My mom's side relations and Chitradurga holidays

Just to refresh your memory, I'm reproducing a part of my earlier blog:-

So here's the Chitradurga family:-

Ajja and Ajji

Doddanna ( he lost his wife early) and his sons Bajjanna( deceased),Kittanna and Murthy and daughters Krishnaveni and Putta Sharade.

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

Shiva, his wife Pathamma and children Sundari, Dodda Sharade,Swamy,Sundara, Gayathri,Bali,Vani and Raji.

Annavaru, his wife Machamma and children Sathya, Kanta,Shantha,Bhageerthi, Shylaja, Subba, Uma,Chidambara and Ravi.
Bhujanga, his wife Subbamma ( thankfully she's still among us)and children Thammanna,
Mahalakshmi( Mari to all of us), Choodamani,Prabhavathi,Jaisimha,Shubhangini and Nanda.


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.

These are just the brothers. I´ĺl get details of the sisters and their children and post them later.

Now let's come to my mom's siblings and their children ( my cousins).

Saraswathi married H.S.Subbukrishna Rao and their children were Rajalakshmi ( Dodda Papachi), Girija, Vasudeva Rao( Thammayya), Chaya ( Dodda Chaya), Gayathri,Bhaskara and Vasudha. The family stayed in Malleswaram, Bangalore.

Seethamma ( Seethe) married L.S.Srikantiah and their children were Kamalakshi, Nagarathna( Chikka Papachi), Nanjunda, Shankara,Shashikala and Chaya ( Chikka Chaya).
The family stayed in Bhadravathi.

Mom ( Rajamani) was next and you already know about me,Rummy and Sandhya.

Kanthamani( Kanthu) married T.B.Venkatesh and their children were Shashikanth and Vasuki.

( By now, there was some awareness of family planning, but thank God it wasn't there earlier ; otherwise I wouldn't have had some of my wonderful cousins!!).

The family stayed in Bangalore, went to Kashmir for a while and then came back and settled in Bangalore.

Prabhakara married Pramila and their children were Rajini and Lakshmi.The family stayed in Chitradurga, moved to Shimoga for a brief while and later settled in Bangalore.

Sowbhagya married Anand Rao ( brother of Pramila) and has a daughter called Arathi.

This is a list of my first cousins.

My second cousins' list ( children of my mom's cousins) runs to a couple of dozen.

You must also remember that many of my mom's cousins themselves were around my age--- such as Vani, Bali, Raji, Usha, Bharathi etc.

Anyway, all of us who were outside of Chitradurga would converge there during the summer holidays, accompanied by our respective mums.Our dads would either come to drop us off or later to pick us up on our journey back to our respective towns.

The visits were more frequent during the late 50s and early 60s.

We would go from KGF to Bangalore and from there to Chitradurga with Saraswathi and her children.Jogimatti Express was the name of the bus, leaving Bangalore at 6.30 AM and reaching Chitaldroog ( it's anglicized name then) at around 12.30 PM.6 hours for a journey of 120 miles with stops at Nelamangala, Tumkur, Hiriyur and Sira.

Later, there was a luxury bus from Bangalore to Belgaum which left Bangalore at 6.30 AM and reached Chitradurga at around 11 AM.

Mom invariably had a headache while travelling by bus, so she would keep a lemon with her and keep sniffing it.

Ramanna or Prabhakara would meet us at the bus-stand and we would come home in 2 or 3 jutkas.By this time, our Bhadravati cousins would have already landed.

The boys were me, Nanjunda, Shankara and Thammayya. Bhaskara and Shashi were too young and were not included in our group till much later.The girls were Papachis ( both Dodda and Chikka), Chayas ( both Dodda and Chikka---- why the same name among cousins, God only knows), Girija and Shashikala.Then we also had Chandri , Indu and Bhanu ( Sharade's daughters from Chikmagalur) and Nalini ( Sundari's daughter from Duliajan, Assam). Nalini and her younger brother Vishu were studying at Rishi Valley and would come straight from there to Chitradurga.

Along with all these so-called visitors were the Chitradurga "host" uncles and aunts--- Swamy, Sundara, Gayathri.Vani, Bali,Raji, Usha,Bharathi, Thammanna, Prabhavathi et al.

The Dodda Mane was like a menagerie with children running here and there and getting hurt in the process.Amidst all this bedlam was my grandma--- Subbakka-- the very picture of piety and calm.

Ramanna and Subbakka were an unlikely pair. Ramanna was around 6 ft tall and Subbakka was less than 4 ft.But one couldn't have asked for more loving grandparents--- I've been really lucky that way as far as grandparents are concerned from both my parents' sides.

As soon as we got to Chitradurga, my mom would get together with her sisters and cousins and we children were more or less left to fend for ourselves.

The boys would play Lagori ( with 7 stones piled one on top of the other and a tennis ball)or hide and seek.The girls would play hopscotch or another game with 5 round smooth stones.Hide and seek was another common pastime and it was so easy to hide since the house was really huge.

The moms would play pagade. We also played choukabara and cards ( Rummy) as we grew older.

In KGF, Rummy and I were used to having breakfast by 7 AM whereas in Chitradurga, breakfast would be ready only by 9 AM or ( horror of horrors!!!), an early lunch by 10AM. Since there was nothing mom could do about an early breakfast , she would give some money to Rummy and me. We would go to Kittanna's shop and eat some buns.

Subbakka's refuge was the haragolemane ( a vast kitchen cum storeroom)and this is where she would turn out delicious dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner with active help from her daughters and daughter-in-law.

Summer was mango season. Ramanna would go daily to the market and return with a couple of dozen mangos. He would meticulously divide the mangos among his brothers' families.
We were given a choice--- vate or keppe; never a whole mango. Vate was the seed and we had the choice of chewing on it until it was bone dry. Keppe was the pulp and here again we had the choice of biting the pulp till the skin was bone dry. We would be made to take off our shirts and eat the mango so as not to get the mango juice on the shirts.As we ate the mango, the juice would run down our forearm up to the elbow so we had to frequently stop to lick the juice from our arm.

All other thindis--- Chakli, kodbale, thengolu etc were also rationed out very strictly and the thindi dabba would be under lock and key.

Occasionally, at nights, we would all sit in a circle and Subbakka would dole out kaithuthu to all of us.

Every now and then fights would break out among the cousins and the girls would cry copiously and complain to their mothers.

Surprisingly , we boys had no physical fights but we used to have fierce arguments about which among our places were more important.

Thammayya would boast that Bangalore was the most important place since major industries such as HAL,HMT, ITI etc were there and without them India was nowhere.
Nanjunda and Shankara would boast that steel was the most important commodity for a country's economy and without MISL ( Mysore Iron & Steel), India was nowhere.

I would say that KGF was the only gold producing town in India ( if you forget Hutti for a moment) and without gold, India would never have the foreign exchange to set up the HMTs and the HALs , The ITIs and the MISLs.

On a few occasions, we would go the movies in Shankar or Vinayaka Talkies. I remember seeing "Harry Black and the Tiger" which had Sabu ( a Mysore chap who had emigrated to Hollywood).

We also saw "Howrah Bridge" starring Ashok Kumar, Madhubala and K.N.Singh as the villain.

The Dodda Mane hosted a lot of family weddings. My mom and all my aunts except Kanthu got married there. Anti, my dad's brother also got married there in 1959 since the girl was from Chitradurga.

Our visits to the Kote ( fort) were very few even though it is the most important landmark of Chitradurga. Madhukari Nayaka was the local chieftain who fought off an invasion by Hyder Ali's troops in the late 1700s. Obavva was the lady immortalised in ballads who discovered the raiders coming into the fort through a small hole and who felled them one by one with her pestle while her husband gave the alert to the soldiers.

The Akka-Thangi Hole and the Obavvana Kindi were the important places to see in this yelu suthina kote.

Chitradurga was hot, really hot, in summer and there were no fans.The presence of so many grandchildren must have really taxed the elders and I'm sure they heaved a big sigh of relief when we left.

Kamalakshi was learning classical music and she would occasionally sing for all of us at lunch or dinner. Chikka Papacchi was practising Bharata Natyam and she and Bhagya would get together and give a performance or two.

Then would come the time to leave.Pack the clothes, call the jutka to the Dodda mane and back to KGF via Bangalore.

Bye for now. In my next blog, I'll take you through my dad's cousins and the Bangalore holidays.

Movie Going in KGF & The KGF Library

Movie going in KGF, as far as I was concerned, had two distinct phases.

The first phase was in the 50s and early 60s till I was around 12 or 13 years.
In this phase, I used to go to Tamil movies in Robertsonpet with my parents and Rummy and Sandhya while she was an infant.

I had mentioned earlier that the company used to provide a van on Tuesdays and Saturdays to go to Town(Robertsonpet)--- either for shopping or to the theatre.There were three theatres --- Gay, Krishna and Olympia.The pictures were mostly Tamil though there was the occasional Hindi movie-- very rare. No Kannada movies till much later--- mind you, we were in Mysore State, but no Kannada movies.

As soon as a new movie arrived, there would be posters stuck all over. Then , there would be a jutka gaadi moving all over the mining area with one person inside beating a drum and another person strewing pamphlets all over.Very effective advertising--- the coverage was 100%.

Mrs. Vinayagam would immediately ring up mummy and they would make plans together.Dad would book the van ( usually Saturdays-- going on Tuesdays was very rare). The van driver would make his rounds from around 5.15 PM and all of us would reach Town.This was from Nundydroog Mine.Vans would also come from Champion Reefs and Mysore Mine and the movie theatre was where dad and mom would catch up with their friends.We would go only for the evening show

Regulars from Nundydroog Mine were the Hiriyanniyas, the Raja Raos, the GV Raghavans and the Vinayagams. There were also matinee shows on Saturday and Sunday, but it would have been considered infra dig for an Officer or his family to be seen in a Matinee show or a Night Show.

I remember seeing all the MGR, Gemini Ganesan and Sivaji Ganesan classics and the Tamil songs would be played at any function over loudspeakers.MGR's "Nadodi Mannan" was a huge hit.Before the film's release, MGR had publicly declared that if the film was a flop, he would become a "nadodi"--- vagrant-- and if it became a hit, he would become a "Mannan"--- Emperor. The next day, mom would get on to the phone with Mrs.Raja Rao or Mrs.Vinayagam and they would discuss the film threadbare.

Dad had a soft corner for Padmini and would never miss any Padmini film.

The next phase for me was when I became a teenager.I had my own circle of friends then---Patanjali, Priyan,Raguram and Kumar-- and we would regularly go to Ooregum Hall to see English movies.The limit was one movie a month but we had our own way of getting around it.

On Saturdays, around 4PM, all of us would first go to Patan's house.Patan would then tell his dad that the rest of us were going to a movie and could he also join?We would then repeat this exercise at the other houses and then set off.
Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, Norman Wisdom, Bob Hope's "The Road to--" series, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, John Wayne, Dirk Bogarde, Rock Hudson, Charlton Heston--- we saw them all. Westerns and war movies were our favourites and we didn't miss any of them.

The best thing that my dad probably ever did for me was to introduce me to reading.

I was probably around 10 or 11 when he took me to the KGF Library and introduced me to the Librarian.The Library was very close to Ooregum Hall.The fee was Rs.3 per month. The library was open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5.45PM to 7.15PM and we were allowed to take out a maximum of 3 books at a time.The library was started somewhere around the 1890s and they had this flap in the inside cover detailing the names of all people who had read the particular book.It was a bit disconcerting sometimes to find out that I was reading a book which had been read earlier in the early 1900s.

I started with Enid Blyton ( The Famous Five, The Five Find-Outers and Dog), went on to " What Katy Did", " What Katy Did Next", " Fifth Form at St.Clares" and then graduated to Erle Stanley Gardner ( Perry Mason), Agatha Christie and then also smuggled in Ian Fleming ( remember my dad's no to "Dr.No").James Hadley Chase was a favourite back then and so was Arthur Hailey, Lawrence Sanders. Another book to be smuggled and read was Harold Robbins.

I used to read 9 books a week which makes it around 450 books a year.Even during exams, I would read books.Once, when I was in 8th Std, I was reading a book during exam time when my mom crept up behind me and asked what I was reading. The particular chapter that I was reading was called "Breathing Space" where the hero has been kidnapped and has been put in the trunk of the car and is trying to free himself.

I showed the chapter heading to mom and said I was reading about the lungs and showed her the chapter heading.

The book reading habit has still not left though I am not as prolific a reader as I once was.Nevertheless, I still read any scrap of paper if I can't get hold of anything else.

By for now.In my next blog, I'll talk about my cousins from my mom's side and the holidays in Chitradurga.

Photos from the 50s

Here are some photos from the 50s and my school photo in 6th Std taken in 1961.
If you think the photos haven't come out well, do let me know.I'll reshoot them in daylight and upload them again.
I've also added some more content to my previous blog.Pl go through that again.

The Story of my Life ( Early Years in KGF)

Gangamma came into our lives when I was around 2 years old.Her husband was working in the Mines and she had a son,Subramani, who was around my age.
Her husband died in a mining accident when Subramani was around 5 years old and Gangamma brought up Subramani all by herself.
Gangamma and her family deserve a separate chapter and I'm happy to report that our association with Gangamma, Subramani and their family continues to this day.

In 1957, we moved from Balaghat to Nundydroog to a house near the Ration Office.
Incidentally, there were no proper postal addresses for KGF mining residents those days.My dad's address was A.C.Hiriyanniya, Nundydroog Mine, PO Oorgaum, KGF--- that's it and the postman used to deliver.One day, my dad got a letter addressed to A.C.Thiriyanniya, Vendyokoog Mine, Kolar( which is about 30 Km away from KGF).

The house was close to the Nundydroog Swimming Pool and I got my first real close friends there.Our neighbour was Mr.K.Narayanswami and his children were Murthy, Prabha, Prema,Hari,Subramnian ( we called him Dorai) and Raghu.Mr.Narayanaswami's wife was a typical Palghat Iyer lady and his mother ( Paati) also stayed with them.Murthy. the eldest , was unfortunately crippled at birth and he couldn't speak and had to be helped in all his daily chores. But never have I seen anyone being treated more affectionately than he was by the members of their family. Even though he couldn't speak, he was aware of what was going on and used to make gestures. There was a real "conversation" going on
and he was made to feel part of the family in every sense of the word.

It was here that I learnt cricket.I vividly recall my first radio commentary.It was a Mysore Vs Kerala Ranji Trophy match.Mysore scored 398 runs on the first day including a century by V.Subramanyam and Kerala had ended with 2 for 2.

In 1959,Dad and his office colleagues went to Bangalore in his friend M.C.Ramaswamy's car to watch the cricket match between the Board President's XI and the visiting Australians at the Central College grounds.I went along with dad and we enjoyed the tremendous sixes hit by Les Favell as well the pace bowling of Alan Davidson.
Lala Amarnath was playing his farewell match ( he must have been over 45 then) and I stil recall his peculiar bowling action. All right arm bowlers normally have their left foot forward at the time of releasing the ball, but Lala had his right foot forward--- very peculiar indeed.Budhi Kunderan was the wicket keeper and was already making waves for his dashing batting style-- a kind of olden day Sehwag.

After the match, dad took me to Rakhra Sports in Commercial Street and got me my first cricket kit.I proudly returned to KGF with the cricket kit and promptly went to Dorai's house to show him the kit.Thereafter, we played cricket every day in the evening and on Sundays.Subramani( Gangamma's son) also joined in and there was another very talented boy called Bhashyam.

Here are the other important events that I recall took place between 1957 and 1961 when we were in the Nundydroog house near Ration Shop.

In January 1958, dad took mom, Rummy and me on an All India tour that took us to Mysore, Calcutta, Dhanbad, Sindri, Benares, Hardwar, Delhi, Agra, Nagpur, Hyderabad,Shahabad, Bangalore and back to KGF.The Bangarpet-Madras and Madras-Calcutta journeys were by 1st AC--- a rare luxury those days.Our train had got held up at Vijayawada because N.T.Rama Rao had been spotted and there were thousands of people wanting to see him and touch his feet and seek his blessings.He had just starred as Rama in "Sampoorna Ramayana" and was literally treated as God.

In May 1958, Lambi ( dad's sister)got married at Sajjan Rao Choultry in Bangalore.
I was a responsible 7 year old and was asked by Ajja ( my grandfather) to mind the luggage as it was loaded in the Gavipuram house to be taken to the choultry.

My dad's cousin, Venu, had in the meanwhile joined the mines after completing his CA and working in Fraser & Ross for some time.He was abachelor and had a cook, Kashinath. Venu used to stay in Mysore Mines and we used to occasionally go there on Sundays to spend the day or Venu used to come home.Venu was very fond of Rummy and myself.He sent me a sharkskin bushcoat and trousers on one of my birthdays and a packet of crackers ( fireworks) on one of the Deepavali festivals.

In May 1959, we went to Bangalore for the separate weddings of Venu and my mom's sister Kanthu, both of which took place on 24th May. Mom was expecting her third child any moment then and so we went by car accompanied by a mid-wife in case of any emergency.

Thankfully, there was no emergency and we all got back safely.Sandhya, my sister, was born on 3rd Jun. The delivery took place at home at 10.10 AM and I still clearly remember Mali giving the news to Rummy and myself as he brought the lunch to Convent that day.Manni ( Mrs.Narayanswami) was of great help those days.

Dad bought his first scooter in 1959.It was a Lambretta ( MYA 9560) and he paid Rs.3200 for it.It was a proud moment for all of us and there were many mornings when we all came out of the house just to see him kick-start the scooter and trundle off to the Office.

After Sandhya's birth, we had all gone to Melkote. Since there was still a bit of time for the Yoganarasimhaswamy Temple on the Betta to open, we first visited Cheluvarayaswamy Temple at ground level and then went up the hill. In those days ( and actually till quite recently), we had to climb around 300 steps to go up to the Yoganarasimhaswamy Temple.Nowadays, there is a road up to half way up the hill and the number of steps to climb is only around 150 or so.

Anyway, as soon as we returned to KGF, all of us were down with a series of illnesses.Sandhya sprouted huge rashes on her face, I had a thorn in my foot which turned septic and it had to be opened with me under chloroform, mom came down with a severe illness and so on.Dad concluded that all of this happened because we did not visit the temple of our family deity first in Melkote.Since then, another of our family tradition has been to always visit the Yoganarasimhaswamy Temple first whenever we go to Melkote.

1959 was also the year when I started swimming in the nearby swimming pool.Dad used to come along. One day, I jumped straight on him when he was in the water waiting for me and broke two of his front teeth.

Mom also used to come along to swim on a few occasions and we had a couple of moonlight swimming galas where everybody brought something to eat and we had potluck by the pool.

We were by now playing cricket regularly and also used to have a couple of matches now and then.We called ourselves Ram Memorial Team because one of our advisers was a young man named Ram. I was just around 9 years old then and remember arguing with Dorai and Hari that we cannot use the word Memorial since Ram was still alive. I was overruled and so RMT was born!!

Ajja and Ajji ( Dad's parents) used to come down often to KGF. I was also good at playing draughts ( a form of chess) by then and Ajja and I would play a series of games.I would always win all the games before lunch and he would beat me in the games we played after lunch.

Ajja had a heart problem and was admitted for some time in KGF Hospital.He passed away in Bangalore on 10th June 1961.Mom also had to go to attend the ceremonies and we were under the care of Gangamma and Manni.Paati ( Manni's mother-in-law) would object whenever we went to their house for dinner immediately after Ajja died, because we were still in "Madi". Manni and the other children overruled her and we all used to eat together.

In 1960, my idyllic sojourn in St Joseph's Convent ended and I had to join KGF School.The school was full of Anglo Indians and we Hindus were in a minority.
Straightaway , I was ragged mercilessly and called "Parpusadam"-- Dhal Rice. I renewed my friendship with my friends who were with me in Convent and had joined a couple of years earlier.

The masters ( as we called them) were no match for the 5th Standard boys, some of whom were already smoking. The only disciplining method for any mistake ( talking in class, not answering a question etc) was "cuts" on the hands with a wooden ruler.
I remember one boy in particular--- Joseph Kelman.He obviously didn't know a word of Hindi and always scored 0. The Hindi master ( we called him Shorty because he was only around 5 ft or so)would call Joseph to take the cuts. Joseph would march up and extend his right hand and then actually hold the ruler for a second or so as it descended on his hand before releasing it. All the while, he would look at Shorty in the eye and not flinch.
Joseph and his brother Colin emigrated to England .He used to write to his classmates that the weather was so cold in England that he had to endlessly smoke cigarettes.
The other friends I made in the 5th Std were Leonard Ryder, George Abraham, Rex Storey, Elroy Nicholas, Joseph Bantleman, Frank Rowe, Rodney Marshall, Robert Phillips, Wendell Taylor---- the list goes on.

Our other master were Mr.Ramachandra( Ram) for Physics and Mr.Shamanna ( Sham)for Chemistry.

Mrs.Morris took Social Studies and her sister Miss White took English.All the English that I've learnt has been taught by Miss White and I'll be eternally grateful to her for that.

One incident took place in 1960 for which I am ashamed to this day. We had gone on a walking picnic to Bethamangala ( a reservoir which supplied drinking water to KGF).
Mom had packed some Kobbari Mithai for me which I had taken along for the picnic.Frank Rowe was walking along with me and begged me to give him some Kobbari Mithai which I refused.If I meet Frank today, I would gift him a box of Kobbari Mithai and he wouldn't know why!!

At the end of 1961, we shifted from the Ration Office house to a house opposite Nundydroog Club. This is where we stayed till dad retired in 1981.

The house had been occupied by Mr & Mrs.Ren Nailer and they were going back to England after Mr.Nailer's retirement. I remember Mr & Mrs. Nailer showing us around the house before we moved in.

Ren Nailer was a famous cricketer and had made a name for himself throughout Madras Presidency. His name still figures in cricket lore as a famous batsman.In KGF, he used to play for Colonial Sports Club at Bombay Camp which had the only turf ground in Mysore State outside of Central College ground.Many are the sixes he hit in this ground when the ball used to land up in the water tank just outside the ground.

This ends the chapter on life in KGF in the 50s and I'll talk about KGF of the 60s in my next blog.
Bye for now.

The Story of My Life ( More about KGF)

In one of my earlier blogs, I had mentioned that KGF is unlike any town I have ever seen in India.There was a mining area which included the shafts (where workers descended underground), the officers' bungalows and other employees quarters, schools, hospital, clubs, post offices etc.
Then there was the "town" area--- Robertsonpet--- which had the shops, vegetable markets, tailors etc.There was a New Krishna Bhavan-- the only so-called restaurant and hotel in KGF.Robertsonpet also had 3 theatres-- Gay Talkies, Krishna Talkies and Olympia.
The only town in India that probably comes close to KGF is Jamshedpur.

After my dad completed his probation, he was made a covenanted officer.In the days of John Taylor & Sons, a Covenanted Officer probably had privileges close to that of an IAS Officer.The next day after dad got his letter, a couple of trucks landed up in our Balaghat home with sofa sets, cots, dining table and chairs etc etc.
There were also soft furnishings like curtains, bedsheets, blankets, pillows, crockery and cutlery.

Let me elaborate on the perks that a Covenanted officer enjoyed:-

Free furnished bungalow with servants quarters
Allowances for a mali ( gardener) and an ayah
Free transport for children to school and back.
Free transport to hospital and back
Free medical treatment including medicines
Free transport to any theatre in Robertsonpet on Tuesdays and Saturdays
One cart of firewood every month
Free electricity
A thoti to clean the toilets everyday
A person to rake the leaves every day.
Free whitewash and paint of bungalows once every 5 years or so.
Club membership at subsidised rates

If something was not available in KGF, there was a "Supplier Boy" who used to travel once a week to Bangalore.An indent was placed and it would be bought during the next visit.

All payments within the mining area were made by signing chits.Actually, cash had very little use in the mining area.If you went to the club to have a drink or a snack, you signed a chit. If you went to English movies in Ooregum Hall, you signed a chit.
If you bought an ice cream or a milkshake in KGF Dairy, you signed a chit.This chit signing facility was extended to all family members( kids included).
All these chits were sent by the various establishments to Central Accounts and there was an army of clerks sitting there whose job it was to make the necessary deductions in the salary and enclose the chits of the previous month with the payslip.

It amazes me that we kids exercised a lot of control when we went to the club and didn't sign chits left and right.

Balaghat and Nundydroog Mine had Nundydroog Club, Electricity Department had Ooregum Hall, Chamion Reefs had the Catholic Club and Mysore Mines had Mysore Hall.
A member of Nundydroog Club could go to Mysore Hall and sign a chit though this happened very rarely.Then there was KGF Club which was for all the senior officers only.
Dad was a member of Nundydroog Club and Ooregum Hall and bacame a member of KGF Club rather late in the day.

There was Whist Drive and Tombola in each club once a month.Children were strictly not allowed after 7 PM, though this rule was relaxed later.

Every club had a club day once a week when some snack used to be served free.

Mom and Dad were regulars at Nundydroog Club.After her initial horrors, mom quickly adjusted to KGF and dad and mom used to go on bicycle every day to Nundydroog Club to play shuttle and Rummy.They were also regulars at Whist Drive and Tombola.
Dad was also a regular at Tennis.

Nundydroog Club had an indoor hall called Skating Rink.This was actualy used for skating and had a shuttle court.There was also a tennis court, billiards, cards and Table Tennis.
The Card Room had typical English hunting prints and short poems on Guinness.

The lounge in the Bar had magazines like Life, News of the World, Illustrated Weekly of India, Sport & Pastime etc.

Nundydroog Club was where I spent most of my evenings in my later years playing tennis, table tennis and billiards.I also used to go to Ooregum Hall for Tennis and Billiards.

The May Queen Ball was an annual affair at Skating Rink.The floor used to be sprinkled with french chalk for ball room dancing . Occasionally, we would have a fall when playing shuttle a day later because the floor was so smooth.

Christmas in December was a grand affair and many Anglo Indians who later emigrated to England, Canada and Australia used to come back to KGF especially for Christmas.

All the clubs had side shows on different days to avoid a clash of dates.These included lucky arrow, hoopla, chocolate wheel etc. Children whose names were given earlier used to be called by Santa Claus and given gifts.There would be a dance at
10 PM which would go on till the early hours of the morning.

Shankar , the Nundydroog Club barman, used to mix the most amazing orange squash. Years later, when I became a member of the Madras Boat Club, we used to order a drink called Cricket which had the same taste as the orange squash.One sip of Cricket and our minds would take us back 30 to 40 years in a jiffy.

Susai at KGF Club was another excellent barman.We had all gone to KGF around 10 years back on a nostalgia trip and Susai was still there . He broke down on seeing us and we also had a lump in our throat.

The Republic Day and Independence Day Tombolas were grand affairs.Prizes were given in kind and the one who called out first on getting the winning number got the prize.No sharing.

Ooregum Hall had the only theatre in the mining area and showed only English movies.Most movies ran for 3 days ( Sat/Sun/Mon) or ( Tue/Wed/Thu)---- one show at 6.45 PM.If it was a really good movie, it ran for one week ( Sat to Thu).All the chairs were cleared on Friday so that Tombola could be played and then they were back in place for the Saturday movie show.Here again, I had to sign chits for seeing the movie. Rs.1.90 was the ticket price.Before the movie started, songs by Elvis Presley or Cliff Richard would be played and my favourite was Cliff Richard's "Living Doll followed by the theme from "Murder She Said" by Lawrence Welk and his Orchestra."

Oorgeum Hall was where I watched classics such as "The Ten Commandments", "Ben-Hur", "Spartacus", "The Magnificent Seven", "Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde" etc etc.
I remember asking my dad if I could see "Dr.No" and he said the movie title was his answer-- he probably felt that my young mind would be corrupted by seeing Ursula Andress in a bikini.
( To be Continued)

The Story of My Life( Early days in KGF- St Joseph's Convent)

Ramadevi ( Rummy to us, Rams to her friends, Rama to her in-laws side) was born on 26th Nov 1952.Like me, she was also born in Chitradurga and Choudakka was the mid-wife during her birth also.

My earliest memory of Rummy was that she had some sort of high fever when she was around 2 or 3 years and my dad and mum were very worried.

I joined St.Joseph's Convent in 1954 and I recall that mom spent the entire day in the corridor just outside the classroom.

Mother Dorothy was my class teacher in Nursery.She was a very sweet lady, just the right person to handle kids.She used to recite the alphabets and numbers in a sing-song voice and we used to follow her.Years later, she shifted to a convent in Chitradurga and was the class teacher for my cousin Rajini ( Prabhakara's daughter).

Miss Johnson was the Class Teacher in Standards 1 and 2. She was a very short tempered lady and used to poke our heads with a sharp pencil if we talked in class or did our sums wrong.

St. Joseph's Convent allowed boys only till 2nd Std and after that the boys were expected to go to KGF School, which was a boys school.However, we used to get horror stories about KGF School where the boys used to get benders ( Sharp strokes of the cane on the back while we were bending) for any mischief. So a few of the boys ( me included) prevailed on our parents to speak to the Chief Nun and allow us to continue in Standard 3 also.

I missed the first few days in Standard 3 because we had stayed back in Chitradurga for the summer holidays. As a result, I was not present when the teachers announced the text books and note books that we had to buy.As soon as we came back, I rushed to my friend's house to get the list.

Here's what I wrote down:-

580 pages notebook 1
400 pages notebook 1
360 pages notebook 1

My dad was surprised and said notebooks with that many pages were not available. But I insisted and we searched all stationery shops in KGF.Of course we couldn't find the notebooks.

The next day, we went and bought 5 80page notebooks, 4 100page notebooks and 3
60page notebooks.

In 3rd Standard, we went to "Private School" in the morning and "Public School" in the evening. Private school fees was Rs.10 per month, an astronomical sum in those days. Public School was Rs.2 or Rs.3 per month. Mother Magdalene was the Class teacher.All our text books were printed in England and the History lessons were taught mostly from an English point of view. Robert Clive was depicted as a hero and Tipu Sultan was the villain who was unfairly trying to usurp English territory.
Much was written about the "Black Hole of Calcutta" and an entire chapter was written on Clive's victory over Siraj-ud-Doulah in the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

( Even today, in the Victoria Museum in Kolkata, there are sand models of the Battle of Plassey showing the relative positions of the opposing armies at various times on the day of the battle.)

All the remaining boys shifted to KGF School after 3rd Standard, but I was still scared of the benders and prevailed upon my dad to talk to the nuns again and let me continue in the 4th Standard also.That's how I ended up as the only boy in the class in the 4th Std.

Mother Miriam was the Class teacher--- tough but fair.

Rummy and I used to travel along with the other children to Convent in a van which picked us up from home and dropped us back.We used to have breakfast by 7 AM and be ready. Muniswamy, our Mali, then cycled about 8 kms every day to bring lunch to us.
The lunch box had 3 compartments, one huliyanna or Saaranna, one mosaranna and one with chocolate or kodbale or chakli or thengolu.This extra was what we always enjoyed.

It was from Mali that we heard about Gemini Ganeshan marrying Savithri and I remember feeling very happy on hearing the news.I had just seen "Kalathur Kannamma" then and had ardently hoped that they would marry.It was only much later that I learnt that Gemini Ganeshan was already a much-married man when he wedded Savithri!!

Rev Mother Angela was the Principal of the Convent and was the picture of piety and devotion.The Convent had a chapel and I used to sneak in there occasionally.
The Convent had mostly Christian students and they used to attend Mass and catechism. During this period, we non-Christians were allowed to play.

I had learnt the Lord's Prayer and was fairly familiar with the Catholic rituals like Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, observing Lent,baptism, confirmation etc.
The Protestants were in a minority and they used to say their prayers separately.

The girls used to play hopscotch and rounders ( a form of softball) during lunch time and I also became fairly good at hopscotch.

Anyway, 4th Std came and went and then I was in for a rude awakening. The nuns firmly ruled out giving me any more extension and I was ordered to leave the Convent.

This was in 1960.

Before I close my account on St.Joseph's Convent, here are 2 other nuggets of information that I remember.

Every Christmas, Rummy and I used to buy Christmas & New Year Greeting Cards and distribute to all the teachers.

Every weekend, there used to be a scramble among the girls to collect the kerchiefs of the nuns, bring them home, wash the, iron them and then being them back to the Convent on Monday.I swear on everything that I consider holy that this information is true and correct and disbelieving readers may contact Rummy or my mom for confirmation.This was apple polishing of the highest order.

Bye for now .

In my next blog, I'll talk about the other non-school events that took place in the 50s.

Vishwamitra Gotra

This is absolutely amazing!!! Talk about coincidence.

In one of my previous blogs, I had mentioned that we belong to Chikitha Vishwamitra Gotra and I had also said that I did not know what Chikitha means.

As I was trying to clear my old e mails, I came across one sent by Sachin on 12th Feb 2008 ( more than 2 years back) where he has give a link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvamitra.

The subject of his e-mail was " Our Gotras explained".

Thank you Sachin.

Am in Trichy today and will continue with my blog on KGF.

Bye till then.

The mind of a writer

Now that I've started writing my autobiography, I'm able to better understtand the mind of a writer or any other person in creative fields such as poetry, painting etc.

I have a typical 8 to 5 job and on most days I'm able to switch off from my job as soon as I leave the Office.The converse also happens. The moment I enter the Office, there's usually no time to think of home or other personal matters.

But I was curious to know how a creative person's mind works. In fact, I was once sitting next to the well known Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu during a flight. As we got to chatting with each other, I asked him whether his mind was always busy composing new lyrics and , if so, how he was able to switch to other thoughts.He replied that creativity has no time limits and the mind usually turns blank when forced to do something. There are occasions when thoughts and ideas come in a rush and he was hard put to put them down on paper before they went away.

I remembered all this when I was swimming yesterday.Thoughts on how to proceed with my next blog came to me in a rush and I was almost tempted to cut short my swim and rush back to the computer at home. I , however, resisted the tempation.

Even as I type, I sometimes find that my thoughts are coming in at 300 wpm whereas I'm only able to type at around 60 wpm.

My experience of the first few days of writing is that I've discovered a new vitality
in me. I'll have to be prepared for the days when thoughts simply refuse to flow.
I'm also tying to avoid becoming a slave to this new found habit of writing. I want to write because I want to, not have to.

The Story of my Life ( Early Days in KGF)

Our first house in KGF was in Balaghat. Balaghat was the first area of KGF as one would enter from Bangalore.There was a tree on the outskirts of KGF called Big Tree which stood like a sentinel guarding the approach to KGF.
Big Tree was a favourite picnic spot till the 50s.

It's amazing how memories come flooding back once you put your thought to it.

One of my supposedly early utterances was " Bhoomapaiya pencil edathikondu odipoyitan--- Bhoomapaiya took my pencil and ran away".Bhoomapaiya was probably my first friend and I have faint recollection of him coming to my house to play with his baggy knickers ( forerunner to the modern day Bermudas).Since KGF had an overwhelmingly Tamil population, it is probable that I learnt Tamil earlier than Kannada.

The next recollection was that I was very concerned about the "Isthli" --- crease--- of my ironed shirt and shorts. I would refuse to sit down because " isthli hogbidathe".

Our neighbour was Mr.G K K Nair, his wife and their children Uma, Mythili and Damodaran ( Damu). Mrs. Nair was the first friend that mummy had when she came to KGF and I recall that Mrs.Nair, Uma and Mythili would always be around with a wet Malabar towel wrapped around their hair after a bath.I also remember Mrs. Nair making a kind of sweet during festivals--- it was thick banana chips dipped in jaggery.--- Yummy and something I like to this day.

Mr.Nair was a fine tennis player and he continued playing tennis till he retired.He was known for his chop strokes and drop volleys and would make the best players run around the court.

Other people close to our Balaghat house were Mr & Mrs.V.R.Vinayagam and their children Uma,Usha and Udaya as well as Mr & Mrs.A.B Menon with their sons Prem and Priyan.

Mr.Menon's house was about 500 Metres away with open space in between and I distinctly remember hearing Mr.Menon's sneezes.It was always very loud and like a thunderclap.People have been known to faint when they were near him and he sneezed.

The Coromandel railway station was close to our house.Coromandel was on the branch line from Bangarpet to Marikuppam, the other stations being Oorgaum, Champion Reefs and Marikuppam.

Bangalore was 60 miles away and going by train was preferred since there were not many buses.People used to take the evening train to Bangarpet and then catch the Madras-Bangalore Express which came to Bangarpet ( or Bowringpet as it was then known) at 6.45 PM.The other option was to take the last train at 11 PM to Bangarpet and then wait in the waiting room till the Madras- Bangalore Mail trooped in at 3.30 AM.

One day , when I was around 3 years old,I went off by myself to Coromandel station to watch the trains. All hell broke loose at home and the servants were despatched to all corners to find me. My mali found me sitting on the bench at the station and took me back.
( To be continued)