The Financial Wizard - Episode No.4

The Innovative Scheme

As an astute financial expert, my brother-in-law attached great importance to the value of money. He would spend liberally for the basic needs of the family including food, clothing, health, religious functions and others. However, he had a strict policy of not wasting money under any circumstances. He also had some innovative ideas with regard to saving of money.

In those days the daily Kannada newspaper used to be delivered to Hokkalike from a place called Gadikal. The paper agent Mr. Gunda Nayak was ensuring that the daily newspaper from Bangalore would reach Hokkalike by 4 pm. But to my surprise I found that the newspaper meant for my brother-in-law would arrive one day late invariably.  Those were very peaceful days under the Prime Ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru. The State of Mysore was under the Chief Ministership of B D Jatthi. There used to be no sensational/exciting news in the newspapers of those days. Hence it made very little difference whether you read the paper on the same day or the next day!

Actually this was the very fact that made my brother-in-law to enter into a simple arrangement with the newspaper agent Gunda Nayak. The agent himself was subscribing to one copy of Prajavani Kannada newspaper for his family reading at his home. As per the arrangement, he would send the same copy after his family reading to my brother-in-law on the next day! The understanding was – my brother-in-law would pay him half the monthly subscription of the newspaper at the month end. It was a win-win situation for both. While the agent’s family could read the paper on the same day at half the cost, my brother-in-law would pay half the cost and retain the paper after reading - for sale to the old newspaper buyer!

The Perfect Measure!

There is another interesting incident connected with newspaper and my brother-in-law. This was told to me by my younger brother Srinivasa, who also stayed with my sister’s family later for three years for his High School education.

On a particular occasion, an old newspaper buyer had arrived at the house of my brother-in-law with his physical balance for picking up the old papers. As usual the entire stock of old papers was dumped before him for weighing. He went on weighing the papers in a particular measure (the Kg concept had not arrived yet). Ultimately he put the last bunch of papers on one side of the balance. Quite surprisingly it almost came to a full measure. But somehow the buyer felt that one more copy of newspaper was required for the full measure.

Quite coincidentally, it was about 5 pm and the newspaper of the day had just then been delivered at home. None of the family members including my brother-in-law had read it so far. But my brother-in-law was a person who would not deny any person his rightful entitlement. To the bewilderment of the other family members, he snatched the latest paper without any hesitation and gave it to the vendor so that he had the perfect measure! I leave it to the imagination of my readers to interpret the action of my brother-in-law.

o------------o--------o----------o---------------o------------o-------------o---------------o------------

The Free Gold Jewellery Service

My brother-in-law (BIL) believed in investment in gold. He knew - come what may- the value of gold would always keep appreciating. In those days the investment in gold was through purchase of jewellery only. My BIL used to get gold jewellery made regularly. While my sister was the immediate beneficiary, there used to be some jewellery items that were specifically made for the benefit of some ‘reputed’ families.  The heads of these families were either clients or closely known persons. They used to borrow the jewels during their family marriages and such other occasions. This was a free service provided by my BIL.

My BIL was always running a huge risk with this service. There was no way that he could verify that the jewellery returned were the same as what was taken from him. There was every possibility that some mischievous persons could have returned imitation jewellery. I was told that on the advice of his well wishers, he later got some imitation jewellery made for this purpose only. He would lend such jewellery only after making it clear to his clients. Actually the clients had no complaints.  It made very little difference for them. After all - their purpose was only for show off on the occasions!

The Inventory Management and the Mandatory Monthly Kitchen Duty

My BIL was also an expert in inventory management. He would always keep sufficient stock of all items at home including timber at the house. He used to take sudden decisions to get some new furniture. He would entrust the work to the family carpenter who would prepare the desired furniture sitting at the house itself. My BIL’s another speciality was - he would personally handle the requirement of provisions for the kitchen. He had totally unburdened my sister from this job!  A number of religious functions used to be held at home. Hence it was necessary to keep a regular track of the household provisions.

My BIL had pasted all the containers with the names of the provisions inside. He would periodically verify the inventory position personally and prepare a list. Fresh stock of provision would arrive from the Koppa town on the next Sunday by the bullock cart driven by Nakra Nayka. My BIL was also an excellent cook. But with his busy engagement with so many works, he hated to handle the kitchen job. However, with my sister taking the monthly leave of four days, he was forced to undertake this duty every month! During my stay of three years, I had the opportunity to test his culinary skills. I had only one complaint. On the fourth day morning, when my sister would get back to duty, he would invariably prepare rice ganji (instead of the normal dosa, uppittu, etc.) for breakfast. We always used to think rice ganji as a punishment in our Adekhandi house! We hated the very concept of ganji!

My BIL always used to address my sister in third person. He would never tell anything to her directly. He would always use indirect speech! As already mentioned by me above, due to his dislike for the kitchen job, he was always reluctant to send her to her parental home (Adekhandi). Just like any other woman, my sister also wanted to visit our place at least once or twice in a year. But she never dared to openly express it to her beloved husband!

On one particular occasion, my elder brother had managed to bring her to Adekhandi after lot of persuasion with my brother-in-law. He had allowed her with the strict condition that the stay would be restricted for one week only. But somehow she was forced to stay with us for an additional day. The next day my brother took her back in the early morning itself. Both of them expected lot of fireworks the moment they entered the house. But they were surprised to find my brother-in-law silent. However, the next day as my brother was leaving the place, he heard some mild comment from his beloved brother-in-law. When he looked back with a question mark on his face, my BIL told him that instead of getting back early in the morning, they could have started by the evening so that my sister could have availed the benefit of almost one more day’s stay  at her beloved parent’s place!

-------To Be Continued------

         A V Krishnamurthy

     

I Don't Know, Son! - 67

Mallya finds the culprits for Kingfisher’s failure!

Son: The Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya appears to be a relieved man nowadays, dad.

Father: How come? Go on, son.

Son: It seems he formed a Task Force to find out the reasons behind the miserable failure of the once prestigious airline, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: According to Mallya, the team has put the blame on everyone including engine suppliers, employees, banks and tax authorities for grounding the carrier from October 2012, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: Quite surprisingly the team appears to have left out the main culprit in its blame list, dad.

Father: Who was it? Go on, son.

Son: It was Mallya himself who was silently allowing the airline to drift towards disaster by blaming the bankers who had invested the public money generously in the sinking ship, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

The Last Rites!

Son: Mallya has said that the airline is seriously engaged in discussions with one potential investor for raising the money, dad.

Father: For what?  Go on, son.

Son: While Mallya has not mentioned the name of this crazy investor, the sources reveal that it could be only for one purpose at this stage, dad.

Father: Like what? Go on, son.

Son: It is for performing the last rites of the company, dad!

Father: Oh! My God!  Go on, son.

Son: The presumption is the investor must be a philanthropist who believes in charitable activities just like the PSU banks who sunk the public money in the airline, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

Tendulkar and the Scorebook!

Son: A statement by Tendulkar seems to have given a lot of food for thought for the BCCI Selection Committee, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: The legend has said that “Selection is not about looking at scorebook”, dad!

Father: So what? Go on, son.

Son: The Master batsman has scored below an average of 25 runs in his last ten test matches, dad!

Father: Go on, son.

Son: The Selection Committee is finding it difficult to interpret the statement of the legend, dad.

Father: Go on, Son.

Son: One interpretation is that the committee should not go by the recent ‘miserable’ scorecard of the legend and select him as usual, dad.

Father: And the other? Go on, son.

Son: The other interpretation is that the committee should not go by the historical earlier scorebook of the legend and drop him like any other player, dad!

Father: I don’t know, son!

The Hindu Colony!

Son: The Hindu newspaper is creating waves in certain parts of Bangalore, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: The historic English newspaper from Chennai has come out with a subscription offer that is irresistible, dad.

Father: Like what? Go on, son.

Son: It has offered an annual subscription that is less than three months subscription for any Standard English newspaper, dad.

Father: Interesting. Go on, son.

Son: It is also offering a handbag as a gift for each subscription, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: It is reported that people have en masse shifted to The Hindu from TOI, Deccan Herald and the New Indian Express, dad.

Father: Go on, son.

Son: So much so that our colony is now referred to as The Hindu Colony by the newspaper vendors, dad!

A V Krishnamurthy

10^th September 2013

The Financial Wizard - Episode No.3

My next visit to Hokkalike was in the year 1959. I had by then completed my primary education. I had also completed my V Standard examination by appearing as a private student in the Middle School at Narve. It was decided that I should complete my VI to VIII Standard at the Government Middle School at Basavani, a small town 4 kms away from Hokkalike.

Lots of changes had taken place at my brother-in-law’s place by then. As imagined by me, my brother-in-law had shifted to the new house that I had seen adjacent to the old house. The family partition had taken place a few years back. Two of the younger brothers had shifted to new houses since constructed, while the last two brothers remained at the old house. The aged mother also stayed at the old house.

Unlike earlier, there was no problem for me with regard to my morning breakfast. With my sister as the sole kitchen-in-charge, I could relish my full breakfast at my convenience. With a good number of milk animals at home, the supply of milk, curds and ghee was in plenty. During my stay of three years, my beloved sister ensured that I got the best food always.

My brother-in-law had already expanded the new house that I had seen during my previous visit. He had built an annex to the house that had vast spaces for warehousing of paddy and rice in addition to a large cowshed and a shed for the bullocks. The main house had seen a number of extensions. It took almost 10 minutes during the night to close down all the doors. I used to help my sister in closing the various doors by carrying the kerosene lamp and accompanying her in the dark night! I even used to dream that one of the doors had been missed out and a thief had sneaked in! I knew, unlike the empty coffers in our house, my brother-in-law used to keep much cash at home!

o------------o--------o----------o---------------o------------o-------------o---------------o------------o---------o

The family partition had been made in a meticulous manner. The bullock cart owned by the family had gone to the share of the third brother called Ganeshaiah along with the bullocks and the driver called Jaggu Shetty. My brother-in-law had purchased a new bullock cart and bullocks and had engaged a new driver called Nakra Nayka. Nakra belonged to the backward Marathi community from South Kanara who spoke a mixture of Marathi and Kannada. There were also a good number of other servants most of whom belonged to the Marathi community.

There was a big shed with partitions near the house where the families of servants were located. Every day in the morning about ten male and female servants would report for duty at the house. They would be assigned manual work depending on the season. The work in the paddy fields used to be only during the ploughing, planting and harvesting season. But there would always be some work related to arecanut gardens. All the servants would be given Yele-Adike (arecanut and pan leaves) along with tobacco and lime. After completing the day’s work, the servants would assemble again to collect their daily quota of one seer of rice each. My brother-in-law had also implemented a system of issuing tokens (called vundige in Kannada). These tokens were made with cigarette pack material carrying a rubber stamp of my brother-in-law. Each token represented one day of labour. The cash payment at the month end would be on the basis of tokens held by each servant. Female servants would be paid lesser than the males. Their nature of work also used to be different.

My brother-in-law maintained individual accounts for each family. Many of the servants would maintain cash balances in their accounts, while a few of them would overdraw their accounts. All the families would go back to South Kanara once in a year to be at their native place and visit their elders. At that time their accounts would be settled in full.

o------------o--------o----------o---------------o------------o-------------o---------------o------------o---------o

After the family partition, the resources of my brother-in-law had comedown naturally.  Two of his younger brothers were also into limited money-lending. But a majority of his earlier borrowers had not deserted him in spite of him telling them that he did not have adequate funds to finance them as earlier. As a grown up boy, compared to my previous visit, I could make some assessment of my brother-in-law’s financial affairs.

As far as financing of paddy farmers was concerned, I could see that the business had grown tremendously. The collection of paddy from the farmers during the harvesting season was a very big affair. Nakra and his bullock cart would be totally busy. Massive volumes of paddy would be stored in the panathas. Similarly the lifting of paddy by traders from mostly Narasimharajapura (N R Pura) was another big affair. They would arrive with their big Lories and Hamalies (porters). The ease with which these Hamalies lifted the heavy bags of paddy for loading on the Lories was astonishing to us. Even the family servants used to be surprised by their physical prowess.

There was a category of borrowers, who would go on pestering my brother-in-law despite knowing his reluctance to finance them. These were the people who had defaulted previously. Naturally he wanted to get rid of them. But it was not an easy job. My brother-in-law used to give a long lecture to them in the matter of handling their personal finances. They would hear everything silently; but would not leave the place! Many a time they would not even allow my brother-in-law to take his food. My sister used to totally get upset. But she was helpless.

There was one special category of borrowers who were very prompt in their dealings. These were the clients who themselves were money lenders. They had limited resources at their command; but had huge borrowing clients. As my brother-in-law used to charge low rates of interest, they would relend the money to their clients at a higher rate. You could even call it a case of arbitrage. Here my brother-in-law used to play the role of a refinancing banker (RBI or NABARD)!

There was another category of borrowers – the invisible category. These were close relatives of my brother-in-law! I came to know that the recovery of loans from this category was the toughest. These were a kind of forced loans on my brother-in-law. They were given on account of certain family/moral/emotional conditions prevailing at the time. It appears my brother-in-law had maintained a separate book for such loans and had made adequate provisions in his annual accounting system! (I came to know later that he had a system of preparing annual balance sheet and P&L account). But what hurt him was the case of certain willful defaulters. These relatives were capable of paying back. But they simply ignored their liabilities as they thought my brother-in-law had lots of money!

Most of my brother-in-law’s relatives would visit his house during the annual ceremony of his father. They would arrive with their full families two days in advance. They would leave only one day after the ceremony. Some of the relatives were quite rich. I was curious to find out the names of those relatives who were in the defaulter list of my brother-in-law. My sister told me that as a matter of routine her husband would deliver a small speech before the families started leaving. If I kept a close watch, I could make out the names of the defaulters!

The annual ceremony was held that year as usual. There was a huge gathering of relatives at home. One day after the ceremony, the relatives were expected to leave after the lunch. I was keeping a close watch. As the afternoon coffee was being delivered to all, my brother-in-law started his speech. Suddenly there was a total silence. Without addressing anybody specifically, he told the gathering that it was high time for some of them to pay back the loans they had taken from him. He told them he knew they had the money and could at least pay back in installments. As he was continuing the speech, I observed a few of the relatives finishing their coffee in a hurry. They said they had some urgent work at home and left the place in a jiffy! So that was how I got the defaulter list of my brother-in-law!

------To be Continued-----

A V Krishnamurthy

8^th September 2013

The Financial Wizard - Episode No.2

Those were the days when most of the paddy fields were given on tenancy to farmers by the landlords. The landlords used to either keep only a small holding for their own cultivation or else lease out the entire holdings to tenants. These paddy farmers used to find it difficult to raise the necessary finance at the time of cultivation. My brother-in-law started financing such needy farmers. The understanding was that they would pay back the loan after the harvesting, by way of paddy only. The farmers of Malnad used to raise only one crop of paddy during the rainy season of the year. My brother-in-law owned a bullock cart that was used to collect the paddy from the farmers. He would also engage other bullock carts if found necessary.

The paddy would be stored in the house in large wooden storage spaces called panathas in Kannada. The house had large halls attached to the main building where these panathas were located. Additional temporary storage spaces would also be created by using mats made from bamboos. These were called Khanajas. Normally the price of paddy used to be low at the time of harvesting. Most of the farmers used to be in a hurry to sell the paddy to meet their other commitments after settling the dues of my brother-in-law.

My brother-in-law used to settle their accounts by offering them prices better than the prevailing market rates. He was also charging very reasonable rate of interest on the loans till the date of settlement. He would sell the paddy to the rice mills and big traders at a later date when the market was up. That way he could make money both by way of interest and by way of profit margin. Some of the farmers who had the ability to ‘hold on’ would come for settlement only after the market went up. My brother-in-law was generous enough to offer them the rates comparable to the prevailing rates at that time. This attitude of him fetched him lot of goodwill. Needless to say the money-lending business grew by leaps and bounds.

In addition to crop loans, my brother-in-law also started offering loans against gold and silver items. Such loans were short-term in nature and were being raised to meet urgent family needs. As my brother-in-law had no way of checking the genuineness of the gold and silver items pledged, he would offer the loans to only selected respectable persons. These loans attracted slightly higher rate of interest. Gradually, over a period of time, the profit generated from the lending business started contributing to the corpus earmarked for the acquisition of the lands.

At this stage, my brother-in-law started looking for landholdings (both arecanut gardens and paddy fields), which were coming up for sale. He had to ensure that the acquired lands could be cultivated by the manpower available within his family. With his younger brothers joining him, he thought his hands would be strengthened further. He went on acquiring those lands till the holdings were sufficient for the cultivation by the expanded family over a period of time. Eventually he succeeded in acquiring sufficient lands to be addressed as the head of a rich landholding family. He had made it a point to avoid taking over of lands from poor farmers by way of distressed sale. Thus unlike a traditional rural lender, who would look for grabbing the lands of the poor farmers, my brother-in-law’s name came to be established as a benevolent lender and a savior of the poor farmers. The name - Mahabalaiah of Hokkalike - became popular in the society, business and the Government circles.

o------------o--------o----------o---------------o------------o-------------o---------------o------------o---------o--

My short stay at my brother-in-law’s house as a young boy was quite a unique experience for me. Two of the younger brothers of my brother-in-law were also married at that time. The family had grown quite big. There used to be lot of activity at the house. Everybody appeared to be quite busy. A number of people would visit the house daily. They included relatives, neighbors and a lot of others. Of course, the other lot was mostly the loan seekers. There were a number of male and female servants attached to the family engaged for different purposes. All in all, the atmosphere was like a typical Bengali family described in the novels of Rabindrananath Tagore and Sharatchandra Chatterji.

My brother-in-law’s mother was bed ridden due to old age. Her bed was placed in the central hall in a dark corner. During my entire stay I had no occasion to see her face. The house itself was very old and big. The electricity had not yet arrived. The lighting was through kerosene lamps only. Most parts of the inside of the house were totally in darkness. My sister’s bed room was also a darkroom. I had opportunities to enter the room a few times.

I had observed my brother-in-law taking out currency notes from a steel vault kept in the bedroom under lock and key. He would often shift the cash from this vault to another steel vault kept in the main front hall of the house. I had also observed him taking out money from there for handing over to the borrowers. I was fascinated to witness and watch handling of so much of cash by my respected brother-in-law. I thought my eldest sister was blessed to marry such a rich and popular person!

I had a few adjustment problems at the house. My sister had warned me that I may face some problems in the matter of morning breakfast. While the breakfast at our Adekhandi house was an elaborate and interesting affair, at the house of Hokkalike a formal breakfast was almost non-existent! For reasons quite unknown to me, the male members of the house were reluctant to have a formal breakfast. Naturally the women had to follow suit. They would prepare some item like Uppittu, Akki Rotti or Dosa and place the same in a vessel in a corner of the kitchen. Those who were interested had to take it from there at their convenience. Only two brothers of my brother-in-law would eat the breakfast. But their timing was uncertain. I was asked to take my breakfast along with them.

I had to play a waiting game in the morning. I would keep a close watch on the movements of the said two brothers. I was supposed to join the first among them the moment he entered the kitchen! My sister did not want to serve me alone, perhaps, as a matter of Joint-family policy!

A brand new house had been just then constructed adjacent to the old house. This house had better lighting arrangements with a number of windows and glass tiles. The house had not seen the Gruhapravesham yet. The expectations were that the house would be occupied by one of the elder brothers upon partition of the property that was supposed to take place shortly. I started imagining my beloved elder sister occupying the new house at the earliest!

My stay at Hokkalike came to a sudden end when a message was received that the Upanayanam of my elder brother had been fixed at the Horanaadu Annapoorneshwari temple. We traversed the same route on the return journey. Unfortunately the whole journey was on foot only as we found no Lories plying on the route.

---------To be Continued----------

    A V Krishnamurthy

    

ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರೀತಿಯ ತಂಗಿ ಲೀಲಾ

ಆಗಿದ್ದರೂ ನಿನ್ನ ಹೆಸರು ಲೀಲಾ

ನಾವೆಲ್ಲ ಕರೆಯುತಿದ್ದೆವು 'ವಿಶಾಲಾ'

ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ ನಮಗದರ ಮೂಲ 

ಹಾಗಿತ್ತು ಆ ಒಂದು  ಕಾಲ !

ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯದು ಅಡೇಖಂಡಿ

ಬರದು ಇಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಯಾವ ಬಂಡಿ

ಓಣಿಯೊಂದಿದೆ ಗಂಡಾಗುಂಡಿ

ಬಂದರೆ ಆಗುವೆ ನೀ ಸುಪಾಂಡಿ!

ನನಗೆ ನೀನೊಬ್ಬಳೇ ತಂಗಿ

ಆಗಿದ್ದೆ  ನಾನೊಬ್ಬ ‘ಏಕಾಂಗಿ’

ಹಾಕಲಿದ್ದಿತು ಒಂದೇ ಅಂಗಿ!

ಹೊಡೆದಿಲ್ಲ ನಾನೇನು ಡೋಂಗಿ!

ಶೃಂಗೇರಿಯಲಿ  ನಿನ್ನ ಮದುವೆ 

ಎಷ್ಟೊಂದು ಸಡಗರದ ನಡುವೆ 

 ನೆನೆದಾಗ ಮನಕೆ ಆಹ್ಲಾದ 

ನಿನ್ನ ಪತಿಯ ಹೆಸರು ಪ್ರಹ್ಲಾದ!

ನಿನ್ನ ಮೊದಲ ಮಗಳು ವಿದ್ಯಾ

ಆಮೇಲೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿದಳು ಸಂಧ್ಯಾ

ಮೈಸೂರಲಿ  ನೀನಿರುವೆ ಸದ್ಯ

ಬರೆದಿರುವೆ ನಿನಗಾಗಿ ಈ ಪದ್ಯ

       -ಎ. ವಿ . ಕೃಷ್ಣಮೂರ್ತಿ 

Kabir Gets the US Visa!

My grandson Kabir was on his first trip to Chennai recently to attend his US Visa interview along with his mother and father. As the Shatabdi Express moved out of Bangalore City Station Kabir was in his high spirits. He got a good company of young girls during his journey. They gathered around him putting all sorts of questions to him and offering him goodies. Kabir went on replying their questions in his own style using monosyllables. It appeared as if he was preparing himself for the Visa interview!

Kabir attended the interview at the US Visa Office in Chennai on the next day. He was allowed to jump the queue ahead of even senior citizens! He spoke to several of them in his typical style. Finally he was called inside for the interview. The following was the interview held by the US Visa Official (VO) with Kabir:

VO: So you are Kabir and you want to visit US?

Kabir: Oh! Yeah! Oh! Yeah!

VO: What is your purpose of visit?

Kabir: Blah Blah Blah…….

VO: You have the necessary funds?

Kabir: Oh! Yeah! Oh! Yeah!

VO: You are through. You will get the Visa by courier.

Kabir: Brum! Brum! Brum!

---------o-------------o----------------o----------------o------------o------------o------------

Kabir was back in Bangalore after two days. The above photograph shows him relaxing at home after successfully tackling his first interview.

A V Krishnamurthy

12^th August 2013

The Financial Wizard - Episode No.1

I distinctly remember that day in the year 1954, when I was studying in my first Standard. My father had requested our school teacher Srikanta Jois to come over to our house for matching the horoscope of my eldest sister with another horoscope he had just received. Mr. Jois was well versed in this art as he had studied Sanskrit and Vedas at the Sringeri Mutt Pathashala. He visited us in the afternoon. As a boy I was curious to watch this horoscope matching exercise. 

Mr. Jois collected both the horoscopes from my father. He took out his spectacles from the pocket of his trademark Gandhi shirt. He went through both the documents and made some arithmetical calculations. His face which looked serious initially started brightening up slowly. Finally there was a broad smile on his face. He announced to the joy of my parents that the horoscopes matched perfectly! So that was it. It was time for my eldest sister to depart from our home.

The marriage of my eldest sister Gowramma with Mahabalaiah of Hokkalike was held shortly thereafter at the Shri GopalaKrishna Temple in Agumbe, the Cherrapunji of South India. (The town was made world famous later by Shankar Nag as Malgudi in his TV serial Malgudi Days). Quite for some days, we found it difficult to accept that our beloved elder sister was no more a part of our home. We missed her too much. But we were equally happy to have her back on some occasions. All of us would gather around her to hear her experiences at her new home. She would narrate her interesting experiences in her big joint Hindu family. While my father or eldest brother would go to her place to bring her, my brother-in-law would personally visit us to take her back after some time.

On one such occasion it became my privilege to accompany my sister on her return journey with my brother-in-law. I was totally free at that time as our teacher Srikanta Jois had been transferred and there was no replacement for him for quite a long time. But the journey on foot was not easy. We first walked all the way for six miles to reach a place called Narve. Luckily, on the way from there to Hariharapura, we were picked up by a lorry, the owner of which was known to my brother-in-law.  But from there we had to walk another three miles to reach Hokkalike after crossing the River Tunga.

o------------o--------o----------o---------------o------------o-------------o---------------o------------o---------o--

My brother-in-law was the eldest male member of the family. His father Puttu Rao was a worried man when his wife gave birth to three daughters successively. He was very much upset on the arrival of the third daughter. He took his wife with him to the pilgrim town of Gokarna. The couple prayed to the Gokarneswara (Mahabala) fervently asking him to bestow a son to them the next time.

Indeed the prayer to Gokarneswara yielded the desired result. The couple was pleased to name the boy as Mahabala as he was gifted to them by the Gokarneswara. The couple had three more daughters and four sons who followed Mahabala. But the first son was very much special for them as he had arrived after a long wait.

It appears my brother-in-law had completed his primary education only. (Hokkalike had a Primary School that dated back to the beginning of the 20^th century). He was not exposed to English language as the subject was included only from the fifth Standard. But he was good in arithmetic, had an excellent handwriting and a superior memory. He was well organised in his daily life, very systematic and meticulous in maintaining accounts. He developed a financial expertise in his young age by sheer hard work and through his own enterprising nature. As the first son of his father, he slowly took over the management of the family affairs.

Puttu Rao had only a small holding of arecanut gardens and paddy fields. The income was sufficient for the family initially. But as the strength of the family grew, so was the need for additional income. The expenditure on the marriage of elder daughters increased the financial burden on the family.

The concept of giving higher education to the children by sending them away from home was not prevalent in those days. Finding a job other than engaging in agriculture was unfashionable. Hence there was a need for having sufficient landholdings to meet the needs of the family comfortably. The family partition among the male members of the family was a routine affair in this part of Malnad once all the male members attained majority or were duly married.

It was under these circumstances that my brother-in-law took charge of the management of the family. He had a clear cut target right from the beginning. It was to acquire sufficient landholdings for the family. The ultimate aim was simple. By the time the need for family partition arose, there should be sufficient landholding for division among the male members. It was essential to ensure that each family was financially viable upon partition. The minimum landholding expected for such viability was – two acres each of arecanut plantation and paddy field.

In order to acquire additional lands it was necessary to build a corpus out of the surpluses generated from the annual income from lands. But with all the prudence in controlling the family expenditure to increase the surplus funds, my brother-in-law could build only a small corpus. He then thought of a new venture to generate additional funds. It was through money-lending. It was a risky venture. But being a shrewd person he dared to enter the field in his own way.

-------To be continued------

      A V Krishnamurthy