Start of Working Life-------- ( 1972-74)

Before I start writing about my life in Hubli,
I thought I'll cover some of the important family events that I missed out in my earlier blogs.

In May 1969, Papanni got married to Girija at Mysore.All of us went by bus from Bangalore to Mysore for the wedding.As soon as we returned to Bangalore, we attended Chubbadi's house Gruhapravesha at Hanumanthnagar, Bangalore. I remember that I was down with a fever during this function.

In June 1970, Girija ( Saraswathi's daughter) got married to B.K.Ramamurthy at Badaganadu Hostel, Seshadripuram,Bangalore.
We were from the girl's side , so Thammayya, Nanjunda, Shankara and myself were quite busy unloading the luggage from the bus when the groom's party came and generally doing upachara to them.

I generally volunteered to serve water when the guests sat on the floor for the banana leaf lunch as this gave me a chance to check out the girls and ply them with as much water as they wanted to drink.

In November 1971, Vani ( Shiva's daughter) got married to S.N.Parameshwar in Bangalore.

Back to my Hubli saga. Dad accompanied me to Hubli and we once again checked in at Putti's house. We then went around town looking for suitable lodgings and zeroed in on Hotel Anand on Station Road which was just two minutes walk away from Akay Industries.The room was given on a monthly basis at Rs.60 per month.There was a common bathroom and toilet.The hotel was decent and also offered meal coupons ( 60 coupons) for Rs.60 .For Rs.120, my lunch, dinner and lodgings were taken care of.

That done, we went to Dharwar to look up dad's cousin and her husband who was a professor in Karnatak University. Their house was one of those old British bungalows with Mangalore tiled sloping roofs.We sat in the drawing room for our coffee and snacks.I glanced up and almost choked on my coffee.The roof was teeming with lizards.Every once a while, one of those lizards would fall from the roof and the professor and his wife would carry on with their conversation unconcernedly.

Dad and I looked at each other and beat a very hasty retreat.

Next day, I joined Akay Industries and was instantly smitten with the receptionist---- a sweet Anglo Indian girl called Juanita Lovett( Nita for sort).She was drop dead gorgeous and there was a lot of unnecessary human traffic ( male)in and around the reception desk.

Anyway I soon settled in.My fellow GET was Karandikar who was from Hubli itself and he made me feel comfortable.

The working hours were 8 AM to 12 Noon and 1 PM to 5PM, 6 days a week.

During the first couple of days, I wandered up Gadag Road and came across the Railway Institute. I went in and found that they had a billiard table and a library. Perfect!!!
Membership was Rs.3 per month and no extra charges for the library or billiards. Even more perfect!!

I went in to the Billiards Room and found a crowd of Anglo Indians there.It seemed as though I was back in KGF.

God was still in his Heaven and everything was better than ever before.

One of the guys playing Billiards was Peter Soggee who was the cousin of John and Patty Soggee whom I knew back in KGF.
We quickly became friends and he introduced me to his brother-in-law Bobby Nellthrop. The other regulars were Richard Lawrence , Lou Besterwitch and Mr.Anthony D'Cruz who was like a kind of father figure in the Institute.His son Ashley would drop in occasionally and his daughter Noella joined Akay Industries later .Noella is now in Melbourne and she and her husband Ravi Hiremath ( whom she met while he was also in Akay)are good family friends of ours and Sudha and I had the pleasure of meeting them when we visited in 2001.

Apart from the Railway Institute, Hubli had lots of movie theatres which screened the latest Hindi movies.The town was small and one could easily go around by foot.

I soon established a routine. Immediately after work ended at 5 PM, I would come back to the room, freshen up and be off on the 15 minute walk to the Institute.I would play there till around 8 PM, walk back, have my dinner and then be off to bed.In the morning, I would usually have breakfast at Prakash Restaurant on the way to the factory.The usual was Uppittu-Shira or Idly-Vada.

On Saturday nights, I would see Hindi movies at Sangeet Theatre.

I still remember my first visit to Pritam Restaurant in Hubli.That was the first time I tasted Alu Mutter and even today my first choice among Punjabi dishes is Alu Mutter.

Matka was a very popular gambling pastime in Hubli at that time.The Matka king was Ratan Khatri operating from Bombay.
This is how the game went.You went to any shop and bet on any two digit number for Rs.1/.Let's say the number was 21.
There was a number ( called open)that was drawn in the morning at 11AM.If the number was 2, you got Rs.3.The second number( called close) was opened at 8 PM in the night.If it was 1, you got Rs.9 for your Rs.1 bet for betting correctly on 21.It was extremely simple and you would get paid instantly from the shop where you placed the bet.Any street urchin would tell you the open and close numbers for the day and would also advise you the hot number for the next day.

The best part was that the number would be known all over India within 15 minutes of its being opened.I'm talking about 1972 when even long distance calls were a distant reality.

We played snooker more often than we played billiards and another popular game was shuffle pool.On 1st May 1972, The Institute had the May Queen Ball and my heart sank when Nita walked in with her boyfriend.I moped for about 2 or 3 days and then got on with my life.

Occasionally, my friends and I would go for a "wet".This was Anglo-Indian slang for a drink and we would frequent a bar where Government Arrack from Pampasar Distillery was sold.This was really cheap stuff and we would spend long hours chatting away.My friends were all loco drivers who drove goods trains from Hubli to Castle Rock in Goa and back.Occasionally they would come back with Cashew or Pineapple feni from Goa and we would all have a "wet" in Bobby's house which was just across the Institute.

They were a jolly bunch and I really enjoyed their company.

In the Factory, I would regularly play TT at lunch with a guy called Pai. The company had organized employees' tournaments in TT and Shuttle and I won the TT Singles and Doubles as well as the Shuttle Singles and Doubles Titles.This is when I really came to the attention of the senior officials of the company.
( to be continued)