Another important development at
this stage was that my eldest sister, with whom I was staying, delivered a male
child. The birth took place at our house in Adekhandi and it was the same
Soolagitthi Puttu who conducted the delivery. This boy, named Nagaraja, became
the first grandson for our parents. It appeared that the things were falling in
place for our family at that stage.
With the arrival of the child in
my sister’s family my daily life also took a new turn. I have always loved the
company of a small child. It gives me immense pleasure to carry a child with me
physically. I have also enjoyed cradling them for any length of time. This
cradling was always accompanied by singing all kinds of songs. This was in fact
a common practice in our family. I have made a reference to this singing in an
earlier episode also. I even remember my parents taking me along with them to
certain functions only to take care of my younger brothers! So I fully enjoyed
my role in taking care of my nephew in his childhood.
Here I should mention the way the
students were expected to conduct their studies in those days. The teacher
would ask us to mark down certain important questions. We could be almost
certain that the same questions would be asked in the examination as far as
that particular lesson was concerned. The answers were also duly marked by
underlining the relevant portion of the lesson. We were supposed to by heart
these underlined portions and reproduce the same verbatim. This was as far as
the prose was concerned. As regards the poems, the same were to be by hearted
in entirety. The only exception was the subject of Mathematics for obvious
reasons! As regards the subject of English, the teachers were under the
impression that their role was to tell the Kannada meanings of each of the
English words. In other wards, they restricted themselves to be the Kannada translators
of the sentences written in English.
The only teacher who could have
broken this stereotype for us was our Head Master Varadachar. He was known as
an excellent teacher, particularly, in English subject. But to my great
disappointment he was transferred on the year I entered my 7th
standard for which he was supposed to be the class teacher. It was indeed a
great loss to the students in general at the Basavani School
It was this by heart methodology of studying that made my work of taking care
of my nephew rather easy. I would go on by hearting the entire lessons while
carrying my nephew on my waist at the same time. With this type of study, I
could answer any question in the lesson by just reproducing the relevant
portion! When I look back on this mode of studies in those days I feel simply
miserable. I should say that the education was more memory oriented than being
knowledge oriented as it should have been. While a good memory is an essential
requirement it cannot be the ultimate.
With my entering the 7th
standard I had a new set of students accompanying me in my daily School journey.
Most of them were from Hokkalike only. As Vishnu was not interested in sports
of any nature I was the only senior boy to mix with them freely. We used to
spend lot of time in playing games like Kabaddi, etc. There used to be number
of functions in each household. We would attend these functions but spend our
time only in playing games. Besides we would spend most of our time in playing
on our weekly holidays. I should say that the village elders were not quite impressed!
I was the leader of the group of
boys and naturally the ownership vested in me. The complaints started coming
and reached my sister through my brother-in–law. My sister had the unpleasant
job of conveying her mind to me! Being a soft spoken lady she expressed it to
me in her own way! But I was surely shocked to hear the bad public opinion about my great sportsmanship! Indeed I could not appreciate their grievance
since I was not playing at the cost of my studies. They were quite aware that I
always stood first in my class. I sincerely thought that they were not happy
with my all-round development!
Ultimately my sister was able to reduce my sportsmanship to reasonable levels
in view of the adverse public opinion it had generated.
I should also mention here I had
kept my general knowledge up to date. Basavani had a news agent who started
sending the daily new papers to Hokkalike first through Vishnu and later through
me. I used to read the newspaper daily on my way back from School. I was very
sensitive to news. I still remember how I had wept on reading that the famous
UNO General secretary Dag Hammarskjöld had
died in a plane crash while on a peace mission to Congo in Africa .
I had also felt a lot of elation on reading the Indian Army Action in
liberating Goa .
I have earlier mentioned that my
brother-in-law was the Yejaman of his joint Hindu family. He had started with a
small land holding passed on by his father. But by his shrewd financial
management he was able to expand the family properties substantially. He had
also ensured that each of the five brothers had sufficient land, cash and
jewellary at the time of family partition. In recognition of his contribution
he had retained one extra acre of arecanut garden at the time of partition.
This was not liked by his other brothers. They had formed a coterie and had cut
off social relationship with him. But my sister had the best of relationship
with all of her co-sisters. They had great respect for her and all the children
would visit her at home and loved her.
My sister and brother-in-law were
on a visit to Dharmasthala. At that time
the aged mother of my brother-in-law, who was staying with another brother,
became seriously ill and passed away. The remaining brothers, without bothering
to inform/wait for my brother-in-law, cremated her body. On returning, my brother-in-law could not
digest the fact that his brothers had denied him seeing the face of his mother
for the last time. It remained a sore point in his life. But he could do
nothing on that. A meeting was held with the village elders. It was found that
the brothers had their grievance on the one acre of arecanut garden. They had
conveniently forgotten that during the partition my brother-in–law had given
them the best options and had retained the last portion after all others had
their choice. Of course the fact that he had single handedly-increased the
total property had no consideration in their view.
My brother-in–law thought enough
was enough. He asked the elders to estimate the value of one acre. It was
valued at rupees six thousand in those day standards. He sent each of them the
hard cash representing their share. With that the family social union was
restored. Thereafter all the family religious functions were carried out
together. I was a witness to this family reunion.
There were some sheds in the
vicinity of my sister’s house for the agricultural labourers to stay. These labourers
generally came from the South Kanara district.
They belonged to different communities. Majority of them in those days were
from a community called Maraties. There were a few from Malayali community.
They were experts in wood cutting which was in plenty in those day Malnad
forests. As boys we were interested and used to keep a watch on the activities
of these families.
Among the Maraties’ families was
the family of Sheena. This Sheena was a thick headed fellow and was henpecked.
He had a wife named Lakshmi. She was comparatively good looking. She had a very
low opinion of her husband and had a roving eye. Almost next to their shed
lived this handsome Govinda Shetty. He was a bachelor as per him (nobody knew
whether he had a wife at his native place) and he lived alone. He was trying to
get over his loneliness somehow. Just then Lakshmi’s roving eye fell on him. Surely
this was not a case of opposites attracting each other! You may rather call it
an indecent proposal!
To cut the whole story short, the
proposal was well accepted! Govinda Shetty started visiting Lakshmi’s shed at
unearthly hours. He took care to ensure that Sheena was not in the shed during
his visit. The Sheena couple had a son, named Gunda, who was already bringing
them name (?) as a petty thief. He never bothered about his parents nor
interfered in his mother’s affairs. Rather he himself was a big botheration for
them!
We were all aware of Govinda
Shetty’s secret visits to Sheena’s shed. Naturally other shed members also were
quite aware. Only Sheena was exhibiting some clever ignorance! Of course one
could understand his helplessness. But the affair became public under strange
circumstances.
Two young men from Sheena’s
community had a petty fight with Govinda Shetty. In a fit of rage they told him
that they were quite aware of his affair with their own community woman. In
return Govinda Shetty, a physically strong man, beat them black and blue. In
the evening these men gathered their community men in full strength. They hit
him really hard and thought they had taught him a proper lesson. They were
aware of their numerical strength in the village and the non-availability of Govinda
Shetty’s community members locally.
But they had badly underestimated
the powers of Govinda Shetty’s community! There was a big landlord of their
community in the village nearby. The news first went to him that his community
man had been beaten up. Then the news spread like wildfire. By next day a whole
army of this community people arrived in our village. They first searched for
the two men who had a fight with Govinda Shetty. They had already disappeared
from the village! The other members of their community had to bear the brunt of
their anger. Their sheds would have been burnt. But as they were belonging to
local landlords they were saved. The army
left the place only on assurances that such an event would never take place
in future. I should admit that the whole episode was truly thrilling for all of
us. We enjoyed every bit of it. We genuinely appreciated the total unity of
Govinda Shetty’s community. But the same could not be said of his affair with
Lakshmi as such!
---- (To be continued)----
A V Krishnamurthy
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