July 30, 1999 1
People Make Places
Calcutta, a place to remember and cherish….
I am tempted to put my thoughts somewhere, before it gets dissipated away from my fresh memory. It is all about the wonderful youthful days I had experienced in Calcutta where I was born and my childhood saw through some of the great experiences one can aspire in life. The experiences are not materialistic or with any expectations of any dream come true, but are simply a way of normal life one would enjoy and cherish in every moment of one’s life.
My childhood was amongst the wonderful brothers and sisters I had, under the able supervision of my parents. My father, very timid and low profile in nature was known for his timely schedules and manners, right from the word go; rise from bed around 6AM, finish the morning rituals, sip the fresh coffee kept in front of him by my able mother, while listening to Radio Ceylon and flipping through the newspaper. The voice of compere “Dharumaambaal” of Radio Ceylon is still vivid in my memory as she had a unique way of carrying out the program, which I used to enjoy, while pretending to sleep. Father, would then go for his bath and sit down for his Puja. Meanwhile, I would be asked to get up, being the much cared and cushioned lad in the house and the last born amongst the five (now four) brothers and sisters. Incidentally, one brother, Srinivasan was always lying in the house, out of senses, but aroused by any wonderful carnatic music, which my sisters used to practice every morning and evening. I was told that he was born that way. He had a commendable talent, which could be seen by strained movements of his eyes and the body as a whole, in appreciation of the music. He even tried and attempted singing in his own state of unconsciousness by making strange sounds. Sisters Meena and Visalam had trying moments to keep a watch on him, every now and then to clean up the mess he used to create, any time of the day or night and also giving him daily bath etc. etc. He breathed his last sometime during 1965 or so.
Mother was able and efficient and was always known for her greatest administrative qualities one would imagine. Though not officially trained in School or College, she had quite a way of dealing with any problem, which would come on the way as a shock or a surprise, be it an avalanche! Things would go smoothly as per routine in her supervision, whether day, night, rain or sunshine. Father used to have his full course traditional South Indian lunch at 8.30 AM and would go to office. Father, at the same time was so clear in his schedule that he used to find time to enjoy each and every grain of rice he had. His time slots for each and every activity in his daily routine was so adequate that he enjoyed each of them fully and with ease. He was however, very particular with his things and was extremely possessive. The pillows he used for sleeping were softened up every weekend under the Sun and made fluffy! He ensured that his pillows were safe and kept above the whole lot of mattresses and pillows of others, piled up in the corner of the room. His manners were so standardized that we used to look at him every time he finished his Rasam Rice daily, when he used to remove his glasses and wipe his eyes, gesturing the delicacy of the food item. Father was by nature soft, quiet, peace loving, tasteless to the tricks and wickedness of the world and above all a man with a few words. His life was around office, Puja, daily walks, good food, reading and resting in a well planned time bound daily routine. He normally retired to bed around 9.30PM but certainly not beyond this time limit. He was generally healthy and I, in my very sincere attempts, cannot recall a day when he has not attended office due to ill health. His healthy diet and routine was indeed very well supported and answered by my mother, by her timely delicious food items. She was known for her creative excellence in her cooking which is really worth mentioning. Mothers do cook well for their products, but then I think, my mother, in this respect is an exception and a cut above the rest. Mother’s hands in cooking are always appreciated by the way we expect the items to be on the dot to the specs and would not compromise to err even slightly away from the tolerance limits! Mother’s food excelled in quality by our daily suggestions in view of our ever increasing, elongating tongue, for taste! My mother had a great sense of belonging and caring for us that she ensured biweekly oil baths for every one in the family. Males, every Wednesday & Saturday and Females, every Tuesday & Friday. She used to give us purgative every alternate month, for improving appetite and for general health. Not a soul in the house could go out to work without proper and timely food and all visitors will have to be offered something to eat and drink. The two-room apartment, barely 500 sq.ft, housed at any time, not less than 10 to 12 persons and visitors kept wondering where they are in the house. There was no noise in the house yet the members were quite communicative and caring, mutually. From these two rooms emerged a qualified engineer, deliveries for sisters and some more professionals like me. I was in fact quite comfortable in my days of studies where I hardly had any disturbance. Contrast to disturbance, it was only comfort. I faintly recall (when I used to be hardly 10 years of age) how my dear brother Krishna Murthy did his engineering drawing on a 3ft. by 2 ft. drawing board kept on top of a small table around 12 at mid night amidst the crying new born of my sisters. Things were not easy when he had to bend down the lamp on to the drawing board for adequate light for drawing with a set square as the room light was to be put off for the new born.
The leader in the house was eldest brother Sankaran. We call him Sanakaranna. If we are what we are today in terms of clothing, style, culture and manners, it is all from Sankaranna. There was an air of discipline he used to carry with him wherever he moved. Both Narsim (my next elder brother) and I have possibly seen a milder version of Sankaranna, while the elder brothers and sisters have seen a stricter version, when he had taken over from Mother, administering the brothers and sisters, while she used to focus on other important issues. The family was to be run with a fixed income and my mother and Sankaranna (at a tender age) ably did it. Credit also goes to the upbringing abilities of my parents that others in the family obeyed Sankaranna without a word of disagreement. Sankaranna had photography as his hobby and I was the target being the last much cared, loved and kissed by every one in the family. Sankaranna has taken more than a 1000 snaps in those days focusing on Narsim and I. Sankarrana presented a Carom Board to me on the occasion of my birthday in Calcutta when I must have been around 12 or 13. The Board is still kept safely in Calcutta. We all used to look up to Sankaranna for every entertainment whether it be a movie (he used to take us for a movie atleast once a month), an ice cream or going to the lake side for a stroll. I remember very vividly when he had booked tickets for “Sangam” on a weekday when I had school. I had to come home at lunchtime on that day so that I could be ready for the matinee show. How wonderful it was to return home on a weekday from School, only to watch a movie! Those were the days, which are still standing out in my memories.
The weekends were spent with caroms played indefinitely right from morning till night. Much to our surprise, our neighbors also participated and it was really an occasion and a delight to watch the players turning sides and places to play the game.
Narsim and I used to play cricket on the road with our friends which over the years, slowly transformed into a full-fledged cricket team during the course of adolescence. We then started playing league matches with cricket ball and bat.
Parallely, I had a deep and inner desire and hunger for music and by then I had started spreading my wings to a circle of music lovers. I had friends like Sridhar, Seshan, EVS Mani and Suku. We used to have regular walk to the lake side every evening debating and discuusing the inner fine tunes of the hindi film music. This slowly developed into a growing talent within me for the art which I had, ever since I started accompanying my sisters Jaya Akka and Visallakka to their music classes at a tender age of 8 or so.. I am told that I used to recite the varnams and other kritis which, unfortunately I do not recollect or recapitulate now. However, strangely, I was a terribly shy boy always wanting to do anything with perfection and hence would not sing for an audience. I was a great bathroom singer as vouched by my brothers and sisters and I was taken for granted that I would not sing before an audience.
I remember the good old days when I used to go to the Lake Market to buy vegetables and return in a rickshaw paying Rs 2 for the ride. I even enjoyed the ride going through Lake Road, Lake View Road and then into Purna Das Road, where we lived. I remember when my mother asked me to buy oil and when I returned with the container I realised that the container was almost empty as I had carried the container in a bag over my shoulder like a school bag swinging it to glory! The oil had dripped over my shirt and I was almost totally wet with oil. I simply cannot forget the people of Calcutta, the vegetable vendors, the rickshawallas, the sweet shop keepers, the cobblers, the pastry wallas on the road, the puchkawallas, the Jaalmudiwalls, The newspaper wallas and the roadside provision stores and the owners. These are the people who have added value to my life and made me remember the human values as whenever I go to Calcutta they remember and they identify me from a distance. Last time, sometime in 1992, I took my son Praveen to Calcutta and introduced him to the Head of Chemistry Dept, St. Xaviers College, Mr. Roy Choudury who had taught me Physical Chemistry for B.Sc., Chemistry Honors during 1970-72. He remembered me and asked me to be seated and we had a chat for about 15 minutes or so. Then I went to the canteen where the canteen-in-charge, once a very handsome young man, during my days, was still there, quite old and sitting in the chair, half-asleep. I woke him up and said hello to him. He was so pleasantly surprised and offered me tea and Singaras.
Calcutta is known for great human values and manners. Any woman (often called, “Bowmma”) is always offered a seat in a crowded bus or a tram and any abuse even today by anybody to a woman or a girl cannot be tolerated. People, by and large are lively, caring, emotionally affectionate and convey a lot of meaning to life. One cannot see jealousy or enmity in the normal walk of life. Overall, life is quite enjoyable. The neighbors care for you and do not run away in the fear of any help that you might ask for! Shopping is always a pleasure and anyone can freely walk into any shop and see the items, whether it be a saree, clothing, shoes or any item you can imagine, for hours and hours and just walk away without buying anything. You can be rest assured that you will be very well treated and politely answered for every item you choose to be displayed. Similarly, the taxi wallas will dare not bargain or shout at you for any fare. You pay the fare and you will be given the change back promptly, without a word of dispute or disagreement.
I would like to go to Calcutta and meet the same set of those people whom I had interacted and also see the same parks, roads, playgrounds and walk through it. What a thrilling experience it would be if I touch the same good old tree I used to climb or the lamp post we used to assume as the wickets for our daily rubber ball cricket on the pavement! One good thing about Calcutta is that it has not changed at all and I am more than confident that it will never ever change in times to come only because people make places. That way the people of Calcutta have to be praised for the human touch in life.
KS Ramachandran
More in next…
August 3, 1999 2
People Make Places
Calcutta, a place to remember and cherish….
Mani Anna, was the second eldest son in the family and he had a liking for tamil literature. He almost spent his leisure, in Bharathi Tamil Sangam, a body, which promoted and encouraged tamil literature in the city, by conducting seminars, debates (“Patti Manram”) etc etc. I was in fact quite proud amongst my friend circle when they used to see Mani Anna with awe, when he spoke on selected topics (“Chorpozhivu”). Probably this was the platform, which brought Mani Anna and my Sis-in-law Bala together. Bala together with her younger sister Neela were also equally enthusistic in participating in all debates and seminars. The weekends in the Bharathi Tamil Sangam or the National High School were pouring out with crowd to listen to these great debates focusing on the various angles of the interpretations of Kambha Ramayanam, Bharathiar’s poems etc etc. Mani Anna was also quite talented in stage acting, which also was another feature in his cap. I cannot forget the drama “Kavi Chakravarthy Kamban” in which he acted as Kamban, reciting various songs in a number of ragas. It was really a treat and a musical feast in which his inborn talent in music came up to the surface. Mani Anna has a natural flair for Carnatic music. Though not officially trained, he could articulate on a raga with alaap for a considerable time, bringing out its true life and color.
One cannot forget the close intimate friendship, which was very much visible between Mani Anna and Parthan (Parthasarathy). I have never seen friends exchanging gifts of books on any occasion, like these two and the accumulation of books in our house was largely contributed by this gesture by both of them!
Mani Anna also played Cricket in his youthful days with Krishnamoorthy in a club formed by them. The club was called “The Cricket Lovers Club” which had great players like Sastry, Vittal, Nana (a cousin of ours) and of course, K.Murthy / Mani Anna’s and a lot more. The matches were played in the Vivekananda Park and also in the grounds of Rabindra Sarobar Stadium. Both Narsim and I used to go to the grounds for helping the fielders to pick up the balls outside the boundry line etc etc !!
Another craze in the house was music. Mani Anna had purchased “Gerard”, a record changer. Weekends were also spent in listening to carnatic music and also English, Hindi and Tamil songs. Sankaranna mostly bought the English songs while the Hindi and Tamil songs were purchased by Mani Anna. Mani Anna would then keep them in a logical order by assigning some internal numbers etc (being an accountant himself!). I recall he took out the numbers from the calendars and pasted them on to the records and maintained serial control!. It is a pity that all these records are of no use with the advent of tapes, CD’s etc. These have become useless today. These records must have been played a number of times. The records in a way speak of our family life path. Sankaranna’s first son, Sekhar, in his first year of birth used to insist on playing “Chalo Ekbaar” and “Aaap aayee To Khayale” from the Hindi Film Gumraah. By then, we had a stock of almost 200 Nos., 78-RPM records, 50 Nos., 45 EP records and about 15 Nos., LP records with us. It is a pity that the records are lying unattended and unused at Mani Anna’s place (?).
Krihnamoorthy Anna basically is a person with enormous amount of patience, skills, low profile and above all extremely systematic and methodical. Happy and contended, so to say, he has seemingly inherited the great qualities of our father. He had a set of friends like Viji (who is even today very close to him), Ambi (his friends called him ‘Pran” as he looked like the Hindi Film Villain) and a host of his engineering college friends. I faintly remember the days when he used to go out with them. One of his friend, a Punjabi, I guess, was so heavily built, I almost forgot to recognize him when I saw him a few years after his marriage, when he looked like a tall slim stick!
Narsim, my next elder brother, was quite good at studies and cricket. I used to envy him, when he used to attend the morning classes in St. Xavier’s College, between 6AM and 9.30AM and return home, at a time when I used to leave the house for a long day! He had all the day for himself for studies, rest and entertainment.
I was always quite happy and contended with my routine, especially when I had the four brothers above me to take care of. I enjoyed my college days in St. Xaviers. The college used to start around 9AM and I used to return home by between 4PM and 5PM. Therafter, I used to quickly have a bite only to go out to the Park to play cricket. By that time Narsim and our friends would have started to play. We used to return by 6PM, have a chat and start studies by 7PM.
I used to look forward to the Wednesdays when I used to listen to the “Binaca Geet Maala” (much to the displeasure and irritation of my brothers, especially, Mani Anna!) between 8PM and 9PM, a radio program hosted by Ameen Sayani, with all the current popular Hindi film numbers, Whenever, I returned home early from the college, I used to listen to the Urdu Program between 3.30PM and 4.30PM, which used to broadcast the golden numbers of the Hindi films, both old and new. It was really a great feeling, which I had enjoyed in my life.
By this time, Krishnamoorthy had purchased the HMV Fiesta, a record player and I was the one, who used it to the maximum!
At the time of my professional studies, I was alone in the house, with parents, KM, Pappa Manni and Sangeetha. The quarrels and fights, which I have had with Sangeetha, are still very vivid in my memories. Once I took Sangeetha to a hindi movie “Sargam” in Priya Cinema. In the interval, Sangeetha had gone for the rest room, which could not be opened! Since it was a ladies rest room, I found it rather embarrassing to do anything, but finally determined, broke open the door. It is believed that the same rest room in Priya Cinema is still open and nothing has been done to it!
Finally, I really cherish my youthful days in Calcutta, whether it be eating puchka or a sweet or a bhelpuri or travelling in a crowded bus from Ballygunge to Dalhousie Square, or for watching a movie in Esplanade, or for visiting Durga Puja Pandals, or shopping in Gariahat, or a morning walk in the Lake Side, or chatting with the friends in and around Ballygunge, or attending to a concert or a drama in the Thygaraja Hall / Rabindra Sadan / Kala Mandir / or attending to the Ramanawami Utsavam, or walking through the Rash Behari Avenue, or attending to the debates in the Bharathi Tamil Sangam or playing rubber ball road cricket or watching the roads of Calcutta being washed daily at 3PM from the springs from the outlet in every street (in the good old days)………
