My next trip was to the
Headquarters of our district itself, I mean, to Chickmagalore Town
The preparations for this trip
had to start on Monday morning itself. We had to visit different houses of our
village to collect raw bananas from their plantations. We would cut off the
banana tree to collect the bunch of bananas directly. They would then be packed
in gunny bags after counting the same in presence of the owners. As our house
was not approachable by bullock carts (there was only a very narrow road) we
had to shift the bags to Sampige Kolalu manually for loading in their bullock
cart. We had to pay for the bananas and the hire charges of bullock cart after
returning from the Chickmagalore market.
We left on our bullock cart in
the early morning of Tuesday. The cart had to cross the river Sitha before it
reached the bus stop in a place called Belagola. Here we unloaded the bags and
waited for the 6.30 am bus to arrive. Unfortunately for us the bus was already
overloaded by the time it reached our stop from Koppa town. As there was no
place on the top to load our bags the driver and conductor expressed their
inability even though both of them were very well known to my father. The next
bus was to arrive only at 10 am .
We waited patiently. But to our bad luck even this bus had no seat for us and
no place for our luggage. We really had it very tough as we had missed the
market day at Chickmagalore. Ultimately we reached the town only at 7 pm in the night by catching a late
afternoon bus.
The market was already closed and
we simply unloaded the bags in the corner of the bus stand. Our stomachs were
empty as we had not taken any food after our early morning breakfast. We went
to the bus stand hotel. I was highly excited as I was visiting a hotel first
time in my life! A uniformed waiter came to our table and asked for our orders.
He gave us a full list of items including three different types of dosas. All
these days I was aware of only one kind of dosa! My father ordered for two masala
dosas. I was bewildered as we generally ate not less than five dosas at our
home as breakfast! Besides, our stomachs were totally empty.
The waiter who took our orders
was not to be seen for quite some time. My father mistook another waiter as our
waiter and asked him to serve the dosas urgently. After some time both the
waiters came to our table with the dosas! They had an argument with my father
and asked him to accept both as it was his mistake. I thought it to be a
blessing in disguise! But my father would have none of it.
I really enjoyed the masala dosa
which was packed with baked potato (aloo playa)! I could also understand why we
could not eat more than one piece as it was heavy stuff unlike the ones made at
home. We left the hotel with full satisfaction. We asked a shop keeper to take
care of our luggage and went for the drama “Dashavathara”staged by the famous
Gubbi Company belonging to the legendary Gubbi Veeranna.
I should record this as one of
the most satisfying moments in my life as a boy. I was totally mesmerized by
the scenery and the artistry displayed by the troupe. Till date I remember the
wonderful “Samudra Mathana” (sea churning) scene and the young Lava Khusha duo
played so perfectly by two kids! I found one major difference between the drama
and Yaksha Gana troupes. Here the female roles were played by females
themselves. This added to the glamour! The role of Mohini played by a young and
beautiful girl simply charmed us. What a tantalizing act she put in while
distributing the nectar (amrita) which was the product of sea churning! The
beautiful sceneries displayed (totally absent in Yaksha Ganas) added further
value. I was so reluctant to come out of the theater after the show was over!
The play had taken me to a different world altogether!
We had to sleep at the bus stand
itself during the night. We could not go
to a lodge as we had to take care of our banana bags. In the morning father had
tough time in disposing the banana consignment as the market day had passed
off. Ultimately he could sell off at a price which was at a discount to Tuesday
market price. We completed our purchases of certain provisions which were known
to be available at best rates only in Chickmagalore. We reached back our
village in the night. As usual the journey from the bus stop to home was
painful as we had to carry luggage on our heads. On the whole I enjoyed this
journey for the adventure part of it!
Another adventurous trip I made
was again to Jayapura town. This time it was for seeing a Kannada film first
time in my life. The film was the famous “School Master” produced and directed
by B R Panthulu under the banner Padmini Pictures. The film became quite a hit
as Kannadigas flocked to the theatres all over Karnataka (then the State of
Mysore).It became a topic for discussion in all village functions and meetings.
Somehow all the members of our family managed to see and enjoy this film but
for me and my brother. As expected we started pestering our father to take us
to the film. He did manage to fulfill our desire. But this turned out to be
another adventure of our boyhood!
My father had been to Koppa and
asked us (we two brothers) to come to the bus stop in the late afternoon on a
bullock cart which was going to a place, called Kondibylu, very near the bus
stop. We left our village accordingly on this bullock cart driven by one Hassan
Sab. We enjoyed this journey very much and reached the banks of the river Sitha
by about 4pm . There we got
down and the cart proceeded to Kondibylu. Father was to come there and take us
to Jayapura. But for reasons unknown to us father failed to turn up.
After waiting for a long time we
started getting jittery. The place was
lonely and but for the sound of the river flowing no human voice was to be
heard. The banks of the river were fully covered by deep forests. The river was
deep and could be crossed only by experienced elderly persons. We thought we
were lost in the wilderness and started weeping loudly. We must have spent
quite a time crying desperately. We suddenly saw a big batch of Purohiths
(Brahmins trained in performing religious functions) coming from the other bank
of the river.
We saw them crossing the river
and approaching us. They were shocked to find us crying loudly. When asked to
tell them the reasons for our crying at the river bank, we simply increased our
sound of weeping and showed them the other bank of the river mentioning
“father! father!” What we actually meant was that our father who was expected
to come from the other bank had not arrived so far. But they mistook it as if
our father had drowned in the river! They became desperate and two of them
readied themselves to jump into the river to save our father! We were asked to show
them the exact point at which our father had drowned!
It took us some time to explain
to them our real situation. Once they understood us they heaved a sigh of
relief. They told us they were on their way to Kondibylu to conduct a big
‘Homa’ (religious function). They asked us to come with them. We simply
accompanied them. Even though we felt relieved, we were disappointed that our
film party came to an end this way!
But we were in with some luck. At
Kondibylu we found the cart driven by our Hassan Sab on which we had began our
journey. He told us that our father was held up in Koppa but had sent him a
message to take us to Jayapura on the cart! On hearing this, our joy knew no
bounds! This arrangement had an additional advantage for us. We had absolutely
no journey to be covered by foot as the cart would take us back home after the
show.
Soon we were back on our journey
mode. We reached Jayapura well before the show commencement. We really enjoyed
this masterpiece from the great Panthulu. The lead pair (Panthulu himself and M.V.
Rajamma) had put in a great performance. It also had the famous comedian
Narasimharaju riding on a bullock cart (just like us) with his wife and singing
a beautiful song! We wondered how the Tamilian great actor Shivaji Ganeshan
could speak fluent Kannada as he played a brief role as a guest actor!
Hassan Sab took full care of us.
We reached back our home late at night after completing one of our minor
adventures with full satisfaction
- (To be continued)-
1 comment:
The life is full of adventures!
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