How Somu found me

 

Hair raising thrill is obvious when something sweet by chance happens. It happened to me nearly two months ago.  Cutting down our evening walk at the nearby ground we had parked our car on Devaparthiva Road where we lived for decades as the road perpendicular to it was under repair.  We had to visit a shop close by on that road.  We had got down from the car.  On seeing us, our friend stopped his scooter with a pillion rider.  The pillion rider [he was to soon reveal that he was the rider's elder brother] dismounting the scooter asked for the house of  one Subba Rao.   "Subba Rao!" ....my late grandfather.  I was happy someone known for  years to our family was in search of the house which was no longer with us. Ownership and house had since been changed and we had moved to another ancestral house.   I told him "I am Subba Rao's grandson".  To make him believe his ears I repeated!    His face lit up in utter happiness.  When he told me that long ago he was coming to our house for weekly evening meal, I immediately recognized him as 'Somu' as he was called by us then.  He must have been around 20 by the year 1962 when he was coming.   In the dining hall, after my grandfather returned from his office, dinner plates used to be arranged for the eight of us in the family plus one Butea leaf plate for Somu near the door.   I insisted to sit next to him [his left] for the meal and I have very vivid memory of this as a four year old.  He remembered my name too as clearly as me.  It was a most joyful moment for him meeting me and that too in that fashion.  Somu must be around 80 now.  He also recalled the other relatives' houses he went for the meal on other days of the week and mentioned he was trying to meet their families also.  Those were economically difficult years for his family, living in nearby towns where there were no colleges and they used to be sent to Mysore for studying further so that they can get a job later.  Mysore was and is a popular hub for higher education. 

The system of offering meals esp. to poor brahmin boys studying in college [and living in a hostel] was known as "vaaraanna". Such boys used to eat in different houses on prior arrangement on set days of the week on rotation.  This helped them save some expenses.  It was a tradition followed by many brahmin families as helping others in whatever way possible, considering it as God's service.  

All the years, Somu's memory has a very deep impression in my mind and I often wondered about who he was and where he was.   In the meantime, my wife's friend and our distant relative had hinted about this Somu a couple of years earlier.  He must have inquired his interest on meeting us.  Recently on our second meeting at Somu's brother's family function, last month he mentioned he had retired as head master of a school in the town of Hassan. He was yet again fondly recalling the famililes that served him food in those years, that helped him build a career in life.  He even joyfully introduced me to all his family members. 

My wonderment ended about this Somu whose physical appearance was blank but he used to come white dhoti and shirt with a small towel on his left shoulder.  Somu's dream of meeting the family also ended with that accidental meeting.  Joyful moments.

We unique foursome

Srinivas Rao, Mukunda, Ramesh and yours truly, were in the same department at the workplace.  What was unique with us in the mid 1980s was that we were in our 50s, 40s, 30s and 20s in that order.  Unfortunately, the first three have passed on, also in that order, making me the lone survivor now! 

We used to join together twice every day to go to the canteen for coffee breaks.  These were most refreshing fun filled breaks.  Jokes were told, esp by the first two, Rao and Mukunda who were excellent in telling jokes while Ramesh and I enjoyed laughing.  Rao laughed as he told, simultaneously.  Funnily, he often laughed before he uttered!   All of us had a good sense of humour and this is what had brought us together, actually back in 1983 itself.  In fact, it was Rao who bonded the group in a way, when India won the Cricket World Cup that year.  He hosted a party in the famous Mylari Hotel to celebrate India's maiden win.  This hotel is/was renown for tasty and unique Masala Dosays plus Idli, which we washed down our gullets with excellent coffee.   These were the only two items this hotel prepared on its menu and only up to noon.  No evening opening.  From that time onwards, we decided to go every month, each month hosted by one of us on rotation basis.  Rotation was by draw of chits.  (I have blogged separately on this hotel trips).  We foursome did other things to eat out as well till about the year 2007. 

Once on a working day, we went to a place called K.R.Nagar an hour's drive by bus just to eat Masala Dosay at the famous Sri Hotel in that small town, all of us applying one day leave, en masse!  We would gather at the agreed time at the bus stand and travel.  Then after that hotel breakfast, we traveled to the nearby Chunchunkatte where river Kaveri forcefully flows amidst rocky terrain.  A popular picnic spot.  There we spent till lunch time, relaxing near the flowing water.  We went to the temple close by and the priest there specially arranged for us sumptuous and tasty lunch in the form of Puliogrey, which we remembered for several years. We profusely thanked as we rewarded the priest with some money for taking care of our hunger. This arrangement was unexpected but most welcome.  Then relaxing on the temple platform relishing the taste of Puliogrey for sometime we travelled home. 

Another time, we applied en masse half a day leave for the forenoon session. The programme was to see a morning show movie at Olympia talkies, have lunch at the hotel opposite there (well known in those days for good lunch) and go to office to attend the afternoon session.

Another working day, we travelled by bus to a place, an hour's drive, called Melukote.  There is the beautiful temple of Sri Cheluvarayaswamy on top of a small hillock reached there by a flight of steep stone steps, below it is a Kalyani (pond).  What we remembered more than the trip was the argument Mukunda picked up in the bus with a fellow villager-passenger about the price of butter back in "those days"....and the quality of it.  It was a serious fight, but it was a draw.  For this trip, we had one extra member in the form of Suresh. 

By 2006, Mukunda had retired and had shifted to Bengaluru, three hours away.  Srinivas Rao had retired before him.  Ramesh was in his hometown there and was on leave.  This time the programme was to meet there just to eat Dosay at the highly renown Vidyarthi Bhavan in Gandhi Bazar and have lunch in another hotel.  From here, Rao and I traveled by train and gathered at the hotel at the set time.  We enjoyed eating, went to nearby Lalbag gardens and relaxed there for a while and we dispersed to our places, Rao and I returning by train in the evening.  Yet again it was a working day.  

Scene at Vidyarthi Bhavan, starting to devour. 
Similar was the scene at Mylari Hotel.  I had this new digital 
camera in 2006.  Hence this memory.

Aside from this group outings, there used to be other random little eatings.  Thanks to one other colleague gastronomer Nagaraja.  He enjoyed hosting breakfast in the form of Masala Dosay from, yes 'from', one Prasad Lunch Home (now closed).  He would come half an hour early, packing Dosays to 4 other colleagues who were in the same room. He would take us to another hotel called Anand Vihar near Zoo and get us Bonda-Sambar which he was fond of.  A few times, we went out for lunch in a hotel during lunch hour. 

There was a good camaraderie among the colleagues, what with a strict workaholic boss and heavy work. Often many went to others' desks for short chit chats which the boss didn't mind as long as work was done.

Good memories with colleagues and the good times at the workplace we cherish for a long time.