ಅಕ್ಕನಿಲ್ಲದ ಮನೆ

ಚಪ್ಪಲಿಯ ತೆಗೆದಿಹೆನು

ಮೆಟ್ಟಿಲನು ಹತ್ತಿದೆನು

ಕತ್ತುದ್ದ ಮಾಡಿದರೂ

ಅಕ್ಕನಿಲ್ಲ!

ಕುರ್ಚಿಯಲಿ  ಕುಳಿತಿಹೆನು

ಕತ್ತೆತ್ತಿ ನೋಡಿದೆನು

ಅತ್ತಿತ್ತ  ತಿರುಗಿದರೂ

ಅಕ್ಕನಿಲ್ಲ!

ಒಳಗಿನಾ ಬಾಗಿಲಲಿ

ಹಣಿಕಿಣಿಕಿ ನೋಡಿದೆನು

ಮಿಣುಕುವಾ ದೀಪದಲಿ

ಅಕ್ಕನಿಲ್ಲ!

ಬಚ್ಚಲಾಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ

ಹಚ್ಚಿರುವ ಒಲೆಯಿಹುದು

ಬೆಚ್ಚನೆಯ ನೀರಿಹುದು

ಅಕ್ಕನಿಲ್ಲ!

ಅಡಿಗೆಯಾಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ

ನಗೆಮೊಗೆಯ ಉಷೆಯಿಹಳು

ಬಿಸಿಬಿಸಿ ಕಾಫಿಯ ನೀಡುವಳು

ಅಕ್ಕನಿಲ್ಲ!

ಮನೆಯ ಕೈತೋಟದಲಿ

ಹಸಿರೆಷ್ಟು ತುಂಬಿಹುದು

ಹೊಸಹೊಸಾ ಹೂವಿಹುದು

ಅಕ್ಕನಿಲ್ಲ!

ದೇವರಾಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ

ಭಾವನವರು ಕುಳಿತಿಹರು

ದೇವರ  ಪೂಜೆಗೆಯ್ಯುತಿಹರು

ಅಕ್ಕನಿಲ್ಲ!

ಮನೆಯ ಮಾಳಿಗೆಯಲ್ಲಿ

ಅಕ್ಕನಾ  ಪಟವಿಹುದು

ನಸುನಗೆಯ  ಬೀರುತಿಹಳು

ಕುಸುಮ ಮಾಲೆಯ ನಡುವೆ!

ಓಹ್ ! ಅಕ್ಕ ನೀನಿಲ್ಲಿ ?

------ಎ ವಿ ಕೃಷ್ಣಮೂರ್ತಿ

31ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 2 0 1 3

The Pleasures of a Hindu Undivided Family - Episode No.4

The Belavinakodige family also owned coffee plantations and vast paddy fields in addition to the arecanut gardens. While the coffee plantations were under direct cultivation, the paddy fields were mostly given on tenancy, except for about 10 acres under own cultivation. Major portion of paddy fields under tenancy were located in a place called Chittemakki. This place had its own history and the story of the family will be incomplete without a mention of this place.

All the families in Chittemakki belonged to the Madivala (Dhobi) community. They had been the tenants of the Belavinakodige family from generations and cultivated only paddy in their fields. They had to depend on other occupations to make both ends meet, as the income from paddy was just insufficient.  Their hereditary occupation of washing clothes could also fetch very little money in those days. The families here had one distinct practice. They would name their children in only two-letter words in Kannada. The names were like Manja, Thimma, Hoova, Rudra, Dugga, Naga, Shoora and Singa (all males) and Sheshi, Belli, Loki, Chinni and Subbi (all females). There was absolutely no necessity to twist our tongues whenever we had to address them! Among them the family of Manja had the biggest landholding. Naturally Manja was also their community-head for all purposes.

Manja was also a very good hunter. The Belavinakodige family held a gun under licence. Manja was the only person who could handle it to kill wild animals. In fact it was Manja who ultimately shot the wild boar that attacked Kittajjaiah, our neighbor. I have written this episode in a separate story. But no other persons of his community could develop this skill. Manja was already an old man by the time I saw him. The family had also lost the leadership of the community as Manja’s son Thimma was not such a strong personality. All attempts to regain the community leadership had failed miserably.

As children, we used to hear and enjoy several stories about the fights between the vast extended family of Manja and other members of the community. In fact we used to refer to them as the First Battle of Chittemakki and the Second Battle of Chittemakki (comparing them to the various Battles of Panipat). These stories were very interesting as they were told by the eyewitnesses of these battles and helped us to face the boredom of adike-sulitha (cutting of arecanut) during the late nights.

The First Battle of Chittemakki was unprecedented in the sense that it was waged by the ‘one-man army’ of a person called Subba against the powerful army of the family of Manja. Believe it or not! This battle was won by the one-man army of Subba! There was no necessity to conduct a post-battle enquiry to find out the reasons for the defeat of the ‘powerful’ army of the family of Manja! The reasons were simple and obvious. While the army of Manja was weaponless, the one-man army of Subba used the most powerful weapon of those times – the Donne (a wooden stick)! Let me elaborate.

Subba was a well-built young man who had married Loki, a girl from another village. The young couple had just started their happy married life. But Subba had attracted the enmity of the family of Manja on account of some dispute. One particular night there was a big quarrel and the entire family of Manja gathered near Subba’s house and started abusing him. The arguments reached a high pitch and the altercation turned physical.  The family of Manja thought that it would teach a perfect lesson to Subba and Loki on that night.

But they had obviously under-estimated the power of Subba! The young man thought enough was enough. He knew he was badly outnumbered. He looked for a weapon. Fortunately he could find no lethal weapons on the spot. Undaunted, he uprooted a long wooden stick (Donne) from the fence and moved with lightening speed. He used the weapon with great effect on the male members who were on the frontline! There was no necessity for him to use them on the females. By the time he had finished with the males, the females had simply vanished in thin air! They had safely bolted themselves in their houses leaving the hapless male members at the mercy of the valiant Subba!

We had heard this story several times in our boyhood and enjoyed it each time. For us, the heroics of Subba were nothing less than the heroics of Veera Abhimanyu in the legendary Mahabharatha War. While Abhimanyu had lost his life in the battle, Subba had won the battle decisively. After all, the war of Kurukshetra was thousands of years old, while the Battle of Chittemakki was quite contemporary!

The Second Battle of Chittemakki was equally interesting. This time the enemy camp of Manja’s family had doubled its strength! Instead of the one-man army of the first battle, it was actually a two-man army from a different family! There was an elderly man called Hoova, who had no issues. He had adopted two sons of his sister named Singa and Soora. Somehow the family of Manja was not happy with Hoova and his adopted sons. One particular day there was a big showdown between the two families.

Hoova was an aged man and he had a problem with his vocal chords. He was unable to raise his voice even under extreme provocation. Naturally Manja’s family had the upper hand in the arguments that ensued. But they had again under-estimated the two teenaged adopted sons of Hoova. In fact Hoova had named them appropriately for the occasion! While the name of Singa is derived from the lion, the name Soora literally means courageous. The two young men could not bear the insult to their beloved maternal uncle and the adopted father. The two needed no weapons for the battle that followed. They used whatever instruments they could lay their hands on! While Singa pounced on the crowd like a lion, Soora hit them hard courageously. The two men justified their names in full! The Second Battle of Chittemakki ended with the understandable results. There was no occasion for the Third Battle unlike the Panipat! The Second Battle turned out to be the decisive and the final one! The Manja family had learnt its lessons well.

Other than the Belavinakodige family, ours was the only family that had a stake in the paddy fields of Chittemakki. But that was the lowest unit of measurement possible for the paddy fields. In fact the paddy field in front of Manja’s house belonged to our family. It was a small plot measuring one Khanduga (3/4^th of an acre) that had been gifted to my father by a gentleman called Puradamane Shingappaiah. Manja was giving an annual geni of two Khandugas (50 seers each- put together called one palla) of paddy to us under the tenancy arrangement. That could hardly meet one month of consumption of rice by our family.

This paddy field was located on the route of our mother’s maternal uncle’s house in a place called Kelakodige. We used to travel on this route often. Every time we used to feel very proud while passing through this land. We used to shout loudly that the land belonged to us! There was a big tamarind tree in the plot that used to yield quality tamarind. Left to us, perhaps, we would have displayed a board there– “This land belongs to Adekhandi Family. Trespassers will be prosecuted!”

Manja’s grandson Ganapa (Ganesha) was in my age-group and was my schoolmate. Ganapa was a simple and friendly boy. The family did a favour to us. We were sure to lose the land under the tenancy act of the Government of Karnataka. My father arrived at an understanding with the family. The family did not tender any declaration under the act. The land continued in our name and the family continued the cultivation under the age old tenancy system. The arrangement continued till my eldest brother sold it off.

As per the age old tradition, all the families of Chittemakki would undertake manual work at the Belavinakodige house in the matter of cultivation and harvesting of paddy and the annual cutting of arecanut (adike-sulitha). The season of adike-sulitha used to be from October to February every year. The families used to divide themselves into two groups. The first group would camp at the Belavinakodige house itself. The second group would camp at a one dark-room house near our neighbor Kittajjaiah’s house. This house had a verandah where the families would conduct the adike-sulitha. They would use the dark room for cooking their food. The women would do the adike-sulitha throughout the day and till late night. The men would engage in other connected work in the day and join the adike-sulitha in the night.

This house had a history. It was called the house of Venkata Lakshmamma. She was an aged widow who was living with the Belavinakodige family. We were told that once upon a time she used to stay alone in that one-room dark house.

The families of Chittemakki were also engaged by us for different jobs during the off-season. As per tradition they would supply the batthies for lighting the lamps during the Deepavali festival to each household. They would also collect the cloth for washing at least once in a year as it was their profession by birth. Generally they would collect the consideration in the form of arecanut and coconut. Thus the families of Chittemakki were a part and parcel of our daily life in our childhood.

------- (To be continued)

A V Krishnamurthy

27^th January, 2011

Dear Sir,

I very much enjoyed when you compared the fights of Chittemakki to battles of Panipat...!! The adike-sulitha seems to be such a laborious job.....It makes me wonder how Manja’s family did not properly equip itself for the fight with Hoova’s sons.....Probably they continued to be overconfident inspite of their loss with Subba....

Wish you a nice weekend.....

Yours affectionately,

Ashwini

The Pleasures of a Hindu Undivided Family - Episode No.3

The first time when Ganeshaiah-Kaveramma couple moved to Shimoga, they had taken with them three boys of three different parents – Shankru (Shankar), Gundu (Bhaskar) and Chandru (Chandrasekhar). The trio could be called three Us as their short names ended with U. The couple also took with them two daughters of Venkappaiah – GangaRatna and Annapurna – who were still too young. While Shankar was the third son of Thimmappaiah, Bhaskar and Chandrasekhar were the sons of two sisters of Ganeshaiah. At a later stage, four other sons of Thimmappaiah and one son of Venkappaiah (Keshava) also joined them. These boys were in the age-group of me and my brother (AVL). All the children would accompany the couple during their visits to our village.

The boys who were in our age-group were much envied by us because of their exalted status as city-boys. I should mention here that living in Shimoga city in those days was rated much higher than working in US now! They would speak the city-version of Kannada language very fluently, which showed the inferiority of our daily spoken rural Kannada. Oh! How stylishly they spoke! They were even mixing some English words in their conversations for better effect/impression. Some of them were also talking about some new game called cricket! We could not even make out what type of game it could be! We never thought there could be any other game superior to Kabaddi! So that was it. We thought we had a lot to cover if at all we dreamed to live in a city one day!

The Navarathri Samaradhane of those days was much more than even a marriage function of today. A senior gentleman called Mahabalaiah, a look-alike of Mahatma Gandhi, would arrive with his team one day prior to the function, to cook the special food for the occasion. This man was a specialist cook who would have given the present day TV chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor and our own Sihi-Kahi Chandru a run for their money! He could even make bondas from the skin of potatoes! The work would start in the afternoon immediately on arrival of the team. Representatives from all the village families (both men and women) would arrive in time to join the preparatory work (called Odyata) including the cutting of vegetables.

On the day of the function Ganeshaiah himself would perform the lengthy pooja and the arathi to the Goddess. The grand lunch would start immediately thereafter. After the lunch all the elders would assemble in the main hall. In the normal course it was the time to play cards (without stakes). But so long as Ganeshaiah headed the family, the practice was to just sit and wait for him to speak. He was such a towering and gigantic personality that all other elders looked like Lilliputs in front of Gulliver!

Ganeshaiah would address each head of the family by his first name. He would collect information about all the events and developments in the village between his last visit and the present one. All the family heads would only speak in a mellowed voice. Some of them were not even lifting their heads as they had no courage to face him. That was the type of respect Ganeshaiah carried with the villagers! The only person I had seen speaking to Ganeshaiah face to face was a gentleman called Baisemane Madhava Rao of Hosanagar. His daughter Lakshmi had been married to Yallappaiah – the first son of Thimmappaiah. He invariably wore a black coat while attending the functions and that took him up a notch above the other ordinary personalities. We were told that he was also a big landlord.

The next major festival in the family was the Anantha Chaturdasi Vratham. This Vratham is known as a tough one among the several other Vrathams performed at home. Some other families also performed this Vratham along with the Belavinakodige family. While the Vratham was performed in the morning, the Anantha Visarjan in the afternoon used to be very interesting for us. For the visarjan, Anantha Kalasham had to be taken to a well in the arecanut garden below the Belavinakodige house. Ganeshaiah and the other males who also performed the Vratham would take the Kalasham to the well accompanied by the female members of the family and others. Most of the males would wait for their arrival back from the well after visarjan.

We had to throw the grains of a commodity called Genejalu on the persons who had performed the Vratham, while they were coming back after the visarjan. Genejalu was a type of corn. Our family had a monopoly on this item. It was simply because the Genejalu plants were available only on a tank-bed in our arecanut garden. Neither it was grown anywhere else in our village, nor do I know this practice of using it in the Anantha Vratham in any other villages. The origin of this custom and the importance given to this particular item, during the Anantha Vratham, are indeed a mystery. As children, we used to be very proud of this monopoly of our family. We would wait for the people to come to our house annually to collect this special item in advance. Oh! What a special privilege we had! We even thought that the Anantha Vratham may have to be abandoned in case we refused to part with this special commodity!

Generally Ganeshaiah couple would stay back in the village for some days after the Navarathri festival. They would visit all the families separately. We would receive advance information about the visit of Kaveramma.  She would be accompanied by some lady members of the family, while Ganeshaiah would come alone. We anxiously awaited the arrival of Kaveramma as she would invariably carry sweets, dry fruits and apples to be distributed among the children. She was such a graceful and beautiful lady! Her very presence was sufficient to create a festival atmosphere in the houses she visited!

Quite in contrast, the visit of Ganeshaiah used to be unannounced. His movement was comparable to the visit of tigers to our village. It used to be sudden and a surprise. There were two routes to reach our houses from Belavinakodige. One was entirely through the arecanut gardens, while the other was through the road. It was even difficult to make out the route through which he reached our houses. He would appear suddenly as if from nowhere!

The conversation with Ganeshaiah used to be a totally one-sided affair and the practice was to give only replies to his questions. Nobody dared to put any questions to him. The topics used to be about the arecanut crop and the related problems. I particularly remember one occasion when he visited our house. My father and mother were sorting the arecanut into different categories at that time. My father was a master in the matter of colouring the arecanut. He used to prepare a special dye from the bark of a tree. Even though it was the same item as used by other families, my father was mixing it in such a way that the final product (arecanut) used to be so special and distinct from others. He would also take extra care to ensure right level of boiling the mixture with arecanut. Ganeshaiah was very much impressed with the kind of stuff created by my father. He advised him to send the consignment to the arecanut Mandi in Shimoga in a separate lot. It indeed helped. The consignment got the highest bid for the variety in the Mandi during the auction.

I do not recollect much about the last days of Ganeshaiah. I was studying in the middle school while staying at my sister’s house in a place called Hokkalike near Thirthahalli. It was probably the year 1961. I was visiting my second elder sister’s house in the same village. As I entered the house, I saw tears in the eyes of my sister. She told me that Ganeshaiah had passed away in Shimoga. The news had even appeared in the newspapers. His name was mentioned as a very highly respected and important personality of the Malnad region. He deserved that tribute and that was perhaps the first time a Malnad landlord’s obituary appeared in a state-level newspaper.

With the death of Ganeshaiah, there was a vacuum in the leadership space of our village, which was never filled up. As far as the Belavinakodige house was concerned, the family traditions and management were continued by the two brothers Thimmappaiah and Venkappaiah smoothly. But alas! No other personality in our village could come up to the leadership level of Ganeshaiah. Indeed an era had come to an end!

------- (To be continued)

A V Krishnamurthy

24^th January, 2011

Great reading indeed, Bhava.

I could connect Ganeshaiah's personality to at least a couple of people I remember from our place.

They are - commanding, decisive and also philosophical sometimes, which went hand in hand with the great zeal for life. They had solution (of their own) for anything and everything in this world.

Regards,

Rajagopal Tholpadi

Dear Sir,

I have not missed out reading your articles.  I don’t give my comments but feel very unhappy when the episode ends on page 4 or 3.  I have sometimes felt, this episode should have been much much more longer….

It needs all the appreciation because it is not just the content that is very interesting, but the language is also neat.  Probably a reader like me who imagines while reading what he/she reads will agree with me that your writing has that very strong ability to feed the imagination of the reader.  

I am not very good at writing, but I am trying my best to put forth my thoughts in my own way.  Please forgive me for any mistakes. 

Regards,

Veena

Dear Sir,

It is a pleasure to know about the people and life in Malnad village....I enjoyed the descriptions of the festivals mentioned in this episode....The two incidents I found incredible was the Ganeshaiah supporting the children of other families and Kaveramma distributing the sweets in the village....I guess in Shimoga also Ganeshaiah stayed in a big house....The comparison between the acquired mannerisms of city boys and village was so hilarious....It made me laugh....!!

Eagerly waiting for the new episode.....

Yours affectionately,

Ashwini

The Pleasures of a Hindu Undivided Family - Episode No.2

I had ended the previous episode abruptly to keep my readers guessing about the fate of Yallappaiah after the dacoits left the house. I am sure none of my readers would have guessed it correctly. It is indeed difficult to believe. But Yallappaiah did not wait for help from anybody from his village. He walked more than 2 kms with his eyes blindfolded and hands tied up to one particular house and got his blindfold and ropes from the hands removed. In fact my mother had told me the name of this house. But my memory has failed me here and I am not sure whether any of the present generation family members are aware of it. But the fact remains that Yallappaiah was an exceptional personality and he could cover such a long distance just like a blindfolded magician of today! I had heard this story repeatedly from my mother and every time I ended up wondering about this adventure of Yallappaiah.

One question, of course, would necessarily arise in the minds of my readers. Did not anyone in the village see Yallappaiah on the way? But let me tell you that it did not make any difference. It was simply because they had no guts to ask him anything about his state of affairs. Such was his personality. I am writing this from my experience in seeing the way his eldest son Ganeshaiah was treated and held in awe by our village folk. I would also add here that my mother would never mix up fiction with facts when she spoke about the history of our village.

It appears that the dacoits were never caught and the family lost that portion of the wealth permanently. But there were reasons to believe that the family’s liquid wealth was much more than what the dacoits took away on that particular day. Yallappaiah was not an ordinary rich man who would put all his investments in a single basket! In those days it was quite common to keep a part of the wealth in the form of gold coins in pots hidden underground somewhere inside/near the house. In our village itself there were instances of such treasures being discovered several years later. In fact the person who purchased our Adekhandi house appears to have found one such treasure! But I will come back to it later.

As far as my own memory goes, the Belavinakodige was a crowded house with the family members of Yallappaiah. However, the eldest of his sons, Ganeshaiah, had moved out of our village at his old age to the city of Shimoga. His wife Kaveramma was the sister of another big landlord from a village called Kanooru near Narasimaharajapura. The couple had a son and a daughter both of whom died early. The bereaved couple decided to leave the village for good.  They also took with them the sons and daughters of the brothers and sisters of Ganeshaiah who were in the school-going age. The idea was to admit them in good schools in Shimoga.

But Ganeshaiah continued to keep the financial management of

pushing one another throughout! There was no limit to their naughtiness! The senior the family fully under his remote control. The city of Shimoga has always been the nerve centre of activity for the arecanut-growing farmers of Koppa, Sringeri, N R Pura, Thirthahalli and Hosanagara taluks. Ganeshaiah made it a point to visit his home on the occasion of all the major festivals along with his entourage. Among them were Navarathri and Anantha Chaturdasi Vratham.

Like all other houses in our village the Belavinakodige house had a perennial source of water in the form of a large tank near the house located at the bottom of a hillock. The water would directly flow into the house through a pipeline on gravity. There was a temple of Raktheswari (comparable to the Kali Matha in Bengal) between the tank and the house. Raktheswari is known as a very powerful Goddess and was under the exclusive private worship of the family. An annual event called Raktheswari Samaradhane was being held, when the villagers had the opportunity see the deity. As children we were afraid of this Goddess and we never dared to go near the temple. We thought we may create some ‘mailige’ (sacrilege) and attract the wrath of the powerful Goddess!

The house had a very big Go-Shala (cowshed). There were a large number of cows and some buffaloes. The family obviously required a huge supply of milk for the captive use. While the Malnad families generally treated the arrival of male and female child with equal pleasure, the things were quite different as far as female and male issues of cows were concerned! The arrival of a female calf was a cause of celebration in all the families. But a male calf faced discrimination from the moment it was born! While the female calf would be reared with all affection and care, the male one would be banished at the earliest opportunity!

The Belavinakodige house had a different arrangement for the male calves. The family had vast paddy fields and it was possible to use some of the quality male calves for ploughing, once they grew up. So some months after they stopped drinking their mother’s milk, the male calves would be shifted to a ‘creche’ near our house! This creche was maintained by a senior servant of the family called Sesha. This Sesha’s creche was actually a cowshed called Koodu-Kottige in Kannada. What it meant actually was unlike in the normal cowshed, where the individual cows are tied to a pole, the young bulls here would be left free to move around inside uncontrolled. Sesha’s duty was to herd them together in the evening on return from grazing by counting them manually and locking the door. He would release them in the morning on arrival of the cowherd Chowda (I have already written a separate story on him).

It appears the young bulls in this creche enjoyed their childhood to the full. We used to visit this creche often to see the games played by them! While the senior bulls would rest themselves peacefully, the younger ones were restless, mischievous and a total nuisance. They would go on fighting and most bulls would be moved to another shed (called Yetthina-Kottige) near the paddy field in the next stage. Here they would graduate themselves to start ploughing the paddy fields from the next season!

Coming back to Sesha, I should say that I have never seen a more faithful and committed family servant of his caliber. He lived in a shed near the creche mentioned by me above. A middle-aged person, Sesha lived alone and cooked his own food. Once in a year he would go back to his village in South-Kanara to visit his family. He was totally dedicated to the Belavinakodige family and needed absolutely no supervision for any of his duties. One of his major duties was to irrigate the arecanut gardens from several tanks located at different places during the summer. The gardens near our house belonged to the Belavinakodige family. We could see him often watering the plants there. He used to wear a trademark dress including a cap made from adike-haale (I find no equivalent word in English) and a pink towel.

Sesha used to grow a number of vegetables near his shed. One such vegetable was called Basale (green leaves with stems) in Kannada. Due to some unexplained reasons, this vegetable was a taboo for our community in those days. But my mother used to prepare very tasty sambar and hashwale (tambuli) from Basale. Sesha would deliver Basale to our house during the night in a hush-hush manner! A cup of coffee and yele-adike were the only consideration he expected! I do not remember as to when exactly Sesha finally bid adieu to the family. With the advent of power tiller and tractor, the creche system for the young bulls stands terminated. Nevertheless for some of us at least, Sesha and his creche will remain permanently etched in our memories.

Yallappaiah had ensured that his sons were well trained in all the physical jobs connected with the agriculture and family customs and traditions. I have seen both the younger brothers of Ganeshaiah – Thimmappaiah and Venkappaiah - doing all sorts of manual work despite of the fact that they belonged to such a wealthy family. In fact they were experts in covering the roof tops of houses with fresh arecanut leaves. This was an annual affair at all the houses in our village done on a labour-sharing basis. For several years they continued to participate in this event including the one at our Adekhandi house. They gave up these jobs only at the later part of their life.

The two brothers used to dress like simple folks wearing the traditional paani panche (dhothi) also called Barapore panche and a trademark shirt which was midway between the present day shirts with half sleeves and full sleeves. This dress was quite comfortable while doing all sorts of manual works. They would also wear a Gandhi shawl normally. They would upgrade their dress to a full-sleeve shirt and a longer Kachhe-panche while attending important functions. The family had the traditional right and responsibility to lead a ‘dibbana’ (procession) from our village to the annual car-festival at the Lakshmi Venkateshwara Temple at Megoor – also called Munivrundapura. This dibbana accompanied by vadya would cover the entire distance of over 10 kms by walk.

The family’s major portion of agricultural land was under the cultivation of tenants. Our family also had a small portion of arecanut garden belonging to this family under tenancy (geni). The collection of arecanut and paddy as per the tenancy arrangement was an annual affair. An entourage of the family under the leadership of Venkappaiah would arrive at our houses with a takkadi (weighing equipment) for weighment and collection of the arecanut. As per the arrangement, the geni adike was to be in the sorted variety of hasa (the top-rated and the highest priced variety) only.

Venkappaiah would personally weigh the arecanut with assistance from others. He would wear a Mundasu (turban) made out of his Gandhi shawl while weighing. As per the custom, a person is not supposed to exhibit his pate (with or without hair!) while weighing! Similarly the first unit of measurement for counting is mentioned as Labha (profit) instead of the number one (Ondu)! Again the number seven (yelu) is not mentioned and instead it is counted as matthondu (additional one)! For some unknown reasons, it is a taboo to use these two numbers while measuring/weighing! After the completion of weighment, the consignment would be kept aside. It would be lifted on a bullock cart subsequently.

The arrival of Ganeshaiah and Kaveramma with their entourage for the annual celebration of Navarathri and Anantha Chaturdasi Vratham used to be a major event in our village.

------- (To be continued)-------

A V Krishnamurthy
16th January 2011

The Pleasures of a Hindu Undivided Family - Part-1

The concept of joint Hindu Family (HUF) is dead and gone. Goodbye to the good old days. Nowadays the families are just unable to live under a single roof. None of us are prepared to make sacrifices or compromises and respect the elders in the family – the true elements of success of the HUF. So much so that even the wife and husband are finding it difficult to live together! Thanks to the new age generation and liberalization - the concept of live-in relationship is gaining strength. The advantage is - you can wind it up anytime! No wonder – the Splitsvilla programme on MTV has become highly popular!

The above thinking was from my experiences of living in the city all these days. But how wrong I was! A visit to an interior village in Malnad about four months back, changed my perception totally and how! You may be surprised, but I am proud to say that the village is none other than the village where I was born!

I had an occasion to visit my village for distributing invitations for my second son’s marriage. My wife could not accompany me and I requested my two elder sisters to join me. The two are living in another village not far from my village. They were also interested and excited as they had no occasion to visit several houses in my village for quite a long time. It turned out to be a memorable visit indeed!

The first house to be visited by us was called Bhuvanakote. The house belonged to a gentleman called Venkappaiah who is no more. Venkappaiah was a big Zamindar and belonged to the biggest HUF of our village called Belavinakodige. His family had branched out from the main family and shifted to Bhuvanakote during my childhood days. But it continued to be a nuclear family with another two families in its hold. Venkappaiah, a soft-spoken man, managed the outside affairs, while his wife Lakshmamma (from Hebbige family), a venerable and affectionate lady, managed the home affairs. The family had a tradition – to keep a low-profile. None of its members would speak loudly or raise their voice under any circumstances!

We were expecting lot of changes in the family set up and tradition, consequent to the departure of Venkappaiah and Lakshmamma. But Oh! No! Absolutely nothing had changed. The only change was - the baton had passed on to Keshava (the eldest son) and his wife Lalitha from Venkappaiah and Lakshmamma respectively.  It continues to be a nuclear family of three brothers at present with the fourth brother employed in Mysore. Keshava’s seven sisters are married and well settled. But they keep in regular touch with the family. Keshava’s two sons are also employed in Bangalore.

The family was busy in the early morning chores.  Our visit turned out to be a surprise. But we were received with special warmth and affection in the traditional Malnad way. While Keshava spoke to me amidst his daily routine, his wife Lalitha spoke to my sisters. The familiarity with which Lalitha treated us indeed surprised me. I was perhaps visiting the family after a gap of over 20 years. But she spoke to me with such a familiarity that I really felt I had never left my village and continued to live there all these days! In my opinion Lakshmamma could not have chosen a better person to succeed her and continue the family traditions!

Our next destination was Belavinakodige from where this family had branched out. But we had a problem on hand. While the male members of the family were well known to us, we had not seen any of the ladies in the family as they were all young and the older ladies had passed away. Fortunately for us, Lalitha agreed to accompany us to introduce the ladies to us. She took her co-sister’s young son with her for company. On the way, Lalitha gave us good news. Yallappaiah, the eldest son of the family was back in the family along with his wife. He is almost in his eighties now and has no issues. This was one family reunion that gave us plenty of happiness. A re-merger of a branch of the family after a gap of over 40 years!  Perhaps quite unbelievable; but still very much true! Let me recollect and record here whatever I know about this prestigious family:

o------o-----o-----o--- -----o------o-------o-----o------o------o-------o------o------o--

The house of Belavinakodige is located at the bottom of a hillock and at the top of a valley of arecanut gardens stretching up to another landmark house in our village called Puradamane. My own Adekhandi house (since sold out and is only a memory for us now) is located midway between these two houses. Our village has a tradition of carrying different names for each household. The importance of Belavinakodige house is indicated by the fact that the same name is given to our entire village. There was a time when the entire arecanut valley was divided among three families of our village, with the major portion belonging to the Belavinakodige family. All others including our family were only tenants of the Belavinakodige family. This family also had agricultural lands in other parts of our village.

As per tradition, the head of this family invariably carried the name of Yallappaiah. For generations, the family carried the practice of naming the eldest son in the family with the said name and the origin of this name remains a mystery. Of course the name is no more in use in the fashionable world of today. My maternal great grandmother was the sister of Yallappaiah (grandfather of the current family head). He had three sons by the name of Ganeshaiah, Thimmappaiah and Venkappaiah (already referred above).

My mother used to tell us a story about Yallappaiah. It seems for some reasons Yallappaiah had to live alone in the large Belavinakodige house for quite some time. The family had a treasure of gold and diamond jewels that were in the excusive possession of Yallappaiah. It was even said that in addition to the other jewels, there was a large silver vessel, which was filled with gold rings to the brim. Yallappaiah knew the exact number of rings in the said vessel. He would make a physical verification often.

In those days robbery was said to be common and super rich families were the general target. Fearing the possibility of robbery of the family wealth, an arrangement had been made by the relatives to keep a group of State Reserve Police as security at the Belavinakodige house. The Royal Government of Mysore had obliged, keeping in view of the clout enjoyed by the family in the Malnad region of those days. The arrangement was expected to continue as long as Yallappaiah lived alone in the house. But on account of some mysterious reasons, the security was suddenly withdrawn after some time.

It seems a group of dacoits had already marked the house and was just waiting for the opportunity. They attacked the house on the very next day after the departure of the State Reserve Police. But Yallappaiah somehow got wind of the attack and bolted himself in the legendary and landmark house. The doors were made of hard wood and the gang really had a task on hand to break them down. Having failed in the task, the gang started digging up the base of the door fittings to remove the structure in its entirety. It had arrived with all the necessary equipments. The sound of digging up of the basement was so loud that it could be heard in the entire village. But none in the village dared to come to the rescue of Yallappaiah at the cost of their lives. The entire structure (door system) collapsed after some time.

The leader of the gang was perhaps known to Yallappaiah. Naturally he did not want to disclose his identity. The gang therefore planned to throw sand on the eyes of Yallappaiah before tying him up. The idea was not to harm him in any way and to hide the identity of the leader. But the leader of the gang developed some cold feet at the last moment. He felt that throwing the sand in the eyes of the elderly Yallappaiah was a cruelty!

But that did not prevent the gang from proceeding with its normal duties! The gang managed to overpower Yallappaiah and tied a cloth covering his both eyes. They tied up his hands also so that he could not remove the cloth. The gang leader appeared in front of him only thereafter. He snatched away the treasury keys from the waist belt of Yallappaiah. The entire family wealth in the form of gold, diamond and silver was looted without any mercy. The gang leader had noticed that Yallappaiah was wearing a waist belt made of pure gold (called Nevala in Kannada). It was too tempting to avoid stealing the same! It was snatched away mercilessly by cutting it off from the body! The gang ran away with the booty leaving behind Yallappaiah blindfolded and both the hands tied up firmly.

------- (To be continued)-------

A V Krishnamurthy
9th January 2011

I Don’t Know, Son! - 70

The Twitter-Tweeter Mix-Up!

Son: The investor community is a crazy lot even in a developed country like the US, dad.

Father: How come? Go on son.

Son: The news of the social media site Twitter launching its IPO shortly has created a sensation and excitement across the world financial markets, dad.

Father: True. Go on, son.

Son: The investors mistook the long-dead electronics retailer Tweeter for the social website (Twitter) and placed huge buy orders on the scrip sending the same up by over 1,000 percent on 4^th October 2013, dad!

Father: Interesting! Go on, son.

Son: The Tweeter Home Entertainment Group (Tweeter), a specialty consumer electronics company, had filed for bankruptcy in 2007, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

The Victim or the Thief!

Son: Bangalore Mirror has reported a case of a victim turning out as a thief, dad.

Father: Interesting. Go on, son.

Son: A techie in Bangalore had filed a police complaint on May 2013 that his Rs6.5-lakh car Tata Manza had been stolen, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: After more than five months in September a cop with the Kalasipalayam station spotted the stolen car and arrested the driver (thief) and brought him to the station, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: To their shock and surprise, the police then found that the ‘thief’ was in fact the techie himself who had filed the complaint, dad!

Father: Interesting. Go on, son.

Son: What happened actually was that the car had been parked by the techie at the house of his in-laws and had been taken away by loan sharks who had financed the bankrupt in-laws, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: The techie came to know about it after filing the complaint and got it released by paying Rs5 lakh to the loan sharks, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: But he did not inform the police as he wanted to get the insurance claim as well, dad!

Father: Go on, Son.

Son: The techie’s brilliant idea to ‘have the cake and eat it too’ ended with his arrest, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

Kingfisher’s Desperate Efforts!

Son: The management of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines is said to be desperately negotiating with private equity funds for raising money, dad.

Father: Is it for revival of the airline? Appears too late. Go on, son.

Son: Not exactly, dad.

Father: Then it must be for the payment of salaries to employees in view of the ensuing festival season. Go on, son.

Son: You are wrong again, dad.

Father: Then what? Go on, son.

Son: The airline wants to start shooting for its famous Kingfisher Calendar for 2014, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

It’s Ok if you don’t repay Loans!

Son: The Congress Chief G Parameshwara has said that it’s OK if the minorities do not pay back the loans taken from the Karnataka Minority Development Corporation, dad.

Father: Ridiculous! Go on, son.

Son: The Congress Chief was a serious contender for the post of Chief Minister. But lost the race to Siddaramaiah (Siddu), dad.

Father: True. Go on, son.

Son: When the reporters raised the issue with the Congress spokesperson in Delhi, he was said to be unperturbed, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: He seems to have told them coolly that they could now understand why the Congress Chief lost the race to CM’s post, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

A V Krishnamurthy

The Financial Wizard - Episode No.6

“Not all the armies of all the empires of earth

can crush the spirit of one true man.

And that one man will prevail”

                                                         ----Terence Mac Swiney

The fact that my brother-in-law was engaged in the money lending activity did not make him lose his focus on his basic vocation of agriculture. While the cultivation of paddy was restricted to only a part of the year (there was no concept of summer crop), the arecanut cultivation is a 365 days in a year occupation. Besides, in the Malnad region the banana cultivation is part and parcel of the arecanut cultivation. Banana is planted in the midst of arecanut plants and the regular yield forms part of the income from the plantation.

Unlike in our village, the growing of pan leaves by planting them near the arecanut trees was not in practice in Hokkalike. In our place, the income from pan leaves formed a significant portion of income from the plantation. During his visits to our house, my brother-in-law observed the pan leaf cultivation in our gardens. He took it as a challenge and carried the seedlings from our place. By the time I was in Hokkalike, he had managed to grow a good number of plants. They were yielding leaves enough to even supply them to shops.

I had mentioned earlier that the paddy stock would be sold by my brother-in-law when the market rates were on the higher side. The same was true in the case of arecanut also. The city of Shimoga had a very well developed and organised market for arecanut grown in the Malnad region. The arecanut mandies in Shimoga would allow the farmers to hold on to their stock for years just for a nominal rent. There used to be some cash rich farmers who would hold the stock for years in anticipation of increase in prices. Actually the quality of arecanut from Malnad used to be such that it would improve in proportion to its age! My brother-in-law would visit Shimoga only when he found the rates attractive.

Post nationalization of banks in 1969, the banks started opening their branches in many of the rural places. Initially these branches used to focus only on the deposits. My brother-in-law became the first target of new bank branches in the vicinity. During 1970,  Canara Bank opened its branch in Basavani, where I had completed by Middle School education. Actually Basavani is located in Thirthahalli taluk, which comes under Shimoga district. However, Hokkalike though located two miles from Basavani, falls under Koppa taluk and Chikmagalur district. But that did not prevent the Manager of Canara Bank from approaching my brother-in-law. Soon he became an important client of the bank.

Even though my brother-in-law belonged to the old school of thought, he had fairly good idea about the need for investing in life insurance policies. He did invest in insurance. In fact when the Unit Trust came out with some scheme for insurance linked policies, he was the first to invest. He had even invested in a long term scheme for the benefit of his granddaughter. The product was to mature by the time the girl reached the marriageable age.

My brother-in-law had also taken care to invest in sites in Hokkalike. However, he somehow did not invest in sites in nearby towns like Koppa or Thirthahalli. In fact, the building in which Canara Bank branch was housed in Basavani had been offered to him. The Land-Lord was particular that he only should buy the property. But somehow my brother-in-law was not interested.

My brother-in-law learnt a very bad lesson in the matter of helping the weaker section of the society. He used to give small loans to such persons by taking on pledge vessels, utensils, etc. The security was only to enforce repayment obligations. He would charge only nominal simple rate of interest. During the emergency period, the Government of Karnataka brought some restrictions on rural money lending. Instigated by some political leaders, the borrowers arrived at the house of my brother-in-law and demanded the securities back.  My brother-in-law handed over all the securities. He had to just write off the entire dues.

By the time my brother-in-law reached his old age, he had ensured that his three sons and only daughter were well settled. He had seen to it that the families of his children were financially independent and self-sufficient. Even though he could have taken full rest from the routine agriculture work at his old age, he continued to get totally involved. During paddy planting season of the year 1998, he was monitoring the planting activity in his fields one day. He was suddenly hit by a paralytic stroke while standing in the fields. He could not recover fully from the attack and breathed his last soon. An eventful career of a benevolent rural financial expert had come to an end. May his soul rest in peace!

------Concluded-----

A V Krishnamurthy

I Don’t Know, Son! - 69

The Veto Power!

Son: The Veto-Power in the United Nations Security Council refers to the power wielded by the five permanent members – USA, China, UK, Russia and France, dad.

Father: True. Go on son.

Son: These members are empowered to prevent adoption of any major draft Council resolution regardless of the level of international support for the draft, dad.

Father: True. Go on, son.

Son: However, in the Indian context it has assumed a new definition now, dad.

Father: Like what? Go on, son.

Son: It is the power wielded by Rahul Gandhi that prevented the signing of an ordinance by the President of India even after it has been approved by the Cabinet, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

Not so Worried!

Son: The rating agency Fitch has kept three PSU banks under watch, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: Punjab National Bank, Canara bank and IDBI Bank are the three banks under its watch list, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: A spokesperson of Canara Bank, however, is reported to have said that the bank is not much worried, dad.

Father: How come? Go on, son.

Son: According to him, the bank is now busy in taking over a ‘major bank’ in Karnataka and the position of the bank would improve substantially after the takeover, dad.

Father: Which is the bank? Go on, son.

Son: It is the Amanath Cooperative Bank, which is in the news for all the wrong reasons, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

No Moral Right?

Son: The BCCI is said to be thinking of deputing one of its officials to convey a message to the Indian cricket legend Tendulkar, dad.

Father: What message? Go on, son.

Son: The obvious message is to ask the legend to announce his voluntary retirement, as BBCI wants to avoid the embarrassment of dropping him, dad.

Father: Go on, Son.

Son: When newsmen approached the legend for his comments, he is reported to have said that BCCI has no moral rights to ask him to retire, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: According to the legend, Srinivasan has been sticking on to the post of the President of BCCI in spite of all the controversies, dad.

Father: True. Go on, son.

Son: Tendulkar feels, as a legend he has every right to stick on to the Indian Team, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

The New Brand Ambassador!

Son: The industry is always looking to encash the popularity of icons for marketing its brands, dad.

Father: True. Go on, son.

Son: The tendency of Tendulkar to stick on to the Indian Team seems to have attracted the attention of one particular brand, dad.

Father: Which brand? Go on, son.

Son: The Fevicol brand is said to be interested in appointing the legend as its brand ambassador, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

The Conflict of Interest!

Son: One should appreciate the temerity with which N Srinivasan pursued his goal of wresting back the post of President of BCCI, dad.

Father: True. Go on, son.

Son: He fought against all his adversaries almost single handedly to get the coveted post back, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: It seems the Gujarat Ambuja Cement Company wanted to make him a brand ambassador for its advertisement campaign – Yeh deewaar toot ti kiyon nahi.......?

Father: Interesting. Go on, son.

Son: However, Srinivasan is said to have declined the offer citing conflict of interest, dad.

Father: How come? Go on, son.

Son: Srinivasan owns the prestigious cement company - India Cements Ltd – dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

A V Krishnamurthy