Our parents M N Jayaraman and Padmakumari, tied the nuptial knot on March 7, 1958 at the Vysya Hostel in Bengaluru, and in the following eight years, begot five all-male children. We believe that after my brother and I were born, my parents desired a girl child. But, all their efforts came to nought, and they abandoned the idea after the brood size grew to five. Thus, the elders nicknamed us the Pandavas after the magnificent quintet in the epic. Only eight years separated the youngest child from the eldest as our mother delivered a baby almost every year.
Eldest among five siblings, I was prematurely born at the Gosha hospital in Shivajinagar two months before the due date. My younger sibling Prasanna Kumar (number two) arrived a year later, delivered at my maternal grandparents’ house.
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The story goes that the family couldn’t find a rickshaw to ferry my mother to the maternity hospital when she went into labour! So an Anglo-Indian neighbour who was a nurse in the Bowring hospital filled in as a midwife and helped deliver the baby. But the other siblings, Prem Prakash, Gokul Nath and Chandran, were born sans any incident at the Government Maternity Home close to our house.
We had a wonderful childhood and benefitted from our parents’ undivided attention. Some elders fondly called me Yudhisthira, after the eldest Pandava prince.
We rarely spent time alone, and it was easy to grab a sibling and have fun. We often hung around together playing games, studying, chit-chatting, sharing silly secrets, listening to stories or helping mother in her household chores. During our early years, we siblings even shared the same cot sleeping breadthwise. Our parents’ solemnised our marriages at the same venue – Mouna Guru Swamy Mutt in Cox Town.
The house compound was our first playground. We fired darts made out of long chicken feathers, scaled the giant guava trees, shot arrows from our bows strung out of slender but sturdy shoots, and played hide and seek – there were umpteen rooms to enter and exit. In addition, we dabbled in football, hockey, and cricket. I also learned to cycle here, ‘scissoring’ in circles around the enormous guava tree.
The brothers and I bonded well, made up nearly half a cricket, football or hockey team, and we’re always in it together. This ploy worked fine, especially in a cricket match. My younger sibling Prasanna Kumar and I always enjoyed the lion’s share of the exchanges. Though the other players seldom batted or bowled, they remained content, playing second fiddle. We took on opposing teams for a cup or medal, with one player from each side sponsoring the prize; usually, one won in the school sports.
One particular contest makes for a riveting narrative for its sheer post-match drama. We were on the cusp of victory when the opposition captain suddenly turned around, got through the barbed wire fencing and took to his heels. After a harrowing chase over fields and ditches, we finally caught up with the offender, roundly denounced him and prised out the trophy from his trembling hands! Following the incident, they never engaged us in a contest again.
