Sri MRS Achar

 Sri MRS Achar 

As experienced by Kamala:  ನಾನು ಕಂಡಂತೆ ನನ್ನ ಅಪ್ಪ: I must must have been about Four or Five year old and we live at Vani Vilas Road rental house in Basavana Gudi, Bengaluru area.  I remember my father telling stories at night times where my parents and all four to five children slept side by side on the floor.  I always wanted to sleep by father.  I also remember even during later times all of us wanted to sleep by our father and sometimes we would take turns to sleep by him.  He used to do early morning puja daily and at the end of it he would smother sandal wood paste on his chest and the wonderful aroma would linger on even after his hard work all day long.  I loved that fragrance and would look forward to that every night.  Not until very later times in my life I realized about poor mom probably had to wait for her turn to be her beloved to enjoy their times together.

I remember appa coming home on his Green color Ralley Bicycle followed by a cart full of wood to be splintered.  Appa used to cut cartful of wood outside the compound just to heat water so we all could take not HOT but some what hot water bath daily.  As young kids we would carry gunny bag and carry few pieces of splintered wood and holing on either side by two of us siblings bring them in to be stacked up on atta a place up above so the would stayed dry while not being used.  This process was not easy especially for appa since he had to hard work all by himself and few of us did the transportation of the cut wood and one of us stacked them with break in between.  current generation cannot even understand any of these experiences since in cities like Bengaluru all these types of living is practically obsolete.  

Appa used to teach music in the morning and combed our hair daily to get us ready for school since mom was busy in the kitchen preparing our meals which took a long time to cook with wood and charcoal stoves.  Appa was very strict and braided the hair that did not cover the ears.  Since that was not the trend in those days and  I did not want to get in trouble, I would loosen my hair a little and cover my ears after I went out so as to look "normal".  

Appa always recognized and encouraged all of us to do best in what we were good in.  He would proudly shared that feeling with his students often.  Like asking me to collect coffee cups to be washed after usage, asking Keshu my elder brother to play Mridangam  on Rice flour Drum which looked like Mridangam to a toddler.  Appa encouraged us to sing swaras for a phrase of veriety of ragams quite often.