Kaisi Paheli Hai Yeh?
Kaisi Paheli Hai Yeh?
Kaisi Paheli
Zindgaani?
(What a puzzle?
What a puzzle?
What a puzzle the life
Is?)
- Swanand Kirkire
As rightly felt by me, our family was really at the cross roads at that
critical juncture. The system had simply collapsed both financially and as a
joint family. Its very survival was at stake. My father actually was not new to
such a situation. He had faced it any number of times right from his young age.
But to my mother it was indeed a great sentimental moment. It was she who had
entrusted her first son the responsibility of running the family when our
father had failed in his leadership. Even though our brother was quite
successful initially, the circumstances had later led to his failure in
accomplishing the role. The role was now back with my father. It was a great
challenge to him. Unlike earlier, he now had a big family to support. The means
available were very limited with the added burden of huge loans.
I was very much anxious to go
home and find out the details of the events that led to my brother’s departure
from home. I had to wait up to Dasara holidays. I had another hitch. I simply
had no money for the bus fare. I did not know how to mobilize that money. In
fact I had no money even for my hair cut! Just at that time I overheard some
boys planning to go to Udaya Motor Office. I have already mentioned that the
hostel Secretary Avadhani was a major partner in Udaya Motors. I was told that
the company was issuing some concession passes to the hostel students going
home.
I immediately went and met the authorities. I
was told that I could get a half-rate pass. For the full free-pass I had to
meet Mr. Gundu Rao, the managing partner, who was also a member of the hostel
management committee. I had seen him earlier at the hostel. This gentleman was
very nice to me and generously ordered a free pass for me. But that was up to
Koppa only. From there I had to catch a Shankar Transport bus - the ticket costing
fifty paise. I had to raise a personal loan of one rupee from one of my
friends! One fourth of which went for my haircut!
I left for my home on the first
day of commencement of my holiday. At Koppa I purchased biscuits for my younger
sister and brothers at a cost of twenty five paise. With the available balance
fifty paise I got in to Shankar Transport bus and reached our bus stop at a
place called B G Katte. Here I had to cross the river Sitha which was still
deep as the rainy season had just ended. I found that the work for construction
of a bridge had already started.
I had to pass through our
arecanut garden before reaching my home. As I entered the garden, I found some
unknown persons engaged in plucking arecanut bunch from the trees. I could not
find my father or any of my family members who should be normally present on
such occasion. I felt it strange and could not tolerate the unpleasant scenario
I was witnessing.
I reached the home in an anxious
and excited state. I saw my mother and father waiting for me. The first
question I asked was who was plucking the arecanut from our garden. My parents
told me to finish my lunch first before they could tell me the events that led
to such a situation. My second elder brother had already reached the home for
his holidays. After my lunch all of us sat together and my father briefed us
all the events that took place before our eldest brother left home.
As already highlighted by me
earlier, the financial position of our family had reached a stage wherein it
was impossible to clear the loans and maintain the family. It seems the rich
father-in –law of my brother had invited him with the assurance that he would
give a particular piece of land from out of his large landholdings to enable
him to live independently. In the given situation it was a fait accompli for him as there was no other alternative. However my
parents were not fully convinced, as they were aware of the huge indebtedness
of my brother’s father-in-law.
Other than some petty loans, my
brother had raised the entire loans from Sampige Kolalu uncle only. The loan
was mainly on account of the two marriage expenses at home and the clearance of
dues of rupees one thousand five hundred of Srinivasaiah to get the land
transferred to us. The amount had shot up to rupees three thousand four hundred
inclusive of interest. The moment the uncle came to know about my brother’s
intended departure from home, he insisted on clearance of the entire dues in
lump sum. This was possible only by selling our entire landholding. This
obviously meant that our family would be on the roads.
My father invited his nephew
Mardi Krishna Rao and his first son-in-law Mahabalaiah (my eldest sister’s
husband) for the Panchayath (arbitration). Both of them were highly respected and
in fact known as financial wizards. Together they pushed a hard bargain with
the Sampige Kolalu uncle. They had to somehow ensure the survival of our
family. They requested the uncle to accept the repayment in three annual
installments, the first one to start immediately out of the arecanut crop on
hand. But the uncle was bent upon insisting the clearance of the entire dues at
a stroke.
Ultimately he gave one offer. He
would take the entire arecanut crop on hand from our one acre land and accept
the same as the clearance of his entire dues. The arbitrators had no other
alternative than to accept it. Being masters in this line, they immediately
obtained a conditional receipt from the uncle for the settlement of his entire
dues. This was against an agreement to sell the entire crop on hand to him
executed by my brother as the land was held in his name. The arbitrators also
got a transfer deed executed from my brother in favour of our father and all
other brothers jointly.
The above transactions meant that
our family would be left with only a nominal income from the tenanted land of
about half acre for the current year. That was indeed a great challenge for
survival! On the positive side we were
free from the major loan liability which was like a sword hanging over our
heads since long. But the best part was that the total value of one year crop
could not have exceeded two thousand rupees at the prevailing rates. In other
words the dues of rupees three thousand four hundred got cleared with rupees
two thousand only! Perhaps the uncle thought that some cash on hand was better
than full amount in installments! The arbitrators were happy to conclude the
settlement without the selling of the land owned by us and which was the only
hope for our survival. Mardi Krishna Rao also sent us a quintal of rice which
could meet our needs for about three months.
I could understand now why some
unknown persons were in our garden plucking arecanut. The clearance of entire
loan at a stroke was indeed a great relief. But it was very difficult to accept
somebody plucking crops from our own dear garden! Our sentiments were really
hurt. I remembered how Tipu Sultan had felt when he was asked to send two of
his sons with the British to Calcutta
on his defeat in the Mysore
war. I thought our situation was similar. Here we were made to surrender the
crop in our land thereby allowing other party to enter our land and pluck the
crop.
For the first time in our life my
immediate elder brother and I felt that a stage had come in our life wherein we
had to virtually fight for our survival. We had to support our father fully. It
was not just the moral support. The physical support by way of working in our
garden and other related work was rather more important.
Our immediate step was to take out
the crop from our tenanted land. We had about half acre of arecanut garden
under tenancy. Major portion of it belonged to the Belavinakodige family. We
had to remit to them a geni of six
maunds which was actually on the higher side. It had been fixed taking the
total land as half acre; but the actual area was much less. Our request for
re-fixation had not been considered by the rich family even though the same was
a pittance for them in comparison with their large holdings. Another small
piece of tenancy land near our house belonged to Krishna Rao the younger
brother of Srinivasaiah. The geni for this had been fixed at one and a half
maund. Krishna Rao’s wife was in fact the only daughter of my mother’s maternal
uncle. Thus the family was closely related to us. We expected both Krishna Rao
and the Belavinakodige family headed by Thimmappaiah to waive our geni as a
special case for that one year. But both the families took the geni without
showing any favour or mercy!
In our Malnad the areca crop
plucking (adike koyilu) is conducted three times with a gap of one month
between each plucking. We finished the first plucking for our tenancy land
during our holidays. It went fast as we had to do this for half acre only this
year. We assisted our father in the collection and selling of bananas, betel leaves,
plantain leaves and soapnut. Our father had no other way than to depend on this
source of income. We could find that he was an expert in this line and knew all
the tricks of the trade. He had not concentrated on this so far. But in the
given dire situation his skills came out.
I had one major relief in the
meanwhile. I had been thinking of my eldest brother during this period and
missed him a lot. I had somehow concluded that he may not evince interest in my
education any more. But he visited our home during my stay. He enquired about
my performance in the first terminal examination. He made it very clear to me
that he would continue to monitor my progress even though he was not supporting
me financially any more. It was a great reassurance to me. I felt relieved to a
great extent.
We were at the end of the month
of October and my holidays came to an end. Father was aware that I had to pay
two months hostel fee. I needed about twenty rupees for going back to Shimoga.
On that Sunday afternoon he accompanied me to Koppa. He had carried about ten
kilograms of arecanut of the Bette
type (this is a second grade areca as against hasa, the first grade). The first grade could not be parted as the
same was to be given as geni to the landlords. He was hoping to mobilize the
money for me by selling the same to some shopkeepers in Koppa.
To our ill luck the market for
areca was at the lowest at that time. Besides, there was no shop in Koppa town
which was trading in arecanut. The main market for our Malnad arecanut was only
Shimoga. Even there it was difficult to sell areca in small lots. Some petty
shops only sold areca on retail basis to the labour class. But this market had
a very limited demand. We went to different shops to sell the item. But nobody
showed any interest. I could see the CKMS bus leaving for Shimoga at 4 PM. But
we had still not sold the areca and hence I could not get in to it. We were
tensed up. There was only one last bus to Shimoga at 5 PM . I had to somehow get in to it. We were in
a desperate position.
---- (To be continued) -----
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