF later since this deserves an entire chapter ( or more).

It was to this place that Dad brought his wife Rajamani after they got married on 5th December 1948.
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The first few months in KGF were hell for my mom. Picture this---- she was born and brought up in Chitradurga and had studied in the Kannada medium up to the 10th Std ( SSLC). She was barely 15 years when she got married and all of a sudden she was pitchforked to this very British town where everyone spoke only in English and ---- horror of horrors--- she was expected to shake hands with the British men!!!!

My dad was obviously anxious to make an impression on his British bosses and I can imagine the furious arguments that took place when he wanted my mom to attend a party with him and she refused because she didn't know a word of English.

On top of this, she didn't know much cooking and was now expected to run a house with servants. Anyway, my maternal grandparents ,in their wisdom, decided that my mom needed a chaperone and who should they send but Sowbhagya who was all of 4 years old then and insisted on sleeping next to my mom!!

You can imagine how my dad would have felt.

Now you know why the first few months in KGF were hell for my mom.

Bye for now and I'll talk about my initial years in KGF in my next blog.

The Story of My Life

Chitradurga, in the dusty plains of Karnataka, is not the most ideal place to be in the summer.That's where I was born on the 21st of March in 1951.
My mother, Rajamani, wasn't yet 18 years old, but that was pretty normal during those times. Following the family custom, she went to her parents' place for the delivery.
Sukhananda Nilaya in Chitradurga was a large sprawling house ( aptly called Dodda Mane)jointly occupied by my maternal grandfather N.C.Ramachandra Rao ( Ramanna)and his brother N.C.Sadashiva Rao ( Shiva).
Ramanna and Shiva were 2 of 6 brothers--- the others being C.S.Narayana Rao ( Doddanna), N.C.Lakshminarasimha Rao ( Annavaru), N.C.Bhujanga Rao and N.C.Vishveshwar Rao ( Appaji).Annavaru had already shifted to Bangalore but the remaining 3 brothers had houses very close to Dodda Mane.They had sisters--- I don't know how many, but I do recollect Choudakka, Vishalu and Nagarathna.
( Why did Doddanna have his initials as CS while the others had NC? Bhujangaś son Thammanna gave me the answer but let me see if any of the Bungale clan can answer this.)

Choudakka had been widowed early and didn't have any children. Following custom, she had shaved her head and used to don a saffron coloured saree ( madi seere)--- no blouse.She used to stay at Dodda Mane and was the resident midwife.She obviously had plenty of work to keep her occupied since there were a stream of arrivals of my cousins ( not to mention more aunts and uncles) starting from 1944 till 1961.

The 6 brothers that I've referred to above had started a company called C.S.Narayana Rao & Bros and they were the Selling Agents for the Ogale Group of Companies headquartered in Ogalewadi, Maharashtra. Ogales used to manufacture glass items such as hurricane lanterns and kerosene stoves and my grandfather along with his brothers used to tour the length and breadth of Karnataka ( or Mysore State as it was then called) selling these items.Along with this, they were also manufacturers of Sukhananda Tooth Powder, Sukhananda Pomade etc.

The Tooth Powder and Pomade were all manufactured in Chitradurga and many were the days when my cousins and I were roped in to fill the small brown covers with toothpowder and the glass bottles with pomade.This was done in the huge hall of Dodda Mane.

My great grandfather ( Ramanna's father) was Bungale Chowdiah. He was born in 1875and celebrated his 80th Birthday in 1955.He died in Jan 1956 and there was a great congregation of uncles, aunts and cousins who were present during the ceremonies.A group photograph was taken on that occasion and adorns the house of most of the Chitradurga clan. His wife outlived him and the family folklore has it that he had a premonition of his death and was extremely upset that his wife would live on as a widow.You must remember that widows were not supposed to wear Kumkum and flowers and he was sad that she would look unadorned if she outlived him.He was fairly well built and our mothers would frighten us that Ajja ( as he was called) was coming in order to make us eat our food or go to sleep. ( A kind of olden day Gabbar Singh!!). Ajji passed away in 1959.

Ajja was supposed to have served in the Maharaja's palace at Mysore and then come over to Chitradurga after his retirement.

So here's the Chitradurga family:-

Ajja and Ajji

Doddanna ( he lost his wife early) and his sons Kittanna and Murthy and daughters Sathu ( also known as Putta Sharade), Parvathi and Krishnaveni .

Ramanna, his wife Subbamma, his daughters Saraswathi, Seethamma, Rajamani( my mom), Kanthamani, Sowbhagya and Prabhakar Rao.

Shiva, his wife Pathamma ( thankfully still among us as I edit this blog in Jul 2020)  and children Sundari, Sharade ( also called Dodda Sharade, because a Putta Sharade followed ),Swamy,Sundara, Gayatri, Bali,Vani and Raji.

Annavaru, his wife Machamma and children Sathya, Kanta,Shantha,Bhageerthi,Subba,Shailaja,Uma,Chidambara and Ravi.

Bhujanga, his wife Subbamma and children Thammanna,
Mahalakshmi( Mari to all of us), Chudamani,Prabhavathi,Jaisimha,Shubhangini and Nanda.

Bhujanga was a real terror and used to tease my mom and aunts mercilessly.He also had a heart of gold. We had lost touch with Bhujanga's family. A chance visit to Chennai by Mari's son helped us revive our connections and now Sudha ( my wife--- but I'm getting ahead of the story)and I are regulars at their family functions and so are their family members at our functions.

Appaji, his wife Lakshmidevamma and their daughters Usha,Bharathi and Saroj ( Rosy to all of us). Of all my grand-uncles, I was closest to Appaji, probably because they had only daughters and regarded me as their son.As soon as we got to Chitradurga for our summer vacations, I would be off to Appaji's house ( which was opposite to Dodda Mane) and would be properly pampered and fussed over.

 Vishalu and her sons Narayana, Shivu, Nagaraja and daughters Batani ( I swear this is her real name), Mangalamba, Nagamani and Leelavathi.
 Mangalamba and Nagamani got married together and the wedding took place in the Dodda Mane at Chitradurga.
 Nagarathna (who stayed in Seshadripuram, Bangalore) had two sons that I know of ---- Ramsesha( we called him Tinopal because he used to wear spotless white shirts and trousers) and Thandu.

If you thought that ours was a big family based on what you've read so far, you'd be half right-- because I'm yet to get to my father's side of the family.

Until then, goodbye!!