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.