Sivaji vs MGR

Starting with school, life has suddenly opened up so much that here on it is going to be a tough task for me to pack time into a capsule. Some of the photo albums of 70s were eaten by termites at home later and the only graphic capture for a few years may be what I pen.

My cousin Sridhar joined the family to study 9&10 at Coimbatore and I got 2 big brothers at home. Sridhar and my brother Ram both started going to another school oddly named Suburban High School. They both were getting into the more serious phase of schooling while I was initiated into school. Dusting thinks at home, cleaning & dusting Dad’s Lambretta scooter, dusting and polishing shoes, picking flowers for Puja were all basic chores cutout for the boys, which we had to take turns at, early in the morning before getting ready for school.

Post school play time was fun but space was limited. There used to be a small area in the front of the house where one could play with glass marbles (a great game for motor skills and concentration), the poor man’s cricket – Gilli (Gulli Danda) and seasonal kite flying. We had a Richie Rich neighbor Babloo. Babloo was a very sweet boy who lived in the house of AP Nagarajan – a film personality (APN used to be formed in the grills of this house with ground glass windows - a rich statement). Don’t know if he was part of the APN family but the bungalow was spacious, had a car, an Alsatian dog and was our Chepauk for cricket. The right to play first or longer depended on age and the younger ones like me were thrilled to be in the playing team even if we were just fielding with the odd chance to hold the bat, almost our height. While fielding Eknath Solkar was the idol ( I think he took lot of close catches for India in that period) and standing close to the batsman assuming wherever one stood to be a silly point was the in thing. Got hit one day just above the eye, no clue by the bat or ball, but there was pride in sporting those wounds and scars – part of getting battle hardened. We used to play with cork ball which was hard and still remember how everyone used to try getting it to shine, when it was new with a red coating, thinking it will swing. Three things were dreaded – the ball hitting any of the glass windows which meant end of play for - at times weeks, the ball going over the compound wall and falling into the open drain (there was a democratic arrangement of taking turns to pick it out of the drain and cleaning it with water) and the ball going near the dog- who would bite and hold it and only Babloo could get it out but the ball would get pitted.

Once a month a weekend outing was to movies or to V O Chidambaram park which had a small zoo. We would keenly check if it was the same set of animals in zoo. The guinea pig and rabbit enclosures always had something new in size, colour and shape as they profusely multiplied. The high point used to be a baby elephant ride and the younger kids were made to sit close to the head/ears and kutti elephant's prickly hair was the most tingling part of the ride. Carrom and cards were the family games at home. Both would be played in teams of two and passionately fought with the opposition trying to distract, tease, cheat and bully. The follow on to the red had to be kept for the climax and boy did it test the nerves.

Sometime during my 1^st or 2^nd standard we had the first outing from school to a movie called Thavapudalvan which had Sivaji. I guess the school found this convenient. No school buses then and we walked with our snack bag for a km or 2 to GP theatre and back. Sivaji was a great hero then and the songs from this movie were a hit and it had a lingering effect on what I did with them in the coming years. 

Cinema was the main source of entertainment and I guess my family liked Sivaji more and we saw more of those movies. Dad had two strict rules – Things had to be in its place (else one can get severely scolded or at times caned) and no movies if one did not get top marks. I think it worked well for both parents and us kids. So Sivaji was The Star and one was a sworn fan. And my good friend Srinivas was all for MGR. So we used to have frequent discussions on what these heroes did on screen. Srinivas lived next door to the school and one day, which was a holiday we were sitting and talking in the school ground and the debate steered into who is a better fighter Sivaji or MGR. Though we never saw Sivaji & MGR together on screen we decided to fight it out. The reel life poured into real life and suddenly this Tom Sawyer – Huck Finn pair was hitting, punching, rolling with all sound effects and pulling at each other. The commotion alerted Mr.Pandian (the school owner whose house was also at the school), he called out and we jumped the gate and scooted. But he did know it was the two of us and called us the next day at school and made us realize while the fighting can be good for fun but it is silly if it gets serious. I don’t think we resolved who is better MGR or Sivaji but Srinivas and I continued to be good friends. I don’t remember getting into a brawl after that!