Passing SSLC, in pass class also, those days, was considered a great achievement. Except for some enquiries from relatives and friends, for comparing my performance with their near and dear ones, this event just went off with small token celebration in my house. Those were the times, we could not afford to distribute even small chocolates, and all my friends and well wishers were found to be in the same category, hence this did not bother me at all.
In a week or so, I was in heaven along with my fellow students on getting the marks card and was going everywhere showing it to relatives and friends.
There was a long period of break of about 2 months after SSLC for my college career to take off. I had already made up my mind along with my friends to join Government Pre-University College, which was functioning in the same premises as the high school where I passed out SSLC. Unlike other prominent colleges like MES and National College, the admission in this government college was open to all without any discrimination between 1st, 2nd and pass class in SSLC. Further the admission fee was very nominal and freeships for the entire year were awarded to poor students who could produce certificate of income of parents issued by State Revenue Department. Neither my Parents nor other family members interfered in my decision of choosing the college.
We had not heard of photocopying or xerox then, and all that we were doing was to buy printed proforma of mark sheets and other forms (by paying 5 paise per form) and fill the same, go get gazetted officer's signature who would sign at their convenience after comparing with the originals. I remember to have spent too many days in getting gazetted officers' signatures, sometimes even begging them. Many times I was at the receiving end from these officers, as it was considered a free service and over it, an act of charity, and I had no choice then.
Spending 2 months of holidays was a big issue and almost 80% of my friends had already gone to their native villages to spend their time with their relatives. However 8-10 of us had no such privileges as we had no one in our native places to visit (by 1975 most of my relatives from Kanakapura, except few aged, had relocated to Bangalore). So our attention started diverting towards bio scope cinema posters pasted on walls at every nook and corner of Malleswaram. Soon we started to stand before the cinema theatres in groups (especially Geethanjali Theatre in Malleswaram and Navrang in Rajajinagar) watching the current running cinema posters and forthcoming movies and listening to comments from elderly groups and black marketeers who also used to be there. These were the most enjoyable moments in our lives. At home too, with keen interest, I used to listen to film stories from my eldest brother.
During my childhood days in Kanakapura, I had accompanied my mother for watching 2-3 movies, but I could not continue with much interest in Bangalore for many years (except seeing some cinema ads in dailies). However, during these holidays, after watching cinema posters and listening to stories changed all that. After repeated requests, my brother sponsored me with just a rupee to watch a movie at a dilapidated theatre called GAJANANA, then located in Yeshwanthpur. My entire group of 10 walked to Yeshwanthpur and watched a black and white kannada movie starring Dr.Raj Kumar. Though it was a black and white move, the superb acting of Dr.Raj Kumar with his social messages like respecting parents, elders and society, entered deeply inside my heart and we could relate him to us. We could not think of anybody comparable to his acting, language and dialogue delivery. In no time, we all became fans of this great actor, who hailed from a humble background and had studied just upto 3rd standard, became a recipient of Doctorate from Mysore University and various major awards. Added to his superb acting skills, he was a classical singer too and is the only lead actor till date to win national award for best singing. His simple living style in real life (white dhoti and shirt) made millions of fans worship him. His acting style and social message conveyed in epic movie BANGARADA MANUSHYA (which ran for 2 years continuously to packed houses) has made thousands of youngsters stop making way to cities for employment and instead taking up work in their abandoned agri-fields. This Ajaata Shatru passed away in 2006 after 5 decades of acting career, with crores of people bidding tearful farewell to this great human being. He was and is fondly remembered as ANNAVRU (elder brother) in Karnataka. He was kidnapped in year 2000 by forest brigand Veerappan and kept as hostage for 107 days.
I have watched most of his movies released since 1975 in Geethanjali, Navrang and Cauvery theatres, and pre-1975 black and white movies during their re-runs in theatres like Himalaya, States, Prabhat and Kempegowda. Third class tickets, which we referred as gandhi class, used to cost us just rupee 1 and if it happened to be a morning show, about 75 paise. Later theatres like Geethanjali, Himalaya, Prabhat, Kempegowda, Sagar and many more have paved way for huge shopping complexes. At the same time, I had oppotunities to watch 3 english movies in an old theatre called Vijayalakshmi in Balepet, and the best of these movies was Three Commandments. Later, this theatre also went into history books.
In the morning times of this holiday period, we all used to assemble near my house (I stayed in a main road called Sampige Road, near 18th Cross), and start loitering around cinema theatres and main roads of Malleswaram. Geetanjali Theatre, Sampige Road, Malleswaram Circle and 8th Cross were the major attractions. Some in the group, sometimes with small changes, were able to feed the group with groundnuts or biscuit powders, which were available dead cheap. What electronic news channels broadcast their news now, we were doing the same in those years of middle 1970s as we used to gather news by either having seen the happenings or through hearsay. Our network was so strong those days that within an hour of any news breaking and with ourselves adding something more to it (called masala), all the households would come to know of it very fast. Like today's electronic news media, most of the contents were far from reality, but that did not dither us from continuing with it. We were the actual shopping directory of Malleswaram and to some extent Majestic area. Having seen most of Malleswaram, we could give information on anything and everything from eateries/shops/establishments and about their timings and holidays instantly to any body free of cost. The intention was only to throw out information from our storage and keep our hard disk free for further inflow.
We also had the habit of visiting famous temples in Malleswaram like Mahaganapati Temple, Sri Ramamandira, Kaadu Malleswara Temple, Rayara Matas (1 in east park road and the other in swimming pool extension), Circle Maramma Temple, Maramma Temple, Venugopalaswamy Temple, Muneswara Temple to name some. The earliest Ayyappa Temple in Bangalore was functioning in a small shop on Sampige Road, near 18th Cross (opposite my house) before moving into a new temple complex nearby sometime in the latter half of 90s or beginning of 2000. In those days of 1971-76, A HMT employ (if my memory is correct) already a Gurusamy then, was opening and conducting poojas in this temple only during evenings. I have never missed prasadam in this temple for 6 years between 1971 and 1976 especially during November-January period. Malleswaram was/is also home to Yadugiri Yathiraja Mutt, Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt. In the recent years, several new temples and Mutts have come up like Shirdi Sai Temple and Sringeri Mutt (branch). There was a Shirdi Baba Temple functioning in a old shop on Sampige Road, near 6th Cross, and I remember to have participated in Bhajans on many occasions in 1970s.
While few of the yester year eateries/shops/establishments are still continuing with their businesses like Janata Hotel, CTR (now Sri Sagar), Uma Bakery, Girija Stores, Popular Medicals, Uma Bakery, Asha Sweet Centre, Veena Stores to name some (omission of any shop is not intentional), others have either closed down their operations or in the name of development made way for shopping complexes. However, landmarks like Malleswaram Asoociation, Malleswaram Society, Gandhi Sahitya Sangha, Seva Sadhan are some still going strong. Huge showrooms and hotels are now dotting crowded Malleswaram, which was a very peaceful and wonderful place to live then.
Besides the above, during these holidays, we were able to see some Ranji Trophy and local cricket matches played in KSCA and Malleswaram grounds respectively and listen to commentary (both test matches and ranji trophy).
COMING UP - EMERGENCY, PRE-UNIVERSITY DAYS, EARN WHILE YOU LEARN
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