Some interesting expereinces

I was serving as the chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh state and YSR was the Chief Minister. Rangarajan, the former Governor of the state, was in town and was staying with his daughter.

Keen that he should settle in Andhra Pradesh, YSR sent me to Rangarajan to offer him, on behalf of the state government, a prime piece of land, and to persuade him to settle in the twin cities.

I called on Rangarajan and conveyed to him the desire of the Chief Minister. He listened patiently and politely. At the end of it all he declined with a smile, saying that he had no plans to settle in Hyderabad as he had already decided on Chennai.

I came back to the office wondering whether, in his place, I would have done the same thing. Perhaps, I told myself, I would have accepted the offer, and probably sold the land off to someone else. But then such is the stuff great people are made of!

The following incident took place during my tenure as secretary to the government of Andhra Pradesh. Sharda Mukherjee was the Governor at that time.

The Deputy High Commissioner of UK stationed at Chennai was on a visit to Hyderabad, and had to come to call on her. Extending hospitality with grace and affection had always come to her naturally had already formed a somewhat poor opinion about the quality of hospitality the state government extended to visiting guests.

Her first question to the visitor, therefore, was to ask whether he had had his breakfast. "As a matter of fact", he replied, "no". The Governor then promptly saw to it that a sumptuous breakfast was soured to him. Only then did the discussion between them take place. That gesture was indeed a telling reflection of the quality of her bringing up!

NTR was a happily married man with eleven children. When I told him that I only had two children, he laughed saying "to be a Paramahamsa you have to have eleven children".

Basavatarakamma, his wife, was devoted to him and treated NTR with great love and affections, almost like a baby.

I was witness, one early morning, to her feeding him curd rice “avakaya” with her own hands! It was a touching scene which I shall forever cherish in my memory.

Telugu speaking people will be familiar with the story relating to the person who came home and boasted to his wife that the King had spoken to him. When asked how that happened, he said "the king was being carried out of his Palace on a palanquin.

At the gates of the palace he found that I was in his way. He smiled at me, "get out of the way." Cannot fault the accuracy of his claim, misleading though it might have been in the impression it conveyed!

I had, in 1982, a similar experience with that then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi. Justice Hidyatullah, then Vice President of India, has just been sworn in as Acting President. Protocol required that he sign a register maintained in Rashtrapati Bhavan, as testimony to the fact of having assumed office as President.

That register was in an adjoining room which was connected with a narrow corridor. I was going through that corridor to fetch the register when I found that Mrs. Gandhi was at the other end. I try to give away to her and so did she. Finally, exasperated with that cat and mouse game, she said "go, go!". I remember coming get back home that night and telling my wife, "the Prime Minister spoke to me today!"

As I mentioned earlier in the piece entitled "danger immediate and present", I have always had this knack for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

There was this time, for instance when, while serving the secretary agriculture in the Andhra Pradesh State government, I had gone to the office on the Saturday to dispose of pending work.

Suddenly, I heard a lot of commotion. I rushed out of the room and looked out of the window and what do I see but the statue of Lord Buddha in the Hussain Sagar lake sinking like a stone!

It was also on the Saturday that, as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development, I had gone to the office on a Saturday. All of a sudden I heard crack shorts as if a firecracker had been set off.

I went to the window and looked out but could see nothing. I finished my work and went back home. It was only then that I came to know that the shots I had heard were actually reports of the gunfire that took place during the terrorist attack on Parliament building.

MRC, as M. Ravindranatha Chowdhury was known, was a well known and prominent arrack contractor in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Our first contact took place when I was the Excise Commissioner of the state and he had come with a delegation to meet me at Visakhapatnam.

Years later he had contested the elections and become the minister in charge of cooperation. I was then in charge of the subject of cooperation as secretary agriculture. At one time the paid secretaries of primary agricultural produce societies had gone on strike.

Settlement of their demands involved a sum of over 7 crores of rupees which, in those days, was a substantial amount in deed. Naturally the finance department had turned down the demand of my department to release the said sum.

When I apprised MRC of the matter has surprised me by offering to pay the full amount from his own pocket, so that the strike could be called off! "White money, Kanda ji," he told me, "and I will be happy to give it to you by cheque!"

Chenna Reddy was known to be very particular about the food and drink he was given while he was touring. He was on a visit to Krishna district once when I was the collector. It was in the midst of a hectic election campaign that that the visit took place. Sometime that afternoon the Chief Minister had asked for a drink of water.

One of the attenders who was accompanying us gave him a glass of water. Chenna Reddy sipped it, made a face, and spat it out. It turned out that it was boiling hot water that he had been given! After the day's commitments had been fulfilled all of us went to Vijayawada.

After arrival in the canal guesthouse the chief minister asked for water again. Somewhat apprehensively the same attender handed over another glass to him. The Chief Minister tested it, made a face, and spat out the water again.

This time it was ice-cold water that he had been given, following the reprimand that the attender had received in the afternoon for having given him hot water!

The more squeamish about you are about your requirements the more your forbearance is apparently tested.