My departure to my sister’s place
for higher education was a major turning point in my life. From then on I lived
away from my home and never returned there for permanent living even though I
used to be back at home on all holidays. Thus I moved away permanently from
that special cultural life of my village. Hence before I start writing my life
at my sister’s place I wish to narrate certain important events which could not
be covered so far.
As children we were familiar with
stories of boys running away from their homes. In fact one of my father’s nephews
by name Shyamu had also ran away from his home. He had lost his parents quite
early in his life and had three brothers and one sister. The family was well-off
otherwise. My father being the maternal uncle was the only person who could
have worried about him as his other kins were also young at that time. It was
said that after certain time he wrote to my father asking him to come and bring
him back from a place (Ballari) where he was stuck. My father being a vagabond
himself did not evince any interest. It was also a fact that he had no money to
visit the place. Eventually Shyamu never returned to his home. My mother always
used to tell us about this boy who never came back even though he wanted to. As
per her, my father had the moral responsibility but did not bother to fulfill.
She never excused him for that. In fact
the family had allocated Shyamu a portion of the property during partition. But
he never turned up to claim the same. We used to wonder about the fate of this
boy and always expected him to turn up one day with lot of gifts for children
like us. Alas! It never happened and he never came back!
I clearly remember one particular
day when as a kid I was playing with my sister in front of my house. My eldest
brother was getting ready to visit Koppa town with a consignment of pan leaves.
While leaving the house he came to us and embraced me and my sister and bid us
adieu. I found that some what unusual. Later we came to know that this
unusualness was quite justified. My brother had run away!
The news was quite shocking to my
mother, my elder sisters and brother. Of course my father was the reason behind
my brother’s running away. He was not given the freedom he deserved as a
matured boy as I came to know later. He was not sent for higher education after
he completed his Lower Secondary (LS) Examination. He was made to work for the
Puradamane family along with my father. But at that young age I was not quite
aware of the family problems. In fact the only thought for me and my young
sister was that our brother would come back one day with lot of gifts for us!
We never appreciated the sorrow and uncertainty felt by the rest of the family.
My father was a ‘Sthithaprajna’as
far as such things were concerned. He never exhibited his sentiments outwardly.
It was also true that he had no way of finding out what the destination of my
brother was. Brother had only a few rupees being the sale proceeds of pan
leaves he had sold in Koppa town. There used to be no cash holding in our house
and if any thief was to enter our house by chance he could have in fact felt
pity for us. There was even a possibility that he would have left a few rupees
behind from his own purse for our sake! That was the state of affairs!
Enquiries at Koppa town revealed
that my brother had boarded a bus for Shimoga city. But that did not help much.
It could have been only a wild goose chase to search him in a big city like
Shimoga. But my mother did not allow my father to just sit and wait. He really
had it tough and he only knows how he managed the time at that juncture.
Three months passed by. Our
family was in regular touch with the post office expecting a letter from my
brother. The post office was far away from our house and we didn’t want any
letter to fall in to wrong hands to avoid publicity. One evening we received
information that there was a letter from my brother. One particular gentleman
(a big land lord) had collected the letter from the post office. It was
actually a post card which the gentleman went on reading out to everybody
before he ultimately reached our house. He was very kind to read it out for us
also even though everybody (other than children) in our house was capable of
reading it himself/herself! He thought he was doing us a great favor!
My brother had disclosed in the
letter that he was in Mysore .
He had expressed his intention of returning home provided my father went there
to bring him back. He had also mentioned that if my father was not to reach
there within a particular time he would pack off to Bombay and may never return! It appears that
he was reminded of Shyamu’s fate and issued this warning to my father knowing
him fully well! But there was a difference here. Shyamu unfortunately had no
mother who could have pestered somebody (he also had no father) to bring him
back. But in this case my brother had this great soul called mother who would never allow her son to
get lost!
In those days we were somehow
given an impression that Bombay was an island which could be reached only by a
ship by sea voyage! It was also thought that it would be very difficult to
return once you got in to Bombay !
Suddenly we were all reminded of the story of Ulysses which had appeared in Chandamama! We thought that our
brother also may have to undergo all those travails of Ulysses! My mother’s
maternal uncle had read a lot about Bombay .
He told us that people of Bombay
were so rich that gold was being sold on the streets in khandiges (a big
measure prevalent at that time). We started imagining our brother purchasing
gold for us all!
My mother ensured that our father
left for Mysore
immediately to bring back her beloved son. It was indeed an opportunity for my
father to visit Mysore
which otherwise he would never have done on his own. Three days later he came
back with our brother. It was a great sentimental moment for all of us. That
particular moment stands etched in my memory till date. We all felt how much we
had missed him all those days. As expected he had brought gift items to all of
us. We thoroughly enjoyed receiving such gifts for the first time in our life!
For quite some time we had
several visitors calling at our home seeking details of my brother’s sojourn to
Mysore . We
children used to sit with our brother and heard the story repeatedly. He had
his own way of describing the events and indeed he was a master in it! So much
so we always longed to hear more. As far as I remember, he was the first person
to visit Mysore from our village. People were anxious to hear about the great
historic and royal city of Mysore .
Subsequently another two boys from our neighborhood also ran away from home
probably inspired by my brother! One boy reached Puttaparthy - the town of Sai
Baba. But their accounts of their sojourn when eventually they came back were
nowhere comparable to my brother’s, partly because they were not good story
tellers. In any case, our brother was ‘our
brother the great’ (Anna) and in our opinion he had a class of his own and
nobody could beat him! That was it!
More than five decades later, I
was working as a Senior Manager in Canara Bank. I was transferred to
Jayalakshmipuram branch in Mysore
city. My brother had an occasion to visit us. I was curious to know where my
brother had stayed in his first visit to Mysore .
I found him equally interested in locating the place. We went to K R circle and
searched for the location! My brother clearly remembered that the name of the
hotel where he stayed and worked was Chandra
Vilas. The owner was said to be a very nice man who was kind to my brother.
I was aware that certain hotels of that era were still surviving and in fact
the second or third generation was in charge.
Ultimately we reached the
particular location. But alas! The hotel was no more in existence. A multiplex
had come up in that location. Both of us found ourselves fully disappointed. My
brother felt that his memories got buried under the foundations of that new
multiplex. An important chapter in my brother’s life had come to an end.
--- (To be continued) ----
A V Krishnamurthy
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