The Story of My Life ( 1984 )

1984 was a momentous year in more ways than one.

It was the year when the World Heart Congress was held in New Delhi and the conference decided that salt was the single largest contributor to heart disease.
On reading this, I decided to stop having extra salt at the dining table---- a decision that I've stuck to till now.

I was 33 years old now and had not had much opportunity to indulge in physical exercises. I decided that I would touch my toes a 100 times in the bathroom before my bath and straightaway started.

Sudha and I were now looking at buying an apartment in Chennai though we had no idea how we would rustle up the money.We saw one 1000 sq ft apartment on Coats Road in Chennai ( near the Raghavendra Mutt). The going rate was Rs.140/sq ft, making the flat value Rs.1,40,000.We decided this was too expensive. We saw another apartment on TTK Road ( then Mowbray's Road), just behind Palki Restaurant.The going rate for a 1000 sq ft apartment was Rs.240/sq ft and I had even gone and paid the advance of Rs.10000.Then I had second thoughts and went to the builder and took back my advance.

Dad and mom were by now settled in Mysore and would occasionally drop in to Bangalore and to Chennai.Sometime in early October, dad woke up sweating.He immediately called Nagaraj and Ravi and they rushed to Mysore and brought dad and mom back to Bangalore with them. Dad consulted a doctor and was told that he had suffered a mild heart attack.

We immediately decided that dad and mom would shift to Bangalore. I rushed to Bangalore to see dad. Around this time, there was a vacant flat in the 3rd floor of South End Apartments where Ravi and Sandhya were staying.Before I went to Bangalore, Ravi was trying hard to contact the owner.On the day I landed, he managed to speak to the owner who told him to talk to a person in Bangalore and gave the contact number.

After seeing dad, Ravi and I met this person.Ravi said we were interested in buying the flat ( though I had no intention to buy a flat when I left for Bangalore). We struck a deal at Rs.225/sq ft and the person said " Hand over the money and take the keys".

I was in a daze.I said we would need to prepare an Agreement and another 3 months after the Agreement to take a loan and then do the final purchase.

It was agreed that I would pay Rs.30000 in 10 days time and then we would have the Sale Agreement.I didn't have Rs.30000 with me.Nagaraj, Ravi and my father -in-law helped out and the Agreement got done. Next I wrote to my company and they were kind enought to sanction an interest free loan of Rs.50000. I approached HDFC and got another loan of Rs.50000 and drew out whatever was eligible from my PF account.

We signed the documents in December 1984 and I was now the proud owner of a 820 sq ft flat in Bangalore.

Meanwhile , more momentous things were happening in the country.I was travelling in Trichy on 31st Oct 1984 when I got the news of Indira Gandhi's assassination.By a curious coincidence, I happened to be in Trichy when Sanjay Gandhi died in an airplane accident in June 1980.

All hotels immediately shut down and train and bus services were withdrawn.
There were no services to Madras and so I took a decision to travel further south to Tuticorin .Wrong decision.Things were equally bad here too.Thankfully, I got a room in a hotel but no offices were open.On 2nd Nov evening, I caught a train back to Madras.This train came up to Chingleput and was then detained again since the mmob would not allow the train to proceed till the funeral was over. The funeral got completed on 3rd Nov evening and then the train was allowed to go and I reached Madras on 3rd Nov night.

Sachin was now going to school regularly. I would drop him off in the morning on my way to Office and Sudha would pick him up in her moped in the afternoon.
My father-in -law had retired from service and had moved to Bangalore.He was staying temporarily at his ancestral house in Srirampuram and was looking to buy land and build his house.

Sudha and I were gearing up to now admit Sandeep in the same school ( DAV) as Sachin.This was another challenge and I had nightmares about spending another 10 nights in the queue as I did for Sachin.I was , in fact, dreading March 1985 when this exercise would commence.

What really happened? Watch out for my next blog which will detail the events of 1985.