My family is from Jaldigere, a village in Tumkur district. My parents migrated to Bangalore during the drought. I was born and brought up in Bangalore. Ours is basically an agricultural family and so when my parents came to this city, they worked as farm labourers in Avalahalli, Dasarahalli, Gavipura etc.
We led a very modest life, but my parents ensured that I got basic education. I studied in APS college and soon took up a job in the Central Telegraph Office (CTO) as messenger. Bangalore was so different in those days, it was peaceful, there was no traffic... Much of Bangalore as we see it today didn’t exist then. There were just five to six telegraph offices for the entire city. I would cycle a minimum of 25 kilometres each day to deliver telegrams. My job expected me to work round the clock. Night shifts were particularly difficult because there were no street lights in many parts of the city, and sometimes thieves would attack us too.
People had this notion that telegrams meant tragedy and bad news. So the minute they saw us they would start wailing, particularly in the slums. Many times it would be about someone in the family having a baby, wedding fixed, passing SSLC in first class — so on and so forth, but people wouldn’t even wait to read the telegram.
Once when I was going to deliver a telegram near Vinayaka Theatre, there was a group that was brewing illicit liquor in the dead of the night. They saw me and mistook my uniform for a policeman’s. The entire group began thrashing me and they finally let go of me after I repeatedly told them I was a messenger!
I was always interested in theatre, right from my school days. During my 10th standard I went to Ravindra Kalakshetra and was inspired by the work that R. Nagesh and C.G. Krishnaswamy were doing. What started then has become an enduring bond with theatre. They taught me how to live, how to mobilise people and work for the society… it was because of them that my life became different. I always had this desire to remain in their company, and that is what took me to Kalakshetra day after day.
When I joined the CTO, there was a Tamil Sangha and a Telugu Sangha, the Kannada Sangha wasn’t functioning properly. I, along with colleagues, strengthened and made it an active body. We regularly staged plays, the department gave us some funds with which we purchased books from Sahitya Parishath and set up a library. Some of the plays that we staged are Socrates, Beppana Chitra, Sarvajit and several others. I wrote a play “Mannanu Nambada Maragalu” based on the Sri Lanka issue which was translated into Tamil and I directed it. In 1994, I did non-stop 24 hour theatre at the CTO. My friend Shivashankar and I performed for one full day; it became a Guinness record. When Girish Karnad won the Jnanpith in 1999, we were asked to repeat this feat as a mark of respect to him, and we performed for 30 hours non-stop in Delhi. I directed the play Male Mantrika for Ranga Nirantara and it became hugely successful. I have acted in several plays including Mittabailu Yamunakka, Gandhi Banda , and recently Akku .
I was chosen for a couple of awards, including the Natak Academy one, but I didn’t accept any. I am not doing theatre for awards and recognition, but it is a commitment.
Theatre has made my life exceptional. Many times I have wondered what I would have been without it… and even as an imagination it is scary. I would led an ordinary life between work and home, constantly thinking of mundane needs, buying a house, having a bank balance etc. Life has always been difficult with my meagre income, but I never saw it as a “crisis”. Theatre has made me so rich that I wouldn’t exchange this life even for crores of rupees. Money and fame were never the destinations of my life. My family does feel that we do not measure up to the standard of life of people around us, but it really doesn’t matter. I have gained a lot more.
