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Vi(za)gnettes

Scholarly oration

In 1965 when I celebrated the anniversary of our school in Lingalavalasa near Rajam the chief guests were Ronanki Appalaswamy who was the head of the English Department in M.R. College and Raviganti Ramachandra Rao, retired headmaster of Rajah’ s High School, Bobbili. The former was known to be a mobile library as he always carried a couple of books in the pockets of his coat and the later was known as ‘Brutus Master garu’ for his masterly portrayal of the Shakespearean character Brutus. I also invited three Danish doctors from the Pogiri Leprosy Organisation, Rajam.

The programme took place 30 minutes behind schedule and while Appalaswamy utilised the time in reading a book, others were conversing with each other. One of the Danish doctors requested Applaswamy to see the book he was reading. After flipping through the pages with perplexity he returned with a comment ‘It’s Greek and Latin to me’. Actually the book was in Latin, which he did not understand.

During the meeting while everybody spoke briefly, including the doctors, Appalaswamy exhibited his oratory skills both in English and Telugu. He punctuated his speech by liberally quoting famous English poets and Sri Sri, extempore.

At my request Ramachandra Rao enacted the character of Brutus from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to a thunderous applause.

After the function the Danish doctors approached the two Indian scholars with folded hands and appreciated their command over the English language with veneration. D.V.S. Narayana Murthi, my first headmaster and principal of Government Junior College (1954), Rajam, was also present. Today he is 94 years old and still cherishes those memories. (Contributed by B.V. Ramamurty)

Numbers have always fascinated people. Today we see people paying premiums to get the desired registration number for their automobiles. It was also the same a couple of decades ago, sans the premium. In those days the presence of affluent persons at a public function were drawn from the car numbers at the parking lot.

During 1960s and 70s the telephone numbers had only three digits, like the telephone number of K.S. Dutt was 322 and the Appanna family’s was 640, today the same numbers have become 2563322 and 2562640. They were so fascinated with the numbers that even their car carried the same numbers (322 and 640). (Contributed by A.V.R.K. Kumar)

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