A Rocket Ride

1973,...APRIL...Jillellamudi....


It was a hot day,... usual in summertime and...Jillellamudi, in spite of the fields and the Drain ---(It is a canal and heaven knows why it is called DRAIN-)---- that flows down on it"s south, could be quite a hot place as everybody knows...Guntur districta... mazaaka?.......The big building on the south side of the village----jillellamudi,was a very, very small one, -----and it"s enclosure was bustling and busy with the preparations that were going on, to celebrate Mother"s up coming golden jubilee birthday.....For in few more days,...on the great day,there was going to be a feast and they were intending to feed 1 lakh people on the premises and surrounding fields.....Lorries bearing provisions and goods have been coming in regularly and shedding load...rice, pulses,oils,mirch, spices....


It all started rather casually....Everybody knew mother "s fifty-first birthday was coming on and as usual everybody had his or her own plans on how to celebrate the happy occasion...Somebody thought of conducting a Kavisammelanam....Another one thought of releasing a special souvenir...Someone proposed ordering a diamond-studded crown....Someone else talked about inviting great saints to convene a vedantha sabha.....Jillellamudi was not one of your methodical,well-knit, tightly run kind of establishment one sees as in the case of some other institutions....Nor was it a moneyed one either...Funds perennially flowed low...To say honestly...it was like a big family...A big middle class family,...with all it"s accompanying delights,faults, advantages, worries, ego-clashes, and splendid rallying in- time of -needs....And it ran just like that...A family function...Somebody plans, somebody chips in with timely help, somebody executes, somebody finds faults,.....Nobody quite knows how funds would come in or go out...They just do...In the end everything gets completed in time , just right and nothing ever gets stalled ...either for want of money or men...

When all these ideas were put before mother for her approval,she reacted in an unexpected ?..way.....These were all good plans, she said...----(ofcource, she never hurts anybody)---... But if it was all the same to them, she would rather spend the money in feeding her children...Infact, she said, it was a long cherished dream of hers to see 1 lakh people sitting together having dinner.... .. All those little kids gathering round mummy,bearing their little gifts realised once again what she really wants....and that was how all these preparations have come about and going on now....

It was nearing dusk when a brother was called upstairs, into mother"s penthouse on the third story, with urgent summons....A problem cropped up and needed his assistance....Vistharaakulu,...the leaf plates, we generally use for eating have to be procured urgently......As estimates go, 1 lakh people were expected to dine...that means at least two lakh plates...as usually two are used, placed one on top of one ...And ofcource you can not bring home just what the figures say without leaving a wider margin......You might need some for covering the items, some for reserves...Anyway, Jillellamudi was a constantly busy place with nithya anna prasadam..---(Mother never liked the word annadanam)-----.....people coming and going all the time...So, few extra would not go in vain....They have inquired with wholesale merchants at Vijayawada, Guntur and drew blank...No body was ready with that kind of supplies with them and at such a short notice......That left only one place to head for...Madras...

He was given few instructions...where to go in Madras, and few details about the transaction...He had to reach there in the morning at the earliest, finish the transaction and try to return the same day if possible...It took another few more hours before they could actually make some arrangements and he touched the feet, had kumkum and took leave of mother...

So, it thus came about , the man sat huddled in corner bench on the deserted Bapatla station----( the nearest railway station, seven miles from Jillellamudi, )-- platform at eleven or so in the night,... waiting and praying for a train to halt there....A group of devotees heading for Guntur dropped him at the railway station as per mother"s instruction and drove off... He wished they had taken him with them till Guntur or at least till Thenali....They are busier stations and may be he could catch a train from there....For Bapatla,..197 miles from Madras ,though situated on the busy Vijayawada-Madras line, is small station and no self-respecting express train worth it"s salt ever halted there in those days.....Nearly 30 years back....On that particular night even the friendly , ponderous Dakshin passed on before he could enter the station...

Time passed and the station clock chimed twelve...He sat there, fanning the desultory mosquito away...twiddling his thumbs, and wondering why mother bade him wait here,and how on earth he could ever reach Madras this way...Early morning?...looked like he would not be there for the mid-day itself.....


At about twelve, the station master went round the platforms checking and making sure his station remained free of unruly elements...He caught sight of the brother and enquired what train he was waiting for, and they fell talking.......When the brother said he had to go to Madras, the S.M. nodded his head ,.. said he heard of the golden jubilee plans,.. laughed outright at the prospect of his boarding a train for the night saying only the Circar express next morning would be his option,and went off with a cryptic.."may be you could go in sputnik"...The brother felt rather foolish and settled further on the bench more comfortably...

The time went past twelve- thirty....The station quietened down and was silent now...A small goods train rattled by on the loop lines and creaked to halt somewhere on the outer area of the station...A figure sped up from the stationmaster"s cabin and ran in..."come on...Board the Sputnik.."..The s.m hurried him on... The brother was in confusion and hastened alongside the S.M.... Sputnik was the name given to the goods train that carries live stock from Calcutta to Madras...Because, on account of it"s precious cargo, it was a common practice to give it a green signal all the way, at all stations and it completes it"s run in record time...

The brother boarded an open topped compartment full of grazing, mooing,bleating cudding,cattle ,and goats and reached Madras before the sun was up.....

Kudos To Koti

Sometime back, i sat with my family members watching, Zee telugu"s little champs,....A boy was singing "idele tharatharaala charitham" from "peddarikam" ...We were listening to it, all mesmerised...,when one of my sisters thoughtfully remarked "i never realised that Koti gave so many hits"...Koti,.. the composer of the number was sitting there in a judge"s seat,listening attentively,with a little smile playing on the lips....and eyes that lighted up with happiness.....One is actually surprised to find him ,looking so young on the telly and he comes across as a bluff, hearty , down-to earth person....I mean , we are hearing him from ages and the person turns out to be not too old...:)...not at all, sir,.....My husband even wondered idly why he did not take up acting....

The kids rendered many of his hits, some melodies, some dhammakedaar songs...A girl sang ""muddula jaanaki pelliki mabbula"...From Peddarikam"...woow...Another one broke into "roop thera mastaana",.."guvva gorinkatho"...Someone else rendered "priyathama priyathama"..."o navvu chalu."....Lovely melodies and foot tappers...One liked both the genres...I, particularly love his dhamaaka madhyamavathis in "mechanic alludu',..."bangaru bullodu" and the thunderous.."amma brahmadevudo" from "govinda govinda"...What range?.....and what pure dynamite music?....After hearing them, one strangely felt grateful to the creator of the music....For how happy did he make us all.........I and my daughter loved to listen to those blasted beats of his .._---pun intended----and would break into smiles whenever we thought we detected his father"s strains among them..."after all..it is "baabu sommu"...we would say...Who else has rights on it?....


......and then came the wonderment i wrote earlier....For, though casual, i think that remark of my sister"s sums up it rather neatly...Koti always remained on the peripheries or at the end of the critic"s list... He ..Was,..Is a busy music composer,...worked for top stars.,..top banners,gave thundering hits....but.. somehow, one never associated koti with serious music...or took his name when discussing it..in those haloed, reverential tones one reserves for some others....though he kept regaling us with one after one of his hits...and we kept crooning them....Perhaps because most of his earlier --or later films---were mainly big starrers and that meant mostly catchy numbers with a good deal of jhum jhum jhum orchestration....

My daughter, who self appointed her self as my teacher, in musicology---She thinks she is an authority on it----took pains to enlighten me on this little issue...She argues that koti has not evolved a distinct style of his own-----i mean, the hallmark progressions,notes, sangathis and touches ---- and that was his undoing.....I do not quite see her point.....What style?...As far as i can see, there are only three schools---or styles--- of music in telugu cinema...One was Rajeswara rao"s style..(koti"s father and guru)....Another was K.V. Mahadevan"s....Keeravani and others seem to follow it...But the difference between the two was not too great...Ilayaraja, ofcource was a later addition and gave completely different music....One is slightly mystified and also amused with this practice in film music...One wants and glorifies variety and breaking away from tradition...Whereas in classical music, you tend to emphasize on following PARAMPARA and think mighty well of it...

In my opinion, the real bane Koti had to suffer were the times he found himself in...He is preceded by stalwarts like his father, Mahadevan,Viswanathan....Trying to survive that inheritance is a daunting task in itself......Then he had to fight for his space in a world filled with Ilayarajas,..manisharmas, and Keeravanis and Rahmans...It was a fierce competition,..In the melee, i think, he might have got a little bruised but it is said competition eggs one to further efforts and true enough Koti peaked in his career with "hello brother"...."peddarikam"..."nuvvu naaku nachavu"..."nuvve kaavali"..."nuvve nuvve"..That was first class music...kudos to Koti....