November 1st in Karnataka

Probably the only State in India to have its own day, November 1st is Karnataka Day!

With no urgency in the air, I strolled out of the hotel at around 8 am to find an ATM. As I stepped out onto the side road, I observed a furious game of cricket being played in the middle of the street. The stumps were two large stone bricks. Undoubtedly India's second win in a row in the One Day Series against Australia had motivated these young boys to wield the stick and throw the ball.

I walked down JC Road and found a Dena Bank ATM. I entered an amount of Rs. 15000 and was led through a process through the machine, but at the end, it asked me to fill in my demand yet another time but coughed up no money. Then I noted that it was mentioned that if I did not have a Dena Bank Account, the maximum I could draw was Rs. 10000.

So I went through the process again, but the result was the same.

I saw the toll free number and decided to get some help.

I told “the lady” exactly what had happened, in the simplest of English and as slowly as possible. I was following my late mother-in-law’s principle who believed that if she spoke Finnish slowly, every foreigner would be able to understand her.

Sadly that was not the case here. As soon as I finished, this lady asked me questions which were answered exactly by what I had told her.

With great patience i repeated the story, this time a little more aggressively.

No luck, as she asked me to give her my card number. I was hesitant to do this, but finally I acceded to her request. Then she asked me to tell her what was written on the slip. When I told her I had not reached that stage, once again she asked me what Error Number was on the slip!

There was much to and fro after which she explained that there may not have been enough money in the machine, so would I enter Rs. 5000. With her on the line I went through the process, telling her exactly what was happening and the result was the same as before.

To my amazement she then asked me exactly the same questions as earlier.

I was quite angry by this stage and asked her to repeat to me what I had told her four times. It was obvious that this lady was not keeping any notes and she was clueless of how to answer an enquiry.

She changed her tactics and asked me why I was getting agitated. I did not fall into the trap and asked her again to repeat what I had told her - which I knew was an impossibility.

Again, after much to and fro, she asked me to enter a smaller sum, to which I asked her whether it was Rs. 100 she wanted me enter.

I was exasperated. As time was going on, I was also not wanting to spend time with a dumb head! Then she broke down and told me to go to another ATM!!!

I did, and 50 metres down the road was a State Bank of India one. In two minutes I was tucking the money into my wallet and I was off, back to the hotel.

On the way I stopped at a photo shop and asked if they had a trimming machine large enough to handle a double A3 size photograph. There was small one on the table. The man behind the counter answered me in quite broken English. It was obvious that he had no idea what I was asking despite my graphic description. So I dropped into Hindi and repeated my slow talk process. With great difficulty I extracted the information that they did not have a large trimming machine!!

At 11 am we set off to KC Das, the reputed sweet merchant, to buy Sweet Curd as our contribution to the pound party organized by the Matthan’s in Bangalore. We reached Pushpa’s house at just past 11:30 and had a wonderful afternoon in the company of my uncle Kochupapen (89) and his wife Anniekochamma (84) (Mr. & Mrs. Jacob Matthan), my aunt, Paapachi (81) (Mrs. G. T. Verghese), my cousins and their spouses, Baluchachen and Nirmalakochamma (Mr. & Mrs. George Matthan), Ajit and Omena (Mr. & Mrs. A. V. Matthan), Anand and Shalu (Mr. & Mrs. Anand Matthan), Malli (Mrs. Ninan) Nirmala and Gulden (Mrs. & Mr. Kurian), Gita and Moni (Mrs. & Mr. Thomas), Padmini and her grandchildren (Mrs. Isaac) and our dear hostess. Time flew and the lunch, Chinese, was simply delicious and it was followed by a sweet pf pumpkin halwa, which fell into my category of greats!

We were the last to leave, greatly saddened at having to part company with such a wonderful band of my family after we had recalled many a past of our exhilarating episodes in years gone by.

A quick rush to the hotel and we left for Mysore to see the Dussera lights on the Palace. En route we stopped at Sommanhalli, a village outside Maddur, and with help from the small merchant, tracked down the young man who had saved Jaakko's life by sucking out the poison from his foot 25 years ago when Jaakko had been bitten by a deadly Russell Viper. As per Jaakko's request, we giave him a small monetary gift, as no amount would have been large enough to compensate the life saved. Being Jaakko’s 41st birthday, this was Jaakko’s and our thanks to this man, greatly aged, but still there running a small tea shop at the gates of the entrance to the small village of Sommanhalli.

The pipal tree sapling that I had planted 30 years ago was now an enormous tree at the top corner of the garden. It was now outside the factory premisses as the villagers had made it their prayer tree. It was lush unlike the factory which was being renovated by a new owner. The old plot had been carved into two and work to create two factory shed was slowly progressing!

We stopped at S. M. Shanker’s house. I met Mrs. Shanker, as her husband was away in Bangalore. S. M. Shanker is the younger brother of S. M. Krishna, the current Indian Foreign Minister. I recalled past days. The lady wanted us to join her for a cup of tea. But our interest to reach Mysore meant I had to forgo such a prospect.

On to Mysore.

I would like to tell you the story of the experience of driving on a highway, but this I will leave to a later entry. It is so shocking that I do not want to spoil my dreams of my Incredible india story with such an experience.

Thanks to our wonderful driver, Prem, whom we discovered was a Christian, we reached Mysore in one piece. En route, I rang my seniors and friends, Cathedralite 49er Naval Patel and his 54er wife Armaity (née Mody) to tell them we would be there soon. He gave me directions to reach near his home. However, when we reached Mysore, we saw the chaos of Cochin and Bangalore roads had extended as far as this beautiful city, so we went directly to the Palace so Annikki and I could observe the wonderful sight, lit up as in my childhood days. It was truly glorious. I especially remembered my father who used to spend many a sleepless night ensuring that not a single light bulb was off during the Dussera celebrations in 1948- 1949, during our life in Mysore.

From there I rang Naval and we agreed to meet at the Southern Star Hotel (which we found later had changed its name to Regalis Hotel). I have never met Naval as he had left school 5 years before I joined. Armaity was in school when I joined. She looked as beautiful as the days I had seen her grace our school sports fields. Naval was as much a gentleman as I have come to know him over the years on the internet. When Annikki met him and I told her that this was the person who had just that morning shared the wonderful pictures she had seen on my computer about Jupiter and the sun, she knew that she too had a soul mate!

The dinner was really good, which statement is now becoming a cliché. Annikki and Mika ate well, and I restricted myself to a smaller portion as I spent most of the time talking to Naval.

What an evening and it was with great sadness we bade them farewell at just after 21:30. Despite my protestations, Armaity and Naval would not allow me to host them in their city. To me they are a perfect couple and wonderful friends whom we would like to be our guests in Finland.

Prem drove us with care and speed back to Bangalore. We reached in just over 2 and a half hours.

A truly wonderful day - and it looks like we are in for many more such days in the coming weeks.