1997---Rajamani and Sudha's first foreign trip; Kannada Balaga major functions

The only remarkable events in 1997 were Sudha's and my mom Rajamani's first foreign trips.

Akhila had moved to Jakarta after her wedding and Vasuki & Prakash had also moved to Jakarta from Surabaya.

Kanthu had planned a trip to Jakarta to visit Vasuki and asked if mom would also come.Mom immediately said yes since Akhila was also in Jakarta. Kanthu and mom travelled together first and then Sudha joined them a month or two later.

They all travelled to places like Borobuddur and Bali. Sudha left earlier and stayed over for a couple of days in Singapore with a friend before returning to Chennai.

Kanthu and mom also stayed in Singapore for a couple of days before returning to Bangalore.

I remember that my mom was apprehensive of travelling by escalator which was inevitable in the airports and malls abroad.So we actually took her to Spencer's Plaza in Chennai to let her get used to moving up and down by escalator.

She was really thrilled by her first foreign trip and couldn't stop talking for days about the malls in Jakarta, particularly Diamon Mall which was within walking distance of Akhila's house.

Sudha particularly enjoyed Bali and Sentosa Island in Singapore.

1992-1993------ A milestone in my career

1992 marked a milestone in my career.

I had all along been involved in Sales & Marketing and most of my travel was to visit customers, even though I did make the occasional visit to my factory in Viralimalai.

In April 1992, at the start of the new financial year, I was called in by my boss and told that I would now have to handle Operations in the Trichy factory.I asked whether this would mean that the family has to shift to Trichy.

My boss said that was not necessary. I could travel to Trichy every week and be back in Chennai on the weekends.So that became my routine for the next year.
I would leave Chennai every Sunday night to Trichy by Rockfort Express and return on a Friday night back to Chennai. I still had to go to my Karapakkam Office every Saturday.

In Trichy, I stayed at Hotel Sangam and would travel the 25km route to Viralimalai every day.I entered into this job with gusto.I found that my customer contacts was helping me take decisions faster and just talking to them helped me get many clearances.

One of our prominent customers was in Bombay and we were required to speak to them frequently over long distance.Since I also had the responsibility of cutting down on operational expenses and since I had met the telephone operator of this customer during my frequent visits to Bombay, I would ring her up and then ask her to call me back.

Around this time, there was some simmering issue over wages with the workmen, culminating in the workmen stopping work and not attending the factory.I helped set up a war council and we carried on work with just the officers and staff.We even called up our people from the Branch Offices and there was a spirit of camarederie that one often encounters in periods of difficulty.The work stoppage went on for 40 days after which normalcy was resumed.

In spite of this, we grew our business by around 30%.

The travel and work put together was gruelling.There were days when I would wake up in the middle of the night while travelling and I didn't know whether I was going to Trichy or coming from there.

In August 1992, I was in the factory one day when I suddenly felt extremely uneasy. I straightaway decided to go to a hospital in Trichy.The doctors did some tests and told me that I had very high blood pressure. I was advised rest for a full day. Next day, I returned to Chennai and underwent some more tests.

Since then, I've been on medication for hypertension. I was, of course, a bit shocked. I thought I had an easy-going nature and couldn't imagine that I was hypertensive.

Anyway, the diagnosis was made and since then I've been religiously popping my pills everyday.

In spite of this hectic schedule, I still found time to take part in a Kannada play "Siri Sampige" staged by Kannada Balaga.Sudha was the Queen Mother and had a major role. The director of the play was H C Srinivas and the leading lady was Veena, son of M.N.Gopal ( a senior Kannada Balaga member--- I think he was the President at that time).

The rehearsals would take place on the terrace of our flat or in Karnataka Sangha, T'Nagar.Srinivas would then escort Veena home. A romance blossomed while he was teaching her the nuances of dialogue delivery and voice modulation and they remain happily married to this day.

The financial year ended in March 1993 and then my stint as an Operations Manager ended.It was back to Chennai again but I didn't know what my future role would be.

Let's wait for the next blog to see what that was.

1989 & 1990-- You never know what fate has in store for you

The start of a new year-1989. Little did I know that by the end of the year, I would be contemplating purchase of an apartment--- but I'm getting ahead of my story.
Meanwhile, let me rewind a little bit back to 1988.When I joined Xomox in 1987, I was clearly told that I would have to shift to Trichy in 1988 for the new school year.

After I returned from Bangladesh in Feb 1988, I even visited some schools in Trichy to enquire about admission for Sachin and Sandeep. Sudha and I had by now become active members in Kannada Balaga and the thought of leaving all our friends behind was gut-wrenching.The Ladies program of 1988 was very poignant as everyone thought it would be our last program with the Balaga.

By a remarkable stroke of luck, there were some changes in the Organization and the idea of my relocating to Trichy was given up. So that was that.

In April 1989, we planned a trip to Delhi, Dehra Dun, Hardwar, Rishikesh, Mussoorie and Agra.Mummy and Sunil came along with us.We travelled by Tamilnadu Express to delhi and Prasanna Uncle had very kindly arranged our stay at the ONGC Guest House at the Asiad Games Village in Delhi.We left straightaway for Dehra Dun and spent a very pleasant time with Prasanna, Lambi and Prasanna's mother who was in her sprightly eighties.They took us to Rishikesh and Mussoorie.The dip in Kempty Falls and the splashing about in Sahastradhara are unforgettable.

Back in Delhi, we did the rounds of Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Connaught place and Pragathi Maidan.The kids got into the dashing cars in Pragathi Maidan.The going got a little rough and the car which had Sunil got into a violent collision with another car and Sunil lost two of his teeth in the process.

We travelled to Agra by the newly introduced Shatabdi Express and it was a very pleasant experience.We saw Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri and returned to Delhi. We then took the K-K Express to Bangalore and deposited Sunil back.

In 1988, our apartment owner Mr.M.A.Krishnaswamy had passed away and his wife was now our landlady.In October 1989, Mrs.Krishnaswamy also passed away.The apartment had been willed to the three married daughters of the Krishnaswamys.In Nov 1989, the three sons-in-law ( all of whom were living outside of Madras) came to me and told me that they were looking to sell the apartment.

This was already our 6th house in Madras and the thought of moving out  once again was too horrible to contemplate.Moreover, the children were already going to school and we had to keep in mind the convenience for bus transport. Then the other mundane stuff like new milk card, new postal address, new servant maid, new newspaper guy, telephone shift....... I had nightmares thinking about this. I had just bought a flat in Bangalore in 1985 and we had no intention of buying a property in Madras. After much thought, it occurred to me that the only way to avoid all hassles of shifting was to buy the Madras flat.
It was convenient in all respects.Where to get the money? I didn't even start thinking on these lines.I didn't even know whether I could get another loan from HDFC when I already had one loan going.

Then I had a stroke of luck. My company entered into an agreement with HDFC ( Housing Development Finance Corporation) and they extended a line of credit to my Organization whereby an employee could avail a loan up to Rs.3 Lakhs.I applied to my company and was informed that I could be granted this facility.

The next step was to start negotiations with the owners.They quoted Rs.6 Lakhs and I started at Rs.4 Lakhs.I had one advantage. I was already living in the place and had physical possession of the apartment.As far as they were concerned, this was inherited property and any sale proceeds would be split 3 ways.We finally closed the deal at Rs.4.3 Lakhs. For a 1350 sq ft flat with a garage thrown in, it wasn't a bad deal. How this 1350 sq ft stretched to 2440 sq ft is another story that I'll relate later.

Together with the lawyer's fees, registration charges and other sundry expenses, the total amount came to Rs.4.8L and I stretched all my resources to come up with the amount.

The registration date was fixed for 21st Mar 1990 ( my 39th birthday). We completed the formalities and then I had to leave the next day for Ooty for offical work.

My next problem was to how to repay the loan.The EMI was Rs.4173 per month and I was already paying Rs.679 per month for the earlier loan I had taken for the Bangalore flat. I was earlier paying a rent of Rs.1200 per month for the Madras flat, so this was straightaway an increase of Rs.3000 per month ( a very big sum in those days). But we managed. When I now think about it, I wonder why I was worried over such a small amount..... but there's a lesson in this for all of us.Especially in India where inflation is relatively high, it's good to invest in property at a young age. Someone once said" The earth is not going to expand" and I've remembered this to this day.

The rest of 1990 passed off peacefully. I was busy in my work and travelled frequently within India.

My next blog will cover the tumultuous political events in India including the economic crisis, Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, the general elections and then the economic liberalization measures--- a watershed year in India by any yardstick.