February 2019

As soon as I got to know from my Parents that we were once again traveling, and this time to Bangalore, I got very excited at the prospect. We prepared for this trip in right earnest, as we were to stay for at least 3-4 months, leaving the Bombay house all locked up. I accompanied my Dad to the Crawford Market in South Bombay, to buy steel trunks, beddings and hold-alls in preparation for this journey. As a Reserve Bank employee, my Father and his family, was entitled to travel first class by train – accordingly we booked ourselves on the Deccan Queen: first to Poona as there was no direct connection between Bombay and Bangalore in those days; and from thereon to Bangalore by metre-gauge line.

We left the Victoria Terminus, the main rail station in Bombay around 5PM in the evening by the stately Deccan Queen – I still recall vividly the uniformed bearers serving us high tea in fine crockery as we sat in the six seater cabins, looking at the view as the train crawled up the Western Ghats. In Poona we were met by my Father’s nephew, Chandrakant Nayak, who was a freshly minted IAS Officer. Chandrakantmaam as we called him, received us at the station and drove us to his spacious Bungalow in the Poona Cantonment area close to the Station. He was a bachelor at that time but he had an excellent cook who churned out splendid idlis and a tasty sambar for our dinner. Fortified with this meal, we were brought back to the Poona Station where we boarded the Bangalore Mail. This train was hauled by a steam engine, and I spent two wonderful nights on board, before reaching Bangalore early in the morning on the second day.

In Bangalore, we were received warmly by my Mother’s close relatives.  We stayed with them for a few days before finding a house to rent in the Malleshwaram area. Bangalore had sylvan surroundings in the 50s along with wide tree-lined avenues like the Margosa Avenue. The landlord occupied the ground floor and we were given the top floor. The kitchen fires still used wood, and I recall the shop nearby where the firewood was chopped, weighed and delivered to our house. Monkeys were rampant in Bangalore in those days, and we were shocked one day when we discovered a large monkey in our kitchen, happily enjoying the leftover food! During our Bangalore stay, the General Elections were announced – right in front of our house was a polling centre, where people dutifully lined up to cast their votes. My Father’s health improved considerably within three months and very soon the time arrived for us, to return to Bombay.

I was about 6 years old when I was put in School as per the earlier philosophy, unlike today when toddlers aged 2 years are put in a pre-school! As we were staying in Mahim, my Father was keen to have me admitted to the Bombay Scottish Orphanage School as it was known then. My Father took me along to this School on Cadell Road, but we were informed that he should have registered and enrolled my name immediately after I was born! Such a disappointment!

My Mother’s cousin was a teacher at another School nearby called the Victoria School. She arranged an interview with the Principal, a Roman Catholic priest who readily gave me admission to the Kindergarten Class. So my Father escorted me to the school one day, and placed me in the designated classroom. I was extremely brave unlike many of the other kids who were bawling away when their parents tried to leave! I still remember my Father anxiously trying to reassure me but I found this very irritating and wanted him to leave me alone! 

I enjoyed going to school and I lapped up all that was taught with great gusto. I remember going with my Mother to Anand Book Depot, the book shop and stationers close to our home, and my Mother purchasing notebooks along with the brown wrapping paper and labels. I recall vividly the smell of these new notebooks, the brown paper and the glue even today! Though my Father had undergone the appendix operation, he still felt weak and had not fully recovered yet. My parents decided that we needed to go to Bangalore to recuperate for about 3-4 months. So once again we travelled by train to Bangalore, this time with my Brother, Sister and Grandmother!

The first time I glimpsed my Mother’s spirituality was during the phase of my Father’s illness – she was the one who suggested the temple visits to the south in order to find a solution to his sickness. My parents and I boarded the Madras Mail, leaving behind my kid Brother and my infant Sister in the care of my Grandmother. My Mother’s bachelor cousin Dinna, agreed to come over and sleep at our home every night during our absence.

It was wonderful traveling by train, and my deep love for trains and steam engines began at that time which still continues unabated. Reaching Madras, our first port of call was to visit the Tirupati Temple – this was atop a hill and we dutifully took the bus to go and visit the Balaji Temple atop Tirumala. An amusing incident that I recall was when a group of monkeys snatched from my Mother’s hands some bananas as well as a bag containing money to be offered to Balaji!

The next temple visit on our list was the Palani Temple, near the textile town of Coimbatore. Whilst in Coimbatore, my Father decided to pay a visit to our relation Dr Major Sudhakar Rao who had a thriving practice in this town. Dr Rao was from the British Indian Army and had seen action during the Second World War; and after the war had set up his medical practice in Coimbatore. Initially we stayed in a hotel but once we met Dr Rao, he insisted that we shift to his spacious bungalow in R S Puram, an upscale residential locality of Coimbatore. Whilst there, my Father confided to Dr Rao his recent health problems and on hearing this, Dr Rao volunteered to examine my Dad.

Dr Rao was a very skilled diagnostician of the old school and decided to do a rectal examination – I remember my Father giving a gasp of pain after which Dr Rao triumphantly diagnosed an inflamed appendix! Dr Rao referred us to a specialist in Madras: Dr Mohan Rao, a very well-known surgeon practising in the Egmore area. Subsequently my parents also decided to go to Palani, as per the old plan and I now realize that providence provided Dr Rao and his diagnosis – an answer to my mother’s prayers! 

We returned to Madras and Dr Mohan Rao, the expert surgeon successfully carried out an appendectomy on my Father. We were fortunate to stay with our relatives in Madras and my Father’s younger Brother helped my Mother at the hospital. After a short recuperation my parents and I returned to Bombay. I was delighted to be back with my young Brother and my kid Sister who was growing up and starting to speak!

The mid-1950s began with the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement which basically espoused the bifurcation of the Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujarat. The Government at that time was reluctant to do this, and this in turn caused riots in 1955 which led to the firing on the mob that had gathered at Flora Fountain resulting in multiple deaths. My Father was an eye witness to this event as his Office was just across the Flora Fountain, and he could see from his Office window the firing and hear the shots! That same Flora Fountain was later renamed Hutatma Chowk when Maharashtra State was finally inaugurated. I remember the curfew that was imposed upon the city and I recall Black Marias or the police vans, going up and down on our street in Mahim announcing the Curfew!

One day in September 1956, my mother told me that she would have to visit the hospital where she would be getting a baby – I was very excited at this prospect and dutifully trotted off to Dr Jhaveri’s Hospital at Matunga which was not too far away from our home in Mahim. Soon I discovered that I had a baby sister! For the next 5 days, I regularly went to the hospital in the evenings, more so that I could share the hot milk that the nurse would give my mother! My father had a penchant for naming his children with the names of well-known personalities of that time – I was named after Ram Gopal, a well known Ballet Dancer who was very popular in the West having performed at the Royal Opera House in London. Similarly my sister was named Suchitra after the popular Hindi & Bengali film actress Suchitra Sen!

Just before my sister was born, my father’s health began to deteriorate – initially he felt giddy often and had extended periods of indigestion and stomach upsets. This continued for a long time and I remember going with him to various doctors and x-ray clinics and pathologists for carrying out different tests. My mother became very much worried and being an extremely pious and spiritual person, she convinced my father to go for a short pilgrimage to South India especially to visit Tirupati and Palani: both highly respected holy sites for many Indians. Thus soon after in 1957, I left along with my mother and father for the south; leaving my kid brother and my infant sister in the care of our grandmother, at our Mahim home.