A Chronicle of a journey to a Majestic stay

The  title  “A  Chronicle of  a   journey to a Majestic stay” is  both figuratively and literally true. The journey was  from  humble beginnings  and  ended  up  majestically in the law profession and  literally  flourished in the Majestic house.

This  is a brief story of a man born in Doddaballapur ( 40 kms away from Bengaluru  and can be reached via Bellary road)  and his journey  towards  becoming  a lawyer.  The man  we are talking about is Mr Vasudeva Sastry. ( lovingly called appa by everyone)

                                            (  12 /3 /1902   to  23 /6 /75 )

Appa moved  away from  Doddaballapur in his younger days to Bengaluru not knowing what the future lay in store for him. They say that a single stone can change the course of a river  and appa deciding to come to Bengaluru  has  changed  the course of his future family. We  are all today, what we are  due to that  one decision taken by Appa and ably supported  by the high command  Akka.  That is how destinies are created  by a single person.

Appa  lost his father when he was six years old. His father was Rama Sastry and mother was Rukmanamma.  He  was one among the four siblings. His eldest brother was  Mr Padmanabhaih  who  took the lead role in bringing up the entire family.

Padmanabhaih was a taluk Kacheri  Gumastha in Bengaluru. He stayed in Cubbonpet area  in Bengaluru, He was  very much money savvy  and he lended money and  made a neat pile of money. He took care of the financial needs of his brothers and also his extended family ( I heard he was  a colorful person )

Appa‘s  second  eldest brother was  Mr Suryanarayana  Sastry.  He never left the shores of Doddaballapur and was a purohit and an astrologer.

Appa  was  the  third  among the four siblings.  Appa  had only one younger sister named as Annapurna ( Kunnigadu’s  and Naganna ‘s mother)

Appa’s  primary schooling happened in Doddaballapur.  He also completed his lower secondary in Doddaballapur (equal to seventh standard).

There is  an anecdote during the LS  results announcement.  Appa  was  seeing the results of all his friends and  avoided  seeing his results till the end. He saw his results finally and he had passed.

In those  days  there  were   no high schools in Doddaballapur.  Appa  along with his  friend Madhava Krishnaih  ( who  later on became the T.R .Mills  owner)   came  to  Dharmambudhi  lake in Bengaluru  which was full  of water.

After  reaching  Dharmambudhi  lake, both the young lads  went to the Thotadappa  choultry ( Adjacent to the present  city railway station) .  They managed  to get a  free room in the choultry.  I  heard  they did their own cooking and  the items they made were  anna  and onion sambar.

                    A  view of  Dharmambudhi lake must be sometimes in 1960’s

 

Dharmambudhi lake  with no water but had become a prominent locality as there were exhibitions, fairs, drama and circus troops' shows, public meetings and other gatherings were held here

.

Appa  went to  meet  Mr  Fuller  the  principal  of  Weslyn English school ( Later on became United  Mission school  after  merging  with London Missionary school).

The  young  lad  appa  stood  in front of  Mr Fuller  who asked him his name.   The principal  came to know the young lad  had no money  to pay for the admission ( 3 rupees  was the admission fees).

Mr  Fuller  told  the young lad  to visit his house in Lalbagh road and ask his wife for 3 rupees.  The  young lad  hardly knew any English  and managed  to get the 3  rupees and came back to school.

The principal  asked  the lad the question who gave you  money in the  house.   The lad replied your mother.  Principal  laughed and told him it was his wife.  Nothing much registered in the lad’s mind since he hardly knew any English words.

Appa  did his  8^th , 9^th  and 10^th Standard in  Weslyn  English school.  Passed 10^th standard around  1914.

Appa wanted to join college but had no money.  His  brother told him to go to Mysore for joining college and gave him some money.

Appa  did his Intermediate ( 2 yrs )  and B.A  ( 2yrs ) in Mysore Maharaja’s college.

Appa  stayed in a  room for  almost  3 and  half years and the last six months  during his  B.A studies stayed in a  room in  Mysore thatha’s  hostel.  Appali  bhatta also joined  appa  in the Mysore room and did cooking along with appa.

Appa  during evening  used to spend time  in the  Mysore thatha’s press.  Mysore  Thatha used  to help  appa  in improving his  English.

After  finishing  B.A ,  appa  came to Bangalore and went to  discuss  with  Padmanabhaih   on the future course of action.  Padmanabhaih told appa  that  B.A  is  not sufficient  and he has to do  LLB.  There  was no  LLB  course in the  Mysore University at  that  time.  Appa  was  given some money by his   elder brother to go to Pune and join LLB  in the Fergusson college. 

Appa  got  admitted into  LLB  course in the  Fergusson college  and he also  parallelly  studied for M.A .

Unfortunately  M.A  exams  and  LLB  exams  fell on the same day  and his  brother advised  him to take up only  LLB  exams  which is important for a professional career.   We  can notice here  appa ‘s  enthusiasm in preparing for  two  courses  simultaneously.

Appa  after  completing  LLB  came to  Bangalore around  1926  or  1927 and he wanted to open an office.

Next  to  Vijaya  talkies  in Chickpet  (  later on became  Vijayalakshmi theatre) , there  was  Ganesha  coffee works and on the first floor appa   rented a  room  for 8 rupees and  started his  sojourn as a lawyer in that room.

Meanwhile marriage was  settled for  Appa  and the marriage  happened in  Chittoor.   Appa  was about 26 years  and  married to  Tripura Sundaramma ( age around  12 years  and  was the daughter of C.V . Doreswamy Iyer)

Appa  took a house in Sultanpet area   which was  near  to  Vijaya  talkies in Chickpet area.  The house was in Budamai pete and on the Gopalswamy gudi beedhi. It was  a  small house and  Kunnigadu  also stayed there for his studies.

Padmavathi  ( 1928 ), Balasubramanyam (  1930 ) and  krishnamoorthy ( 1931 )  were  born before  shifting  to Majestic house.   Krishnamoorhty unfortunately  died  when he was one month.

The story  goes  that  the house  on the Gopalswamy gudi Beedhi  was jinxed  and  unnatural things happened.  The  rice sacks  which was kept one above the other  suddenly  fell on Kunnigadu  and it could not be explained.  The  Lighted  oil lamp  used to get suddenly put off.  Purohit  was  consulted  and he told  the  vatsu of the house was not good  and evil spirits  resided   in the house.

Meanwhile  appa’s law practice  started  doing good and  he  started  earning decent money.

He purchased  a  site in the Majestic  area (  75 x  30  feet ) .   75  feet  really helped to play cricket in the long passage in the house that was constructed and that was  one of the reasons why  all   male Vorugantis  became die hard fans of cricket.

Appa  took  loan from a private money lender  Veera Bhadraih   and  constructed  a  house  and  moved  his  entire family to  Majestic house.

Bhagyalakshmi  was  born in 1933. Srinivas  was  born in 1935 and  he died when he was 2 years old.

Annapurna  was born in 1937.  Gurumurthy  entered  this  world in 1940.  Ramurthy  silently  descended on this earth in the year 1942.

Satyabhama  and  Venugopal  followed  and  they both unfortunately died  when they  were  about  six months old.

 

Geetha  stepped into  this world  in 1949   to boss over it in the  future .

Dilip Kumar  was  the last  man entering   into the field   on 29^th  June 1952 and he ensured  the long innings  ended  with him and everyone  will  pamper him only.

My memories  of  Appa  was he was a  giant  person with  a  strong personality  who  played  pagadekai  with akka  and others.  I used to sit and watch and sometimes give some hints for the next move and get some scoldings.

I  remember  Ganesha  puja  which was  done on a large scale and  everyone used to  sit   around for the puja.  My memories of that puja  was, I was  uncomfortable with my  attire  of  small panche  and was always  unsuccessfull in   guarding it  from being pulled by  Dilip.

I  used  to  get  commission   for  getting anything from shops.  Akka  used to tell  a list of  30 items and I used to mentally  remember that  and  go to  Janatha  Bazaar or  Mallesh  stores  or  Bommana   stores  facing  Himalaya theatre  and get all the items  and wait for my commission.

I  used to put all my commissions  in a small  hundi  and  mentally used to keep track  of  the amount in the Hundi.  The  Hundi  used to fall down and break as  soon as it reached   Rs 1.60 which was  the amount  for  a  hindi movie  morning show.  It was a  strange coincidence and I am unable to explain this till date. It happened many times and  everytime I had to force myself to watch a Hindi movie.

I remember that during festival  time  everyone of the Voraganti  clan would assemble  at  Majestic house for the celebrations.

I  have  faint  memories  of  Appa  after his retirement  doing Puja  for long hours and  doing lot of reading.

On  23^rd June 1975, the Patriarch  had his  last breath.

Akka ‘s  role  in bringing  up this  huge family  was immense  and she  ensured  that everyone in the house  got a good  education.  Appa used to only provide finance  but  planning and implementation of activities was  the  Forte of  Akka.

I  remember  to have learnt my first English  letters  from Geetha and  as  a  Chinese proverb goes all journeys  start  with the first step. 

I am thankful to Geetha for helping  me with the first step of learning Alphabets  because of which I am able to  write this Chronicle. 

I want  to thank  Nana  for  giving all the inputs  for the above  Chronicle. Some of the data, i got validated and corrected from  Annu attha and i want to thank her for the same.

Bye for now

Padmanabh.