Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I have
put some stories together in the order of places where I
spent parts of my life so that it has become a sort of
autobiography. The only criterion I have used is that they
be all readable and a bit funny. Otherwise what is the point?
Here are all kinds of pieces - memoirs, events, fantasies,
stories and a few self-images - a Variety Entertainment!
Sangatya Sahitya Bhandar, Nakre
You can download this book at SCRIBD: tv1943
VARIETY
ENTERTAINMENT
T. Vijayendra
SANGATYA
VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT
Author: T. Vijayendra
Editor : Karnika Palwa
First Print: 2016
Price: Priceless
Copies: 500
L Copy Left: All Rights Reversed
Publishers: Sangatya Sahitya Bhandar
Post Nakre,
Taluk Karkala, Dist. Udupi
Karnataka 576 117
Phone: 08258 205340
Email: t.vijayendra@gmail.com
Mobile: +91 94907 05634
SCRIBD : tv1943
For Copies
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Loved a little
worked a little
Fortunate were those people
Who considered love to be their work
Or worked with the ardour of love
All my life I remained preoccupied,
Loved a little worked a little.
Work would come in the way of love
And love would get entangled with work.
Ultimately in exasperation
I abandoned both, incomplete.
Preface
I spent my school years in Indore during the fifties.
In those days we had Ganesh Festival for ten days.
The first and the last day were reserved for the Puja.
The organisers had to plan for the remaining eight
days. Usually we had one day of Marathi theatre,
one day for magic show, one day for a band with
film songs and so on. It was difficult to fill all the
eight days. One day was kept for local talent. This
was of indifferent quality with occasional sparks of
quality. There was a large variety of items - song,
dance, monologue, mimics, and bird calls and so
on. For obvious reasons, it was called Variety
Entertainment.
Many friends asked me to write an autobiography.
They imagined that a half a century of activism must
be full of excitement and should be inspiring. I know
better. Like most lives, it was boring most of the times
and what may have kept me going in those days
may appear mundane upon narration. This is borne
5
Viju
(T. Vijayendra)
Hyderabad,
August 28, 2016
Contents
Places, People, Anecdotes and Stories
1. Indore:
My Hero
Anna: My father
Social Work
2. Calcutta:
Calcutta Vignettes
Follow Your Nose!
Aar Pachhina Go!
3. Jamshedpur: Sitaram Shastry
4. Patna:
Kiran
5. Delhi:
Vina
6. Chandigarh: The House in which
Mr. Mohan Biswas Lived
7. Bhopal:
Ramesh Billore
8. Bidar:
Pearls of Wisdom
9. Hyderabad: Oedipal Resolution...
Corner Space
10. Mysore:
Tigers Tail
11. Aliabad:
On not learning Telugu
13
19
25
28
34
37
41
46
51
55
58
62
66
71
73
76
12. Hyderabad:
13. Kakinada:
14. Belgaum:
15. Bangalore:
16. Nakre:
Self Images
1. The Errand Boy
2. The Shitman
3. How I Became an Author
10
79
84
86
91
97
100
109
115
121
130
PLACES, PEOPLE,
ANECDOTES AND
STORIES
11
12
Indore
(1945-1961 and later first annually and then sporadically)
My Hero
I spent my childhood at no. 39, Harsiddhi South,
Indore. We, that is, my parents and five of us siblings,
lived on the first floor and we had a walled terrace
some 6 feet by 30 feet with a 4 foot wall at the front
of the house. We spent hours on the terrace playing,
lying down on all the mattresses that were piled on
an iron cot in a corner or just looking down on the
road.
Nothing much happened on the road. Street
vendors would pass selling vegetables, sprouted
grains or roasted millet flour. Sometimes some
beggars would come and sing funny songs to us when
13
18
Anna: My Father
T. BHEEMACHARYA (January 17, 1905-April 29, 1985)
24
Social Work
Many people imagine that doing social work is
difficult, that one has to sacrifice a lot and that there
is no security in a career of social work. They have
images of Baba Amte, Anna Hazare, Aruna Roy
and others like them. Or they have images of NGOs
with foreign funding. Sometimes they think that you
have to be from a secure middle or upper middle
class back ground and have the security of having
gone to a prestigious college like Presidency, St.
Stephens, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or
Indian Institute of Management (IIM). In short it is
not for people like us. The following story will tell
them that it is not always so. All you need is a good
heart!
I met Shri Vasania when I was in college in Indore
during the early sixties. He used to come to our house
on Sundays to meet my father. He was a short man
with a round face. He always wore white pajamas
and a white shirt with western collars and a big pocket
25
27
Calcutta
(Since 1961 several times a year, continuously 1967-68,
then twice a year)
Calcutta Vignettes
1. Multiplying with Zero
I met Subhas Ganguly after many years. Bharati, his
wife, told me that Subhas always told one story about
me to all his friends. According to her, once Subhas
asked me how long should one knead the flour for
making chapaatis. I had replied that till your hands
are clean. This apparently impressed him so much
that he followed this practice all his life and told his
friends about it.
On hearing this I told Subhas, I taught you so
many things and this is all you remember!
28
3. Profound Statement
Jogin and I used to walk a lot in Calcutta in the
seventies. He had a habit of turning left at any
crossing irrespective of where we were going. I
suppose that was the path of least resistance he did
not have to cross traffic. But we would have to come
back and waste a lot of time.
So one day after one of these exasperating
experiences I told him, Jogin, at every crossing you
must stop and think where you are going.
29
5. Bosom Pillow
In those days in the early seventies, I lived in
Serpentine Lane a lane winding like a serpent near
Sealdah station. It was a fairly poor locality. We slept
on the foot path, covering ourselves all over to protect
ourselves from mosquitoes.
This is a story about a bosom pillow. What is a
bosom pillow? In Bengali it is called a paash baalish
(near or side pillow). It is a very soft pillow and
Bengalis sleep with it keeping it close to their bosoms
30
33
40
Jamshedpur
(Since 1961 every year, spent a lot of time during 1969-70)
Sitaram Shastry
Sitaram Shastry died on Oct. 24, 2012, when he
walked into a running train between Adityapur and
Gamaria stations near Jamshedpur. The incident
occurred at a point where the train crosses a bridge
over a river thirty feet below. His body was thrown
off the bridge, and lay on the banks of the calmly
flowing river. He was about 72 years old.
A week earlier, he had been diagnosed as having
throat cancer. His daughter Kanti Prabha (Chinu)
and her husband had come down to Jamshedpur
from Delhi in order to take him back to Delhi for
41
45
Patna
(1973-74 and 1976-79)
Kiran
49
50
Delhi
(1979-1989, Sporadically since then)
Vina
When Vina turned five, she told her mother that she
wanted to go to school. Her mother said Good.
But her mother used to go at 8 in the morning to
work in a factory that put golden colours on crockery.
Vinas father was a gatekeeper on a railway crossing
51
Chandigarh
(Often during 1981 -1989 and spent a year also in between)
57
Bhopal
(1985-86 and later sporadically)
Ramesh Billore
Ramesh Billore is a living legend. I have not met
anyone who knows him and does not have a story to
tell.
Ramesh has a Ph. D. in history from Calcutta
University but I have never heard or seen him having
a job. He is forever on the move with his back pack.
He is a very good walker and can walk quite a few
miles with his back pack. He has been all over the
country and has visited or lived with a large number
of peoples organisations.
In his own community (Narmadeya Brahmins from
the Narmada valley), he is considered a bit cracked.
58
go and do my duty.
Ramesh: No! You will stay here. You will only
harass other passengers. And at Bhopal you will signal
your colleague and they will harass me at the gate.
T. C.: O. K. Sir. I will accompany you till you go
out of the gate of the station.
The public tittered and the T. C. buried his face
in his papers and kept on polishing his spectacles.
At Bhopal station, Ramesh triumphantly climbed
down the carriage, with the T. C. meekly behind
him. A small procession of the fellow travellers
followed them up to the gate. Outside the gate the
T. C. bowed and said, May I go now sir?
Ramesh: Good. But tell me honestly, dont you
feel ashamed of yourself?
61
Bidar
(1990-1995 and later sporadically)
Pearls of Wisdom
In the early nineties, I lived in Bidar for a few years.
Bidar is one of the smallest districts in Karnataka
and is 120 kilometers from Hyderabad. It is full of
monuments from 14th -15th century. In Bidar all
monuments are used by people as public places and
are kept clean by local people the best way to
maintain a heritage. On any afternoon, one can see
old people resting, children doing their homework
or just reading books at the monuments.
There used to live a tailor near our house and I
used to chat with him sometimes. He had a cousin
62
65
Hyderabad
(1995 to date with large breaks of a few years)
Oedipal Resolution of
the Existential Angst
of a Colonial
Intellectual
Normally an unpublished Ph. D. thesis is not
reviewed. However, on one hand, this is an interesting
thesis and therefore it should be brought to the notice
of discerning scholars, and on the other, it is too hot
and sizzling to be published, particularly in India.
As the name suggests, it is interdisciplinary in
nature. It combines psychology, popular culture,
66
References
1.
2.
70
72
Mysore
(I was born here in 1943 - several visits during 1995-2010)
73
Tigers Tail
I first met Manu K. in the mid-90s along with other
members of Mysore Amateur Naturalists. Manus
work with the Pelicans in Kokkarebellur village near
Bangalore is well known. There is a good film about
it called, Pelican Man, made by a UK documentary
film-maker, Sara Jolly.
Manu is the only real good naturalist I have ever
met. He seemed to know everything. Trained as an
electronic engineer, he is a self-taught naturalist. He
has many skills - he can sketch the birds fast and
accurately, he can conduct minor surgeries, he is
very good in conducting nature camps for children,
he speaks good Kannada and is fairly well read in
Kannada literature. His library of books and films
on nature is fabulous. In his house, you always run
into young naturalists who are doing some field work
in forests and have come to meet Manu.
One day I thought I will boast a little bit by telling
him that I also know something. So I told him how I
knew the great wildlife biologist, Ratan Lal
74
75
Aliabad
(2001-2005)
On not Learning
Telugu
When I first came to Hyderabad in 1990, I was asked
to conduct a training programme for rural youths at
Shankarapalli. A senior member of the organisation
however said, How can you do it? You dont know
any Telugu.
I never thought it as a problem because I was
multilingual, knew 5 languages which included
Marathi and Kannada, the neighbouring languages.
Yet he was right. I did not know any Telugu.
As it turned out, I spoke in Hindi. I had an
excellent translator and it was one of my best training
76
78
Hyderabad
(2005 2008, then divided time between Hyderabad and a
farm in Udupi district Karnataka)
83
85
Kakinada
(One week visit during 2013)
90
Belgaum
(2009-10)
Diabetes Mellitus
Nora came to meet Viju. At once Viju exclaimed:
Hey! You have lost a lot of weight.
Nora: Isnt it good?
Viju: No, sudden loss of weight is not good. Have
you been doing a lot of exercises, dieting?
N: No, it just happened.
V: Then you must at once get checked for
diabetes. If that is not the answer, the doctor may
prescribe some more test.
91
96
Bangalore
(1966-67 and thereafter occasional visits)
An Unhurried View of
Home Brew in India
The Hitch Hikers Guide to Home Brew in India By
Sajai Jose, Bangalore, Bottoms Up Publications, 2012
The CPM stalwarts at the plenum admitted in no
uncertain terms that factionalism and alcoholism were
two main vices threatening the Party.
- The 3 day state Plenum of CPM at Palakkad,
Kerala.
97
99
Nakre
(2008-Present)
Mishka
Mishka is our cat at the Sangatya Farm. When
Karnika was here last August, Mishka was just six
months old. Karnika said, If I were to draw this
house, I will put 20 Mishkas all over - at the door, at
the window, on the well, near the washing stone,
near the toilet - everywhere!
Mishka is like that. Wherever you look, she is there.
During the day you can be doing anything - going to
the toilet, having bath, cooking, eating, talking on
100
- Konrad Lorentz
108
112
SELF IMAGES
113
114
120
The
Human Nutrient
Cycle
Oh Shit!
But I think the idea as to where the shit goes has
been at the centre of my concerns about ecology. In
1966, my father was in charge of Gandhi Bhawan in
Bangalore and he built the two pit composting latrine
in our family home in Honnali in Karnataka. In 1967,
I was at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and
was going through the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
And believe me, there was actually an article in it
about how civilisation took a wrong turn when they
designed the urban centralised sewage disposal
system!
I vividly remember the picture of a toilet seat with
a plant growing out of it in the article. Incidentally,
the magazine also taught me that the nuclear energy
programme was a fraud and was actually a civilian
front for the military programme to make the nuclear
bomb. This eventually helped me to get out of the
mainstream science or a career in it.
I was a trade union activist in the early seventies
in Bokaro, in todays Jharkhand. As part of my
122
Bhopal
However it was the Bhopal Gas accident in 1984
that proved a decisive turning point in my life, as it
did for many others in India. Bhopal brought together
all my concerns at one point capitalism,
imperialism, irresponsible and toxic industrialisation,
124
South India
Around 1990, I moved to South and lived in Bidar
for a few years. Among other things, I had a ring
side seat on the organic farming scene, particularly
with books because we also ran a bookshop. Suresh
also moved to Hyderabad and started Manchi
Pustakam, which also has an English imprint called
Permanent Green.
In 1995 I moved to Hyderabad and got involved
with the naturalists in town. I became a life member
of several organisations - Birdwatchers Society of
Andhra Pradesh, Society to Save the Rocks, Bombay
Natural History Society, Hyderabad Film Club and
many others. I designed the tenth anniversary of the
Save the Rocks Society in 2005 and brought together
almost all naturalist and environmentalist groups in
Hyderabad including Save the Tigers, The Snake
Club and many others. Recently, I created the
Hyderabad Green Directory.
In 2001, when I was 58, I decided to move to live
on a farm. The next few years, I lived on Dr. Pradeep
Patalays farm, some 30 km outside Hyderabad. I
also met Venkat, the father figure of permaculture
in India and who had helped Pradeep in the design
126
End Note
After reading this, someone asked, So, what does
ecology and ecologise mean to you personally? Well,
all of you can look up the word ecology in the
dictionary. To me it means that man is part of living
nature and not outside it. Ecologise (or to sensitise
about ecology) means to be aware of this relationship
and respect it. Specifically, in the industrial age of
last two hundred years, man got a philosophy that
128
References
1.
2.
3.
How I Became
an Author
Samar Sen, Frontier and Filhaal
I did not know Samar Sen well. In fact I met him
only once and it was just a visit to the Frontier office.
But indirectly he had a profound influence on me.
I was in Calcutta, at the Saha Institute of Nuclear
Physics from April 1967 to March 1968. The Institute
was located in the Calcutta Universitys Science
College campus on A. P. C. Road. As such it was
130
134
136