My octogenarian friend for the past four decades, G R Murthy, regales me with multiple anecdotes. Not many are aware that he is also a supremely gifted craftsman, who can create wonders with wood. That is not all. He is a voracious reader and and can hold you spellbound for hours with his brand of real-life incidents. Besides, he was one of the straightest bats for SBI during his playing days and could also bowl a bit. Recently during a monthly rendezvous at our favourite haunt, Koshy’s, on St.Mark’s Road, Bengaluru, he reeled off his experience of travelling on a steam-powered bus. Murthy and his parents would visit Penukonda, where his maternal grandfather—a collector by profession—lived with his kith and kin in a sprawling bungalow, for a month of summer holidays. The big group of uncles, aunts and cousins would have a whale of a time frolicking on the nearby hill.
Murthy recalled with enthusiasm his 1950 picnic journey in the steam-powered bus to Anantapur, which was an hour’s drive from Penukonda. The clan would pack lunch and assorted snacks, set off early in the morning and return late in the evening. The furnace at the rear of the bus was fed with coal by the conductor to generate steam. The posterior of the bus also had a chimney for the smoke to exit. Passengers would deliberately avoid sitting in the rear to prevent the ash from flying into their face, and the ride cost just a few annas! Another exciting experience narrated by him was of commuting by bus in Bengaluru. The dashing Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, who later went on to become the iconic superstar of Tamil cinema, Rajinikanth, was the bus conductor of the route for a time. The man who stepped into his shoes also became a hit for announcing the name of the stops in chaste Kannada.
There was hardly any traffic back then. Murthy also recounted that factory buses had wooden benches for seating in the old days. When buses failed to arrive on time, one could fall back on the humble cycle rickshaw or the horse tonga. Compare this with the chaotic times that we live in today. Numerous vehicles are available to ferry us to our destination, but one has to go through the wringer. The mad rush of people, traffic snarls, pollution and signals every few kilometres make travelling on the streets an ordeal. One wishes to return to the good old days when life moved on the slow lane.
N J Ravi Chander
Email: ravichander244@gmail.com