Life in Madras(1976-1978)

After this adventure in Madurai, life became more normal.

In Sep 1976, Sudha and I made a trip to Jagdalpur.My father-in-law had been posted to Jagdalpur as Superintending Engineer in the PWD .

We travelled to Vizag and he had come there to pick us up by car.It was an 8 hour journey from Vizag to Jagdalpur, much of it through forested area. We passed through Sunabeda, Koraput and the Dandakaranya forest of Ramayana lore. In fact,there is a common perception in these areas that the Lanka of Ravana is from this region and not Sri Lanka as is commonly believed.In fact, all these places have a suffix Lanka after their names eg Kanker Lanka, Dantewada Lanka etc.

Anyway, we reached Jagdalpur in the evening.BVN had a huge bungalow with 6 bedrooms, 6 dressing rooms and 6 atached bathrooms.There was an army of retainers waiting to receive us.The house also had a table tennis table.

Jagdalpur was a small town and the capital of Bastar District which was bigger in area than the state of Kerala.

During our trip, we paid a visit to Kutumsar caves which have stalactites and stalagmites.On the way back,we came through Bhadrachalam to Vijayawada and returned to Madras.

After we returned from Jagdalpur, Sudha and I moved from Annanagar to Chetput so that I could be closer to my office in Egmore.This move was made in Sep 1976.

In Oct 1976, we again went to Mysore for Rosy's wedding and , on the way back, we attend Venu's sister Vani's wedding at Bangalore on 13 Oct 1976.Vani's husband G.V.Sukumara was my senior in Hassan.

Our weekends were spent in going to Balu's house or Bhagavan's house to watch movies on Doordarshan.We also went to a lot of movies, prominent among them being "Kabhi Kabhi", "Khel Khel Mein", "Karz" etc.

In Feb 1977, Venu's father A.N.Anantharamiah passed away and Venu and Jayalakshmi had to be in Bangalore for the ceremonies. They left behind their children Vagdevi,Abhaya and Prasad at our house.

I thought I was the only one who hated cream ( kene) in milk and curds, but Abhaya went one better than me. He always used to carry a filter in his pocket. He would use this to filter the coffee and curds and ensure no cream.

In March 1977, we moved to another house in Kamala Bai Street in T'Nagar. How we got there is an interesting story.

Balu had told us about a portion of a house being vacant in Kamala Bai Street near Vani Mahal.We went to the place and started looking for the house.It was night and we heard some music emanating from one of the upper floors of a house.We went and found that there was a group practising Kannada songs.On further enquiry, we found that the house we were looking for was in another portion of the same building.
The head of the family was introduced to us.He was Mr.M K Gopinath and the family including his wife Rama, sons Mohan and Prabhu and daughter Sheela.One of the guests there was Girija Vishwanath who was born in Chitradurga and knew Kanthu.We straightaway knew that this was the place we wanted to live in.
The building was split into four portions. The two portions on the ground floor belonged to two brothers who were not on speaking terms with each other. Mr.Gopinath was the tenant on the 1st floor in one portion and the other portion on the first floor was the vacant one which we had come to see.

We took the house on rent ( Rs.300 per month) and moved in on 1st Mar 1977.This house was centrally located; Pondy Bazaar was just a street away and Panagal Park was also within walking distance though it had not yet gained its fame ( notriety??) as a shopping centre as it has now.The only problem was that Kamala Bai Street was a low lying area and used to get flooded if there was rain.Friends and relatives visiting us would joke that what we needed was a boat, not a scooter.

Balu's house was less than a kilometre away and we went to their house frequently.

Venu and family had moved to Hyderabad meanwhile so that was one house where we stopped our visits.

In Oct 1977, Dad, Mom and Sandhya went on a trip to Kashmir.Kanthu and Venkatesh were in Srinagar and the plan was to visit Delhi and Bombay on the way back.Tragically, Ramanna( mom's father) passed away in Shimoga when they were all in Srinagar, so Mom and Kanthu caught the next flight from Srinagar to Bangalore.

In Dec 1977, Sudha and I got the happy news that she was pregnant.

Meanwhile, Sudha and I had become members of Kannada Balaga and took part in our first Kannada Drama in Feb 1978 for the Ladies & Gents program.We had a brother and sister role and it came out fairly well.

Dad and Mom arranged the Shreemantha ceremony at KGF on 20th May 1978, a couple of days ahead of Sudha's cousin Viju's wedding on 25th May 1978 at Bangalore.
Sudha's parents were in attendance as also her brothers Vinod and Ravi.They had all come down from Jagdalpur by car.

From KGF all of us went to Bangalore for Viju's wedding. I remember that 25th May 1978 also happened to be the 25th wedding anniversary of Chandu Mava and Prema Atte.We had a grand time during the wedding.

From Bangalore, Sudha proceeded straight to Jagdalpur with her parents and brothers for her confinement.

I was back to living a bachelor's life again.Rama Aunty and Gopinath became my foster parents and took care of me well whenever I was in Madras. Otherwise I plunged myself into tours just to avoid being in Madras.

The Gopinaths were avid cards players and I would usually spend some time after dinner playing with them.

It was when I was having one such cards session on the evening of 22nd Aug 1978 that I got a telegram which said that Sudha had delivered a baby boy at 1.15 PM that day.

I immediately made preparations to leave for Jagdalpur and also bought a nice white and blue saree for Sudha.She maintains that this is the best saree of all the sarees that I have gifted her.

I reached Waltair a couple of days later and then caught a bus next day for the 8 hour journey to Jagdalpur.I reached at night and went to the maternity hospital next day.There was this child all wrapped up and the only thing I can remember was his marble like eyes peeping out at me.It was such a lovely experience holding this cute baby in my arms.

As usual , Sudha had a story for me about the delivery.

Her dad had checked out the delivery room of the maternity hospital a month before the delivery and found that it badly needed a coat of paint.He couldn't obviously get one room painted so he got the whole maternity hospital a new coat of paint.

A week before the delivery date, there was a new crisis.The lady doctor had received her transfer orders and the replacement doctor had not yet arrived.BVN was very worried that there would be no doctor available when the need arose.
So he delayed providing the required transport for the doctor to move out of Jagdalpur and thus the situation was saved.The PWD engineers gave the reason for non availability of transport as flooding of the bridges and roads and miraculously everything became OK as soon as the baby was born.

In October 1978 ( 2 months after the baby was born), my dad, mom, Sandhya, Rummy, Nagaraj, Akhila and I went together from Madras to Jagdalpur for the Namakarna ( Naming Ceremony).

We went by Coromandel Express from Madras to Waltair and reached there in the evening.We were to take a taxi from the station to the hotel for an overnight stay before catching a bus next morning for the 8 hour trip to Jagdalpur.

A person met us on the station platform and offered to take us to the hotel.We followed him and sat down in what must have been a 1930 model taxi.I sat in the front seat next to the taxi driver and he gave me a small plastic pipe to hold.
As soon as he sat, the driver took the pipe from me and put it somewhere close to his leg.The taxi moved in fits and starts and soon the driver pulled up near a petrol bunk.He have me the plastic pipe again and then took a plastic jerry can from near his leg to get the petrol filled. This was the petrol tank!!!

Incredibly, we engaged the same taxi again next morning to take us to the bus-stand and got there without any mishap.

The Namakarna ceremony went off very well and the baby boy was named Sachin. This was the name of a popular film star those days and the most romantic star pair those days was Sachin-Sarika.A lot of boys and girls born in 1978 were called Sachin and Sarika respectively.

There was a huge party arranged in the evening on the lawns of the bungalow.Everybody spoke only in Hindi and tis was a bit of a problem for us. Anyway Rummy decided to try out her Hindi on a small boy by calling out to him " Udhar Aao, Udhar Aao"--- instead of "Idhar Aao". The boy wa ssuitably confused and wondered whether he had learnt his Hindi properly.

We spent around 3 or 4 days playing cards ( Rummy) and Ravi made a neat Rs.150 which was a lot of money those days.

After a pleasant stay, we all returned to Madras .

My next blog will dwell on the joys of parenthood.