Slowly I started getting
introduced to all the boys in my group. The boy Manju from Melkoppa soon became
a close friend of me. He had a sister in a place called Hombuja which had a
famous Jain temple. It was also a pilgrim place for the Jain community. This
place was close to Shimoga and the Tunga dam at Gajanur. He used to tell a lot
about these places of interest as he had lived there for some time. For me, a
boy who had very limited exposure to outside world, his narrations were of
great interest. I liked the association of this boy very much.
The second boy Laxmi Narayana,
who was my classmate, hailed from a place called Charanabyle. I liked him
immensely as he was a very simple but lovable boy. Being the first son of a rich
landlord he had responsibilities at home. He could not concentrate on his
studies and failed in 6th standard itself. He discontinued his
studies and I felt his loss of company very much. The other boy Shivaramu, the
son of the priest of Kolavara temple, hailed from a poor family. I had visited
his home several times for drinking water as it was on midway to Basavani. He
was the second son and had a large family. His mother was very kind; but it was
very painful to see the poor conditions of the family. I am told that this
Shivaramu is well-off and owns a petrol bunk near Sujatha Talkies in Bangalore
at present.
Let me now come to my other
members of the group. Their names were Puttappa Nayak, Venkataiah, Puttappa,
Shankarappa, Thimmappa and Gopal. These boys belonged to the “non-vegetarian”
section of our group. This section had two major characteristics. They were
generally hot tempered and ready to strike you physically with least
provocation. They were also generally weak in studies (with a few exceptions,
my classmate Jagadeesh was one such) and this added to their ferocity. We, the
vegetarians, were referred to as “pulicharu boys” and generally lacked guts to
face physical attacks. There was hardly any scope for offence from our side.
Rather we had to exhibit lot of diplomacy to defend ourselves from their
offence!
Two things helped me defend
myself from their offence. Our Vishnu had a personality which gave no scope for
the offence against us. He was tall and well built. It gave an impression that
he could hit back strongly against the offender. This was in fact not true at
all. He was such a mild person who would not kill an ant! But his personality
and physic did help me in defending myself from the marauding non-vegetarian
gang! The other thing which helped me in the first year was the presence of
Shankarappa in the gang.
This boy, whom I have already
mentioned as the Captain of one of the Kabaddi teams, was an exception. While
he did look like a bully and had the appearance of a big bull, was really mild
in nature. He hailed from a poor family and was staying in his uncle’s (Puttappa’s
father) home for pursuing his education. He was a very good boy by nature. He
would not allow his boys to attack us. He was exploited and ill-treated by his
uncle’s family. I had seen his uncle beating him all the way from school to his
home on one occasion. Thus both Vishnu and Shankarappa were a case of “appearances
are often deceptive”. I had the best of both! These two were like ‘Firewall’
for me!
There was a boy called
Nagabhushana in our class. He was a senior boy and was a close friend of
Vasachari whom I have already referred to as Captain of one of the Kabaddi teams.
They were birds of the same feather! While Vasachari was stuck in 8th
standard, Nagabhushana was stuck in 6th. They were finding it
difficult to keep a track of number of years they were stranded in each class! If
only they could maintain a spread sheet, the things could have been quite
different! Unfortunately nobody knew about Guinness records in those days!
Otherwise both of them deserved a place therein effortlessly!
Nagabhushana’s this elegant record
was broken on account of strange and unforeseen circumstances! While he was stuck in 6th
standard, his younger sister could not be prevented from joining him in the
same class! He was trying to manage this
embarrassment somehow. But our class teacher AG would not allow him peace of
mind. In those days there was this cruel and embarrassing punishment meted out
to students who could not answer the questions in the class. The student who
answered correctly was supposed to punish the student who had no correct
answer. The mode of punishment was to hold the nose of the student and hit
him/her on both the cheeks! AG would ask the same question to both of them. He
would ask the young sister to give punishment to her elder brother once she
gave the correct answer and the brother could not! Things reached such a stage
when Nagabhushana was forced to give up his education. Thus his great records
came to an ignominious end!
The students in the 8th
standard were highly respected and we were all in awe of them. The best student
was Chidambara who hailed from an aristocratic family. His father was a big
shot and owned a beautiful and vast bungalow in the middle of the Basavani
town. He had a big land holding and owned the rice mill. The family members
maintained a class of their own. Except one handicapped boy, all others had
great looks and cause for much envy from ordinary folks.
Two of the boys, Thimmappa and
Phaniyappa were competitors in a ‘business’. On my first day at the school both
these boys approached me and asked me to place my orders with them and went
away. I was at my wits end. I could not
make out exactly what type of orders they were referring to. The mystery was
solved by my classmate Sridharamurthy. He told me that these boys were selling
textbooks after bringing them from Thirthahalli town. We had to pay them in
advance and they would keep a margin of one Anna per book.
My brother had purchased all the
books for me. Only Hindi text was missing as it was an optional subject taught
in only Basavani and Thirthahalli. For me Phaniyappa looked a nice and
sophisticated boy. On the other hand, Thimmappa appeared to be a bully! I did
not know with whom to place the orders. While I wanted to oblige Phaniyappa, I
could not think of incurring the wrath of Thimmappa, the bully. The problem was
solved when it came to light that the Hindi books at Thirthahalli were already
sold out. They were not interested in placing an indent only for one book for
me from Shimoga. Both Phaniyappa and Thimmappa were disappointed to loose the
one Anna margin from me! While I felt relieved for the time being, the real
problem for me was how to manage without the textbook. My ambition to beat
Sridharamurthy in Hindi subject faced the first and foremost hurdle! But Vishnu
told me that his maternal uncle Nageshaiah had one old book with him. This was
an old edition of the same book and the new edition had some minor changes. I
got the book and had to some how manage with the same.
There was another handsome boy in
8th standard by name Rangappa. He hailed from the village Laxmipura
from where my classmate Jagadeesh also came. It appears that the name Laxmipura
was quite appropriate as all the families from this place were well-off! So was
Rangappa. He was a very good boy and good in studies as well. But he became
famous for a different reason all together.
It would be quite appropriate to call
this as “Rangappana Pranaya Prasanga”
(The romantic episode of Rangappa). He
had a classmate called Sharada who was good looking. She hailed from a rich
family. One fine morning the Head Master called both Rangappa and Sharada to
his Chambers. He enquired them as to what was going on between them! Nobody
knows exactly what happened afterwards in the Chamber. But the words spread
fast that the two had a romantic association. It was also said that the pair
was meeting regularly in a secluded place between their villages. This became a
hot topic for discussion in the School.
That evening our group was
waiting anxiously to get the full story from Thimmappa who was in 8th
standard. He was equally eager to disclose the same to us. But we had to wait
until Vishalakshi dropped out at Nenangi. Soon after, Thimmappa began the story.
As per him it was Manjappa, a 7th standard student, who played the
role of an investigator. He, some how, had a hunch that the ‘pair’ was up to
some thing. He kept an eye on Rangappa’s activities after he left from the
school.
His efforts were fully rewarded
when on a particular day he found Rangappa deviating from his usual home route.
He followed him surreptitiously and found Sharada waiting on the way. They
exchanged some words and proceeded to a secluded place. They were found holding
each other’s hands at this stage. As per Thimmappa, this in itself was
vulgarity! He stopped the story at this stage to know our reactions. Our group
fully agreed and wanted to know what happened next as we could not hide our
curiosity any more! Our imaginations were running wild.
As Manjappa found it difficult to
hide himself while on their trail, he mounted a tree on the way. From there all
he could get was a bird’s view! As his view was limited he could only confirm
that the pair was found in a deep embrace! He had no camera to click. But could
give a graphic description of what he saw. Thimmappa finished his story here.
That was enough for us, the gossip hungry group. The story was passed on by word
of mouth. It had value additions at every stage depending on the power of
imagination of the storyteller! For me Rangappa appeared to be a great romantic
hero! I had read some romantic Kannada novels by then. But this was a real and
live story! There was quite nothing to beat it at that time!
---- (To be continued) ----
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