In the company of a legend

This picture was taken in 1996 in Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR), near Lalbagh, when my family and I went there for breakfast.

   I had come out with my children, sister and grandchildren. My daughters — Vina and Vidya had come down for the holiday. Vina was then in Mumbai and Vidya was in the US. Vina was crazy about food at MTR and whenever she came down, she would not leave without visiting the place. We had come out on one such outing.

We were eight of us in the group. I clearly remember we had placed our order and were waiting for it to arrive when Vina suddenly spotted Dr Rajkumar quietly walk into the room adjacent to ours.

We were all excited and keen to meet him and shake hands with him. The manager of MTR encouraged us and said we could go inside and meet Dr Rajkumar and that he wouldn’t mind.

We were all so thrilled, that we literally barged into the room where he was seated. The room had a long table and he was sitting at the  far end of it. I was so overwhelmed when Dr Rajkumar very promptly got up from his seat and said ‘Namaste’ even before we could wish him. This was the first time that I was seeing him face to face and he came across as a very warm and humble person.

He inquired about us and asked us where we were staying and after a brief conversation, we settled down to take a picture. I was a little confused because eight of us wouldn’t fit into the room as it was small one and I also apprehensive, if Dr Rajkumar would be comfortable with all of us around him. That’s when my family decided that I should pose for the picture with him. My grandson, Pranav, who is also seen in the picture, was then two years old. He would never leave my side.

Even here, he was with me and Dr Rajkumar almost instantly picked up my grandson and readily obliged for the picture which was clicked by my daughter Vidya.

We also asked him for an autograph and my sister quickly tore a piece of paper from her diary and handed it over to him. He signed off saying ‘Preeti Irali’. We all left the room feeling delighted to have met such a wonderful human being.

I have watched almost all of Dr Rajkumar’s movies and my favourite ones are ‘Hosa Belaku’, ‘Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma’ and ‘Mantralaya Mahatme’. I used to watch his movies even when I lived in Chennai for a while. There weren’t many theatres those days in Chennai that screened Kannada movies but all of Dr Rajkumar’s movies were shown. I remember there was only one show of ‘Mantralaya Mahatme’ and I went to watch it. I was surprised to see Dr Rajkumar himself come to watch the movie.

He was dressed in a white ‘dhoti’ and a plain white shirt. That day, he got on stage, greeted the audience and said that he had come to watch the movie because he hadn’t seen it himself. Dr Rajkumar had played all kinds of roles and worked on only those films with a definite social message.

Looking back, had we left early or come late to MTR, we would have missed meeting the legendary actor.

I feel I was destined to meet Dr Rajkumar, and I must say that it was indeed a very humbling experience.    

Vimla Rao

(As told to Nina C George)
(Vimla Rao can be reached on 28612257)