Chapter 2 – City of Destiny
Before I can get back to Chapter 7 and on to that day (Dec 14th, 1991), I would like to take you through the early days of my life and how I finally ended up in Bangalore. But, we will eventually get there, the day of my GRE exam and the perturbing days that followed.
10/02/2020: Today is Akka’s 56th birthday, she was born on the same day as our beloved Mahatma Gandhi. She would have been so happy to read my blog and help me in writing.
People call it the “City of Destiny”, “Jewel of the East Coast” and by other names like Waltair, Vizag. There are various stories about the origin of its name Visakhapatnam. Some say it has been named after Lord Visakha (son of Lord Shiva) between the 9th and 11 centuries. Others say it might have originated from the Telugu word for sand “Isaka”, as there are vast expanses of sand here. There is actually a suburb called “Isaka Thota” in the city. There are other stories about the name coming from a Buddhist monk Vaisakhi, or a Muslim saint Ishaq Madina. The name Waltair came from one of the British generals and the railway station was called Waltair for a long time. During the British rule, Visakhapatnam became Vizaagpatnam and then Vizag.
Whatever the name may be, people fall in love with the beautiful sceneries of this city. It has a beautiful coast line, with the Dolphin’s nose hill on the southern end and to the north in Bheemili, the scenic confluence of the river Gosthani into the Bay of Bengal. I had just finished my UKG (Upper Kindergarten) at St. Joseph School in Vizianagaram, that Dad was transferred to Vizag. I was very happy to get out of the school in Vizianagaram.I did not particularly like the discipline in the convent. Our class teacher was Miss. D.Car, I don’t recall her first name but I used to call her “Danger Car”. I was always caught taking to the girl next to me, and was asked to stand on the bench. The girl’s name was Anita, and I can’t imagine now to have been punished for talking too much. Maybe it was all Miss Car’s fault that I tuned out to be a taciturn person.
I liked our little house in Sevanagar, Vizag with a long pathway from the gate to the entrance of the house. The garden on both sides of the pathway had many beautiful rose bushes, marigold flowers and there was also a huge jack fruit tree in the garden. On the other side of the main road facing our house was the Railway cricket and football stadium. This was where I had watched cricket stars like Krishnamachari Srikanth, Meher Baba, soccer stars like Chima Okorie (Nigerian player who studied in Vizag and played later in the English leagues) and others. Football was very popular in Vizag and I still remember the excitement in the local crowd while watching the games.
Myself and Akka (meaning older sister) were enrolled in St. Joseph’s school which was located in Gnanapuram. Since Dad was an officer in the Railway Protection Force, we always had an orderly (a constable assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant). His name was Govinda and he was such a sweet person. Talking about orderlies, reminds me of Mr Rao (forgot his full name) who was our orderly back in Vizianagaram. I remember giving him lot of trouble getting me ready for school. I was very particular about my school uniform being ironed and tucked properly. I used to scold him if my shirt was pulled out a little more on one side from other. One of the funny episodes I remember with him when he took me to the doctor for getting treatment for “gajji” (scabies I guess) on my legs. We were in the line to see the doctor, and Rao was holding me on his shoulder as my leg was hurting. My slipper (called cheppu in Telugu, by the way cheppu in Telugu also means tell) fell off and I was asking Rao to pick it up by saying “cheppu Rao” and he was saying don’t worry I will speak to the doctor. This went on for a few minutes me finally crying to him and showing him my slipper on the ground. Mr. Rao was such a patient man and never got angry with all my tantrums. Likewise was Mr. Govinda, always very patient and very attentive towards us. Everyday, after dropping us at school, he would go to the nearby market to do all the groceries and meat purchases for the day. He would then comeback at lunch time with our lunch boxes, and again in the evening to pick us up from school. On the way to school, there was a low underpass bridge, which got flooded during rains. I still remember those rainy days when Govinda would ride his bicycle thorough the dirty waters as I held tightly on to the handle-bar. The school itself was for girls mainly, and boys were allowed only till 2nd grade.
My daily routine would be like going to school in the morning, come back in the late afternoon, and then the dreaded tuition master would show up. I hated tuitions as it was a waste of time and I could have gone out to play cricket with my friends. But, I had to patiently wait through the two hours of torture, and then head out with my cricket kit to the open area in front of our house. I was the only one who had the bat, stumps and the tennis balls or cork balls, and my friends would be eagerly waiting for me to come out. I can’t recall their names but there was girl called Dundu, her sister and quite a few boys. We played street cricket until it would get dark and I would hear Mom shouting for me to get back into the house. I would be dirty and very hungry by that time and once I took bath (no shower in those days), Mom would feed me my favorite dishes for dinner. I loved non-vegetarian (Chicken, Lamb, Fish, Prawns) and Mom never disappointed me except for Saturday which was very auspicious for us. I would complain that why can’t she add some chicken or fish to Rasam or Sambar. After dinner, I would do my homework and get ready for the next day. I was very punctual and always stood first in class in those days. Before going to bed, Akka and myself would sit out on the door steps near the garden, and Mom used to tell us nice stories. We had a giant jackfruit tree in the garden and I was always scared to go near the tree at night. Akka and Mom would always tease me for that. Dad used to work late hours as he was in the RPF (Railway protection force), and we would spend more time with him on the weekends. Going for a movie with Dad was always fun, as he would buy us snacks and Goldspot (soft drink) during intermission, and he always bought tickets to the highest class in the theater. When Mom took us for a movie, she would come well prepared with home made snacks, water, juice, and there was no buying snacks from outside. I loved the mythological and folk (janapadalu) movies a lot, still remember watching the movie Bala Bharatam (Story from Mahabharat). In that movie Bheema who is the strongest kid, gets to drink several pots of nectar (Amrutham) that makes him invincible. I always used to act out the characters in the movie after coming home, and that evening I became Bheema and drank several glasses of water before going to bed. When I woke up, my bed was completely wet and Akka started teasing me that I lost all the nectar, and I have to start all over again to get my super powers.
Mom was an accomplished musician, and she sang and played the harmonium. She was into music at an early age of two and never stopped learning and practicing music in her whole life. She wanted to learn a new instrument, the veena and so she has a guru come to our house for her lessons. Mom and Akka took veena lessons from him on a regular basis. I always wanted to sing, so I thought this might be a good opportunity to learn classical music. I started taking lessons from him for a few weeks, when I found out that he was a very good chess player. So from them on, we spent more time playing chess rather than on music.
It was not long before that Dad was again transferred this time to a small town called Khurda Rd in the state of Odissa.
Continued in Chapter – Chinawaltair and Khurda Rd