OF VULTURES AND ALSO PIE DOGS
OF VULTURES AND PIE DOGS:
Our father passed away when we were very young. I was aged fourteen and the others were still younger.
We had lots of relatives from our father’s side and not many from our mother’s side.
Now let me take on the relatives from our fther’s side.
Our father did not have any brothers of his own. The only sister he had died after marriage and did not have any children. So almost all the relatives were his first cousins.Among all the Nadipuram clan only our father was the richest from the then standard of wealth.
All of them had in their heart in heart thought that we will ask their help and thereby make some money.
Ones in a life time opportunity arrived for the socalled relatives when our father left this world. . Almost all our relatives from our father’s side and some from our mother’s side and known and unknown peple of oour community. With great flurish Kullu Vadhyar sriranga char who ws welversed in the Purohit craft and a professionl purohit took control. Whe our father was in the death throes I did not actually know that. Just before his actual death one of the relatives asked me to recite “MUKUNDAMALA”. I knew all the sacred poems and also had passed about 4 examination of the “UBHAYA VENDANTHA SABHA” examinations held at Melkote. I started reciting the sloka and while I was in the middle of the recitation our father died. My other brothers and sisters could not gauge it. Without even knowing that our ather died I went on reciting the sloka and completed it. I may mention here that our father suffered just for 3 days.. The first question this Kullu asked our mother was whether we hava atleast a minimum of Rs 500/- to proceed with the obsequisies.
I was asked by our mother to check the box on the loft where we used to keep the excess cash in the wooden box. and find out how much cash was there . I climbed the loft and told her that we had that amount. I got down the with about 4 hundred rupee nots and rs 100/- in silver (real) coins of one rupee each. Immediately he wanted to take the amount. Our mother said that she will have the cash and what evr is required she will give.
Now starts the fleecing. Offering of money for having died on a bed offering of money for having died inside the house offering of money for not having performed the evening sandhya and not having taken a bath and not having performed the Gayathri, and decorating the forehead with Namam, spraying of water reciting “purusha suktham” and the lsit went on and on. Every time he used to put some amount in his dhothi and all the others were given in lump.. I do not know how muc he tucked in his dhothi..
Even though we had informed the ‘Dharma sabha” of brahmins we had so many reltives who were prepared to carry the bier upto the Burning ghat as this kullu enticed them with large fees for the same. We three brothers went to the burning ghat and had our head tonsured and finished the ceremonies connected with the final phase. There was lots of bargaining regarding the supply of fuel and other items. What a surprise the kullu ws very genrous to the core as it was not his money. He knew all the staff of the burning ghat who wre vry familiar with him as he was one of the regular visitors to that place . wheneve somebody used to kick the bucket especially Srivaishnavites kullu used to be invited for perfoming the last rites!! Our mother had also come to the burning ghat along with her second lady cousin. We returned home late in the evening. Nobody was there in the hose except our two sisters and our maternal grand mother. There was no one to offer us anything. However second cousin of our mother by name Sundari got us some coffee. So the ceremonies concerning the departure of our father was completed at a very high cost. All the gifts wer given such as chappals , so that our father will not walk bear foot during his walk to heaven, umbrella so that he will be shaded during sunshine, water filled vessel so that he willnot be thirsty, one cow with calf so that he will get all the merits and also get mild when he is tired enroute to heaven---so on and so forth.
In all her innocence our mother spent the money thinking that she is doing good to the soul .of our departed father.. This kullu--- wanted our mother to tonsure her head and I was dead opposed to it. He said only if the head is tonsured our father will reach heaven without difficulty. I don’t know what type of courage I had and I told him that he can leave w will that if he dies prior to his wife he can leave a note asking his wife to tonsure! Heart in heart I know that the money given as gift to be given to Brahmins nerly 50% was taken away by kullu. Within the year of the demise of our father we pwerfomed the marriage of our sister Sour Pushpa as we thout that perfoming the marriage of her within an year of the death of ur ather will gget our father the merit of “Kanyadan” it is to be remembered that when Sou Pushpa got married she ws hardly 12 years of age,No sarda act or anything of that sort prevented this marriage!! Even in this some of the well (pushers) wishers made lot of money. This will be in a seperate chapter/blog Every month we performed the maasikam etc etc and after one year ended it was celebrated with pomp!!! That is all the Brahmins got lots of gifts!!
I was in the V form or say one year before SSLC when our father died. As I have mentioned in the earlier blogs that we did not even know the extent of our land holding. .
Ourfather had with him for pooja some sacred saligramam (Amonites) for pooja purposes.. They were indeed rare ones. One was “shatchakra seetharama murthy, another lord ranganatha, and so on and on around 14 or there about in numbers. When ever some religious function was there some one or the other used to appear at our house and say that they will perfoem pooja and request our mother for permission. Our mother in all her innocence will allow them thinking that performing pooja will bring merit. Also I did not have “samashrayanam” and as such I could perform the pooja. So these so called realatives who used to perform the pooja were may be moved by the pathetic sight of the saligram thought that hey will get regular pooja in their house used to tuck them in their dhothis without the knowledge of eithr our mother or me. It ws customary that the saligram were not touched by ladies . so after pooja it was not counted. When the saligram container which ws nearly full became half full our mother had doubts and als she knew the number of saligrams. When she counted without caring for the norms she found that nearly half of them were not their. I could recognise easily the shatchakra seetharama murthy and lord ranganatha as our father had shown them as special. They were missing. Next time onwards whenevr someone came to the house pretending to do pooja she sternely told them not to bother and she will keep milk and other dishes in front of the pooja shelf and that is enough.. so during a the annual ceremonies when ever some one is asked to do pooja she used to have a hawk eye and before packing them in the silver box she used to ask the perormer to show the saligram to her!! So this theft of saligram was stopped. Regarding the performance of the annual ceremoney of our father’s first wife Smet Lakshamma there was a dispute .
Smt lakshamma did not have any issues and as long as our father was alive he used to perform the ceremoney in his name. even after my birth the same continue. Kullu had lost two of his wives and he ws with the third wif. His first wife had a son by name Kanna and the second wife had a daughte by name “Eggamma”. Even though he had a son from the first wife kullu continued to perform in his own name as kartha. .. This was also the case with Josier Ranga char (rangajosier) wher in he was perfoming the annual ceremony of his first wife in hs own name as kartha. The reason was if he performed in the name of his son the son has to continue doing it after his.demise.. So performing of the ceremony of step mother he is assured of a date in the calender for his income. This is of course tricdk of his trade. He was also involved in a case where in he had asked two brothers living in different localities to perform the annual ceremony of their father on consequetive days as the brothers were not very much in the knowledge of
ephemerics/Panchanga. One bad day for kullu this came to be known to the brothers and they thrashed kullu for his act. Another occasion was the performance of the marriage of late HSK, where in he started reciting the portion of the sacred text relating to the burning ceremony and not of marriage. Also he did not keep the Dharba grass around the alter in the wrong direction.This was quickly pointed by othe Brahmins who had asembled fo the marriage and kullu corrected them. As illuck would have it on the third day of the marriage the mother in law of HSK died.! So many of the rich srivaishnavites shunne him and his service . this ws a major blow to kullu. Kullu convinced our mother that as the first wife was instrumental in creating lot of wealth for the family it is correct to perform annual ceremony. Our mother agreed and I started performing the ceremony. As our mother did not have shaved her head she could not cook for the ceremony . so we had to have a professonal cook . most of the time it was Vaduvarai narayanan. A really good but arrogant cook. He was always impeccably dressed and orthodox. I had to invite brahmins atleast three persons for the partaking of the meals for the ceremony. Most of them knew that narayana will cook for the ceremony. They will agree for the attending to the cermony with the condition that all the sweets and svouries are to be prepared in pure ghee as their constitution does not take easily food cooked in oil. We had to agree as it was very difficult to find really orthodox brahmins. The same brahmins used to attend in other places eating the savouries and sweets even prepred in oil!!!
Some used to go to Narayanans house and tell him that all the preparations shuld be in Ghee as it is the house of SAHUKAR SRIRANGACHAR!! Of course we had no other alternative other than preparing all the dishes in pure ghee.. Our mother was happy that all the food items that were prepard in pure ghee will reach heaven and those souls will be happy and bless us.. MAY BE SHE WAS RIGHT.This induced me a sort of hatred in my heart about all the antics of these brahmins.
I have already elaborated in some other blog about how some of our relatives who had borrowed did not return the money and just by doing “namaskaram” to our mother escaped paying us They are as I remember Sons of Oyana of Bannur, Annamuthu, Paligai Muthu to name a few. With trust for a marriage without document our father had loaned the amount and this wa not repaid. .. Prominent among them are Ramanuja,and Deshikachar (both nephews of our father. Desikachar was an agent of Mysore Govt Insurance dept and had his office at Lansdown building Mysore. It was not easy to get the agents post then. Almost all the Govt servants were required to take insurance policy compulsorily.. So his office was always busy with people. He had insured almost all the eligible Nadipureans. He had also insured Kullu vadhyar mention above. He used to colect the premium dues from these orthodox people once in a month on a regular basis.
In most of the cases he never remitted the amoount!! When kullu asked him that the number of years for which e had taken the insurance s alrady over and when he can expect the amount desika said cooly that there ws a lapse of several days while remitting the premium as kullu paid him late so it may take several months to get the amount. Kullus son who was an accountant in the Mysore PWD went to MGID head quarters at Bangalore and enquired about it. To his shock he found ot that except for one year no other preminum has been paid as such the incurance policy is dead and even the amount paid for one year cannot be returned!!! Another side of the kullu vadhyar was that whenever any functions for which kullu was invited for performing certain functions he used to choose the function from which he will get maximum financial benefit,. Suppose there was a marriage and death kullu will select death as it is more payingt. He will also ask some other less known vadhyars to attend the other function with a rider that he should be paid 50% of the payment he receives.!! There wer not so scholarly vadhyars who used to agree. Among other ethnic communities of brahmins the vadhyar or priest who performs for good ceremonies will not hand the apara karma . That is the functions relating to death. Another factor is that those who attend to the apara karma were treated as if they were outcastes! This is not the case with srivaishnavites.
Next comes the relatives from my mother’s side. It appears that our maternal grand father was well to do. He was not only arrogant but a man with very strong wrong convictions..when I wanted to study engineering he told me that it is better if I become somehow a bench clerk in a court and on an average I can make nerly 5 ruppes per day over and above the actually salary!! This was the state of his mind.He lost his propety due to his brothers mostly. His next younger brother was a theatre enthusiast and was a contemporary of Nagendra rao. He had I believe 3 daughters and one son. He just used to go out to the drama companies and was never heard off for an year or so. So our grand father had to look after these children and this drama mad man used to appear during harvest season and take what ever is given and rush off. The second brother was a race goer and also a card player. Though he had a good income from railways he used to borrow money for his hobby from the Pathans. When the loan amount ws heavy he used to go to his brother and get money and for that period his problem was solved,
Our mother was having one elder brother and three younger brothers and one younger sister . The elder brother when he was young had some difference of opinion on some issue left the house and never had any connection until late in life. In the course of time the first son was married to a girl from T Narasipur. He left for Harihar near Davangere and later on shifted to Bombay where he had his own taxi Marriage of our mother took place when they were at Sattegal. When our mother came to mysore she brought with her yonger sister who was with us until her marriage which actually was arranged by our father and the entire expense was borne by him Our maternal grandfather left sattegal and came and settled at Mysore in a rented house. It was very difficult for him to adjust to Mysore city life as nobody bothered about his arrogant behaviour and his anger. He was also accustomed to a sort of dignified life as people used to give him respect as once he was a rich man. The se.cond son was really a back bone of the family.. he did not study much. He used to go as assitant to cooks and afte some time he himself became a regular much sought after cook. After about 4 to 5 years he got married to a girl belonging to Nadipuram clan.. One day this Kutty was returning late in the evening from Vontikoppal. Where he had gone for cooking for a function. There were not many houses or human movement near the Kukkarahalli lake. During those days. While he was half way near the Kukkarahalli lake bank it appears a foggy figure approached him from behind and asked him to give shelter to it on its back. He ran all the way reciting “Narasimha” until he reached the house which was in the Kempananjamba agrahar. The next morning he could not use his legs and they had become lean overnight. No amout of medicine could cure him. He was bedridden . His wife’ brother was in Kerala near Sultan Bateri and he was taken there to give treatment . any amount of alternate mediction did not bring his legs to normalcy. He ws brought back to mysore after an year of so. He wife died .After long suffering Kutty also died. During the interval between the death of his wife and his taking care of this second son fell on the head of our maternal grand mother. . The next two brothers joined Maharaja Sanskrit college for some sanskrit course as the course was offered free.. During freedom struggle and also during the fight for the amolgamation of princely ruled Mysore state with India they left their studies and joined the struggle. They were dismissed from the college. Even after the merger of Mysore state and independence these brothers were not allowed to join. I do not know the exact reason.. the elder know as kittu started a provision stores in the slum like area. It did not give him enough profit. So he shifted to a properous area known as thyagaraja road.. . One interesting incident is that he had advanced lot of groceries to one Rajagopalaiyengar lawyer on credit basis. The amount ran into some hundreds of rupees. He went to collect the dues to the house of that was due from this lawyer cooly asked him to come some other time.saying that he was busy. When after several attempts the lawyer asked kittu to produce the account. when he produced the account the lawyer cooly told him that he does not purchase piece meal and he only purchases in bulk from Santhepet from reputed firms. More over may be the person who had said that the articles was for the house of the lawyer might have been misused by the person. So it is for kittu to file a cse and get the money due and the lawyer is not responsibel for this amount!! Kittu was stunned . when he met the person who had actually taken the groceries wa confronted he cooly said that the groceries were for the lawyer and now the lawyer is not telling the truth. So he cannot beresposible for this amount. This person also reused to say thi in front of the lawyer. Anothr aspect of kittu was he was addicted to take breakfast and coffee in the nearby Prasad lunch home and boardless hotel. When ever any of his socalled friend came he will take them even though he had already taken the breakfast.. he will ask one of his friends to attend to the business during his absence. These persons used to pocket some money from the cash couter into their pockets. He used to ask lots of questions about the groceries required for the house hold. Withut any reason he used to call me to the shop and beat me with sticks. Even now I do not know the reason. He used to tell me ta I am disobeying our mother and so this punishment!! When ones he gave me a lot of beating I could not even walk properly and came home. Our mother really got angry and told kittu as to why he beat me. He cooly told our mother as I was not obeying her he caned me. She said it was none of kittu’s businees to punish her children. This --- kittu is the same one who wanted our mother to gift him one house with rs 1000/- to start his life afresh. Due to his taking part in the struggle he got the state pension as a freedom fighter. I think that I have already eloborated on this in some other blog. The next brother by name Dochchu was a thief. He did not spare even his own sister that is our mother. He had also stole from my piggy bank. He was a story writer and he used to write in his stories that he was wronged. When our mother came to know of his habit she asked him not to visit our house..He was able to get a job in railways due to the benovalence of a srivaishnavite railway officer. He was married to a girl of Sosale. He even had the audacity to steal rented bicycle from the shop whose owner was a friend of our last maternal uncle kuttiraju.. kuttiraju cultivated bad friends even during his younger days . when he was in the 8th standard and had to pay the fees his brothers did not give him any money for the examinatin. So he came to our mother in desperation and she gave him the money after consoling him. He passed the examination. When he was in the high school he got a job in the education department as a teacher . He got married to a girl from Talkad. He retired from the department and settled in Mysore.
So even though this blog can go on and on I have to restrict it. May be I will add when eve I find time. Of all the maternal I have a very bad opinion of kittu who was a sadist. I hear that his only son is in a good position at Bangalore where kittu settled leaving Mysore after the demise of his wife. It appears that son comes home in an inebriated condition in the eveinings and give a good beating to his father and really I am glad to hear it. . . .
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Our father passed away when we were very young. I was aged fourteen and the others were still younger.
We had lots of relatives from our father’s side and not many from our mother’s side.
Now let me take on the relatives from our fther’s side.
Our father did not have any brothers of his own. The only sister he had died after marriage and did not have any children. So almost all the relatives were his first cousins.Among all the Nadipuram clan only our father was the richest from the then standard of wealth.
All of them had in their heart in heart thought that we will ask their help and thereby make some money.
Ones in a life time opportunity arrived for the socalled relatives when our father left this world. . Almost all our relatives from our father’s side and some from our mother’s side and known and unknown peple of oour community. With great flurish Kullu Vadhyar sriranga char who ws welversed in the Purohit craft and a professionl purohit took control. Whe our father was in the death throes I did not actually know that. Just before his actual death one of the relatives asked me to recite “MUKUNDAMALA”. I knew all the sacred poems and also had passed about 4 examination of the “UBHAYA VENDANTHA SABHA” examinations held at Melkote. I started reciting the sloka and while I was in the middle of the recitation our father died. My other brothers and sisters could not gauge it. Without even knowing that our ather died I went on reciting the sloka and completed it. I may mention here that our father suffered just for 3 days.. The first question this Kullu asked our mother was whether we hava atleast a minimum of Rs 500/- to proceed with the obsequisies.
I was asked by our mother to check the box on the loft where we used to keep the excess cash in the wooden box. and find out how much cash was there . I climbed the loft and told her that we had that amount. I got down the with about 4 hundred rupee nots and rs 100/- in silver (real) coins of one rupee each. Immediately he wanted to take the amount. Our mother said that she will have the cash and what evr is required she will give.
Now starts the fleecing. Offering of money for having died on a bed offering of money for having died inside the house offering of money for not having performed the evening sandhya and not having taken a bath and not having performed the Gayathri, and decorating the forehead with Namam, spraying of water reciting “purusha suktham” and the lsit went on and on. Every time he used to put some amount in his dhothi and all the others were given in lump.. I do not know how muc he tucked in his dhothi..
Even though we had informed the ‘Dharma sabha” of brahmins we had so many reltives who were prepared to carry the bier upto the Burning ghat as this kullu enticed them with large fees for the same. We three brothers went to the burning ghat and had our head tonsured and finished the ceremonies connected with the final phase. There was lots of bargaining regarding the supply of fuel and other items. What a surprise the kullu ws very genrous to the core as it was not his money. He knew all the staff of the burning ghat who wre vry familiar with him as he was one of the regular visitors to that place . wheneve somebody used to kick the bucket especially Srivaishnavites kullu used to be invited for perfoming the last rites!! Our mother had also come to the burning ghat along with her second lady cousin. We returned home late in the evening. Nobody was there in the hose except our two sisters and our maternal grand mother. There was no one to offer us anything. However second cousin of our mother by name Sundari got us some coffee. So the ceremonies concerning the departure of our father was completed at a very high cost. All the gifts wer given such as chappals , so that our father will not walk bear foot during his walk to heaven, umbrella so that he will be shaded during sunshine, water filled vessel so that he willnot be thirsty, one cow with calf so that he will get all the merits and also get mild when he is tired enroute to heaven---so on and so forth.
In all her innocence our mother spent the money thinking that she is doing good to the soul .of our departed father.. This kullu--- wanted our mother to tonsure her head and I was dead opposed to it. He said only if the head is tonsured our father will reach heaven without difficulty. I don’t know what type of courage I had and I told him that he can leave w will that if he dies prior to his wife he can leave a note asking his wife to tonsure! Heart in heart I know that the money given as gift to be given to Brahmins nerly 50% was taken away by kullu. Within the year of the demise of our father we pwerfomed the marriage of our sister Sour Pushpa as we thout that perfoming the marriage of her within an year of the death of ur ather will gget our father the merit of “Kanyadan” it is to be remembered that when Sou Pushpa got married she ws hardly 12 years of age,No sarda act or anything of that sort prevented this marriage!! Even in this some of the well (pushers) wishers made lot of money. This will be in a seperate chapter/blog Every month we performed the maasikam etc etc and after one year ended it was celebrated with pomp!!! That is all the Brahmins got lots of gifts!!
I was in the V form or say one year before SSLC when our father died. As I have mentioned in the earlier blogs that we did not even know the extent of our land holding. .
Ourfather had with him for pooja some sacred saligramam (Amonites) for pooja purposes.. They were indeed rare ones. One was “shatchakra seetharama murthy, another lord ranganatha, and so on and on around 14 or there about in numbers. When ever some religious function was there some one or the other used to appear at our house and say that they will perfoem pooja and request our mother for permission. Our mother in all her innocence will allow them thinking that performing pooja will bring merit. Also I did not have “samashrayanam” and as such I could perform the pooja. So these so called realatives who used to perform the pooja were may be moved by the pathetic sight of the saligram thought that hey will get regular pooja in their house used to tuck them in their dhothis without the knowledge of eithr our mother or me. It ws customary that the saligram were not touched by ladies . so after pooja it was not counted. When the saligram container which ws nearly full became half full our mother had doubts and als she knew the number of saligrams. When she counted without caring for the norms she found that nearly half of them were not their. I could recognise easily the shatchakra seetharama murthy and lord ranganatha as our father had shown them as special. They were missing. Next time onwards whenevr someone came to the house pretending to do pooja she sternely told them not to bother and she will keep milk and other dishes in front of the pooja shelf and that is enough.. so during a the annual ceremonies when ever some one is asked to do pooja she used to have a hawk eye and before packing them in the silver box she used to ask the perormer to show the saligram to her!! So this theft of saligram was stopped. Regarding the performance of the annual ceremoney of our father’s first wife Smet Lakshamma there was a dispute .
Smt lakshamma did not have any issues and as long as our father was alive he used to perform the ceremoney in his name. even after my birth the same continue. Kullu had lost two of his wives and he ws with the third wif. His first wife had a son by name Kanna and the second wife had a daughte by name “Eggamma”. Even though he had a son from the first wife kullu continued to perform in his own name as kartha. .. This was also the case with Josier Ranga char (rangajosier) wher in he was perfoming the annual ceremony of his first wife in hs own name as kartha. The reason was if he performed in the name of his son the son has to continue doing it after his.demise.. So performing of the ceremony of step mother he is assured of a date in the calender for his income. This is of course tricdk of his trade. He was also involved in a case where in he had asked two brothers living in different localities to perform the annual ceremony of their father on consequetive days as the brothers were not very much in the knowledge of
ephemerics/Panchanga. One bad day for kullu this came to be known to the brothers and they thrashed kullu for his act. Another occasion was the performance of the marriage of late HSK, where in he started reciting the portion of the sacred text relating to the burning ceremony and not of marriage. Also he did not keep the Dharba grass around the alter in the wrong direction.This was quickly pointed by othe Brahmins who had asembled fo the marriage and kullu corrected them. As illuck would have it on the third day of the marriage the mother in law of HSK died.! So many of the rich srivaishnavites shunne him and his service . this ws a major blow to kullu. Kullu convinced our mother that as the first wife was instrumental in creating lot of wealth for the family it is correct to perform annual ceremony. Our mother agreed and I started performing the ceremony. As our mother did not have shaved her head she could not cook for the ceremony . so we had to have a professonal cook . most of the time it was Vaduvarai narayanan. A really good but arrogant cook. He was always impeccably dressed and orthodox. I had to invite brahmins atleast three persons for the partaking of the meals for the ceremony. Most of them knew that narayana will cook for the ceremony. They will agree for the attending to the cermony with the condition that all the sweets and svouries are to be prepared in pure ghee as their constitution does not take easily food cooked in oil. We had to agree as it was very difficult to find really orthodox brahmins. The same brahmins used to attend in other places eating the savouries and sweets even prepred in oil!!!
Some used to go to Narayanans house and tell him that all the preparations shuld be in Ghee as it is the house of SAHUKAR SRIRANGACHAR!! Of course we had no other alternative other than preparing all the dishes in pure ghee.. Our mother was happy that all the food items that were prepard in pure ghee will reach heaven and those souls will be happy and bless us.. MAY BE SHE WAS RIGHT.This induced me a sort of hatred in my heart about all the antics of these brahmins.
I have already elaborated in some other blog about how some of our relatives who had borrowed did not return the money and just by doing “namaskaram” to our mother escaped paying us They are as I remember Sons of Oyana of Bannur, Annamuthu, Paligai Muthu to name a few. With trust for a marriage without document our father had loaned the amount and this wa not repaid. .. Prominent among them are Ramanuja,and Deshikachar (both nephews of our father. Desikachar was an agent of Mysore Govt Insurance dept and had his office at Lansdown building Mysore. It was not easy to get the agents post then. Almost all the Govt servants were required to take insurance policy compulsorily.. So his office was always busy with people. He had insured almost all the eligible Nadipureans. He had also insured Kullu vadhyar mention above. He used to colect the premium dues from these orthodox people once in a month on a regular basis.
In most of the cases he never remitted the amoount!! When kullu asked him that the number of years for which e had taken the insurance s alrady over and when he can expect the amount desika said cooly that there ws a lapse of several days while remitting the premium as kullu paid him late so it may take several months to get the amount. Kullus son who was an accountant in the Mysore PWD went to MGID head quarters at Bangalore and enquired about it. To his shock he found ot that except for one year no other preminum has been paid as such the incurance policy is dead and even the amount paid for one year cannot be returned!!! Another side of the kullu vadhyar was that whenever any functions for which kullu was invited for performing certain functions he used to choose the function from which he will get maximum financial benefit,. Suppose there was a marriage and death kullu will select death as it is more payingt. He will also ask some other less known vadhyars to attend the other function with a rider that he should be paid 50% of the payment he receives.!! There wer not so scholarly vadhyars who used to agree. Among other ethnic communities of brahmins the vadhyar or priest who performs for good ceremonies will not hand the apara karma . That is the functions relating to death. Another factor is that those who attend to the apara karma were treated as if they were outcastes! This is not the case with srivaishnavites.
Next comes the relatives from my mother’s side. It appears that our maternal grand father was well to do. He was not only arrogant but a man with very strong wrong convictions..when I wanted to study engineering he told me that it is better if I become somehow a bench clerk in a court and on an average I can make nerly 5 ruppes per day over and above the actually salary!! This was the state of his mind.He lost his propety due to his brothers mostly. His next younger brother was a theatre enthusiast and was a contemporary of Nagendra rao. He had I believe 3 daughters and one son. He just used to go out to the drama companies and was never heard off for an year or so. So our grand father had to look after these children and this drama mad man used to appear during harvest season and take what ever is given and rush off. The second brother was a race goer and also a card player. Though he had a good income from railways he used to borrow money for his hobby from the Pathans. When the loan amount ws heavy he used to go to his brother and get money and for that period his problem was solved,
Our mother was having one elder brother and three younger brothers and one younger sister . The elder brother when he was young had some difference of opinion on some issue left the house and never had any connection until late in life. In the course of time the first son was married to a girl from T Narasipur. He left for Harihar near Davangere and later on shifted to Bombay where he had his own taxi Marriage of our mother took place when they were at Sattegal. When our mother came to mysore she brought with her yonger sister who was with us until her marriage which actually was arranged by our father and the entire expense was borne by him Our maternal grandfather left sattegal and came and settled at Mysore in a rented house. It was very difficult for him to adjust to Mysore city life as nobody bothered about his arrogant behaviour and his anger. He was also accustomed to a sort of dignified life as people used to give him respect as once he was a rich man. The se.cond son was really a back bone of the family.. he did not study much. He used to go as assitant to cooks and afte some time he himself became a regular much sought after cook. After about 4 to 5 years he got married to a girl belonging to Nadipuram clan.. One day this Kutty was returning late in the evening from Vontikoppal. Where he had gone for cooking for a function. There were not many houses or human movement near the Kukkarahalli lake. During those days. While he was half way near the Kukkarahalli lake bank it appears a foggy figure approached him from behind and asked him to give shelter to it on its back. He ran all the way reciting “Narasimha” until he reached the house which was in the Kempananjamba agrahar. The next morning he could not use his legs and they had become lean overnight. No amout of medicine could cure him. He was bedridden . His wife’ brother was in Kerala near Sultan Bateri and he was taken there to give treatment . any amount of alternate mediction did not bring his legs to normalcy. He ws brought back to mysore after an year of so. He wife died .After long suffering Kutty also died. During the interval between the death of his wife and his taking care of this second son fell on the head of our maternal grand mother. . The next two brothers joined Maharaja Sanskrit college for some sanskrit course as the course was offered free.. During freedom struggle and also during the fight for the amolgamation of princely ruled Mysore state with India they left their studies and joined the struggle. They were dismissed from the college. Even after the merger of Mysore state and independence these brothers were not allowed to join. I do not know the exact reason.. the elder know as kittu started a provision stores in the slum like area. It did not give him enough profit. So he shifted to a properous area known as thyagaraja road.. . One interesting incident is that he had advanced lot of groceries to one Rajagopalaiyengar lawyer on credit basis. The amount ran into some hundreds of rupees. He went to collect the dues to the house of that was due from this lawyer cooly asked him to come some other time.saying that he was busy. When after several attempts the lawyer asked kittu to produce the account. when he produced the account the lawyer cooly told him that he does not purchase piece meal and he only purchases in bulk from Santhepet from reputed firms. More over may be the person who had said that the articles was for the house of the lawyer might have been misused by the person. So it is for kittu to file a cse and get the money due and the lawyer is not responsibel for this amount!! Kittu was stunned . when he met the person who had actually taken the groceries wa confronted he cooly said that the groceries were for the lawyer and now the lawyer is not telling the truth. So he cannot beresposible for this amount. This person also reused to say thi in front of the lawyer. Anothr aspect of kittu was he was addicted to take breakfast and coffee in the nearby Prasad lunch home and boardless hotel. When ever any of his socalled friend came he will take them even though he had already taken the breakfast.. he will ask one of his friends to attend to the business during his absence. These persons used to pocket some money from the cash couter into their pockets. He used to ask lots of questions about the groceries required for the house hold. Withut any reason he used to call me to the shop and beat me with sticks. Even now I do not know the reason. He used to tell me ta I am disobeying our mother and so this punishment!! When ones he gave me a lot of beating I could not even walk properly and came home. Our mother really got angry and told kittu as to why he beat me. He cooly told our mother as I was not obeying her he caned me. She said it was none of kittu’s businees to punish her children. This --- kittu is the same one who wanted our mother to gift him one house with rs 1000/- to start his life afresh. Due to his taking part in the struggle he got the state pension as a freedom fighter. I think that I have already eloborated on this in some other blog. The next brother by name Dochchu was a thief. He did not spare even his own sister that is our mother. He had also stole from my piggy bank. He was a story writer and he used to write in his stories that he was wronged. When our mother came to know of his habit she asked him not to visit our house..He was able to get a job in railways due to the benovalence of a srivaishnavite railway officer. He was married to a girl of Sosale. He even had the audacity to steal rented bicycle from the shop whose owner was a friend of our last maternal uncle kuttiraju.. kuttiraju cultivated bad friends even during his younger days . when he was in the 8th standard and had to pay the fees his brothers did not give him any money for the examinatin. So he came to our mother in desperation and she gave him the money after consoling him. He passed the examination. When he was in the high school he got a job in the education department as a teacher . He got married to a girl from Talkad. He retired from the department and settled in Mysore.
So even though this blog can go on and on I have to restrict it. May be I will add when eve I find time. Of all the maternal I have a very bad opinion of kittu who was a sadist. I hear that his only son is in a good position at Bangalore where kittu settled leaving Mysore after the demise of his wife. It appears that son comes home in an inebriated condition in the eveinings and give a good beating to his father and really I am glad to hear it. . . .
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posted by N.S.Char at 8:46 AM
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