SHRI K. BALACHANDER

INTRODUCTION TO SHRI K. BALACHANDER.

I used to be very popular during my days in Delhi with my association with the Janakpuri Tamil Association and its activities.  One of my best friends was Shri P.S.Ranganathan, popularly known as KADUGU (கடுகு) who was a popular writer in the Tamil weekly Kalki.   He was assisting Shri K. Balachander for some of his shooting schedules in Delhi and has been associated with the Film EK DHUJE KE LIYE.  One day he asked me whether I could assist Shri Balachander in his forthcoming shooting schedule of the Hindi version of the film வறுமை நிறம் சிகப்பு titled JHARA SA ZINDAGI.  I agreed to assist Shri Balachandar’s film shooting schedule in Delhi with Kamala Hasan and Anita Raj.  I also got friendly with the other associates of Shri Balachandar  Ananthu, Natarajan etc.   During one of the shooting schedules at Kulu the members of the troupe met with an accident and nearly 8 persons of them died near Chandigarh.   Subseuently Shri Balachandar decided to make a tamil version of the Hindi movie Namak Halal with the title வேலைக்காரன் with Rajnikanth, Amla, Sarat Babu,
KR Vijaya.  I fully assisted the unit for their schedule in different parks in Delhi and also in the Centour Hotel near the Airport. This picture was directed by Shri SP Muthuraman. Having assisted in the shooting of the film the Director put me in one frame in the picture with Amla in the song sequence தோட்டத்திலே பாத்திகட்டி.  This can be viewed in You Tube.  I have been in touch with Shri Balachander for sometime.

UNI CANTEEN

UNI CANTEEN

 During 1960s  most of the office goers in Parliament St., and Connaught Place used to assemble for lunch at a private canteen run by an Iyer in the South India Club premises in Jantar Mantar Road.  Those who come for lunch included high government and private company officials.  The Govt. decided to vacate the premises for some improvement and the South India Club and the canteen.  Both the Canteen Iyer and its valued influential customers were able to locate the premises of the compound of the Press Trust  of India building in Parliament St. (now it has a multi storey building).  Once the PTI started with the idea of going in for a multi-storey building the Canteen had also to shift to a new place.  With the influence of the  influential customers, a suitable place was found and the Canteen was shifted to the UNI (United News of India)premises compound, in Rafi Marg adjacent to Mavlankar MPs Flats and back side of the Planning Commission.  This is the birth of the famous UNI Canteen around the 1970s..

The Canteen was run by one Shri Narayana Iyer, who not only managed the Canteen but also was a very social and philonthropical person.  The canteen attracted huge crowd during lunch hour and became a meeting place also for people.  Those who were regular visitors were Senior Officials of the Pvt. Sector Undertakings like the Birlas (in Uco Bank Bldg), Tatas (in LIC building), IFC (Bank of Baroda bldg) and included senior officials of the nearby Government offices right from the Joint Secy level, and sometimes MPs from Tamilnadu.  Shri S. Balasubramaniam known as Vimal Balu used to bring both Anil and Mukesh Ambanis during the lunch house and also many other business Tycoons.  Further most of the famous Carnatic Music Artists, Dramtists and sometimes Film Actors used to be present as guests of some of the regular clients.  I myself have brought most of the well known artists, journalists from Tamil Nadu to the Canteen who come for programmes organized by me on behalf of the Janakpuri Tamil Association.

Incidentally, this is the place where I started learning Astrology under the shade of a Tree from my Guru Shri T. Rangarajan during lunch hours between 1.00 and 2.30 pm for nearly 8 years.  Famous tamil writer Shri PS Ranganathan (Kadugu) and Shri PV Subramanian (aka) Subbudu famous music critic are also regular visitors to the UNI Canteen.

The proprietor of the Canteen known generally  as Iyer used to prepare some special items like Sweets and Savouries to be taken home.   He will also prepare most of the Deepavali items like Jangri, Badam Halwa, laddu, Mysore Pak, Mixture, Muruku etc. for which one has to place orders well in advance.

I still remember those days when I used to go to the UNI Canteen.

ME AND ASTROLOGY

ME AND ASTROLOGY

In another Blog on UNI Canteen, I had mentioned about the popularity of the Canteen and its visitors.  Shri T. Rangarajan (Astrologer) was one of the regular visitors to the Canteen and he is nearly 70 % blind.  However, he used to be regular and we got introduced as a regular persons visiting the Canteen.  One day, he asked me what is my birth star.   I did not know anything about my birth star etc. and I wrote to my father to let me know my birth star.  In reply my father sent me my horoscope cast by Kazhiyur Narayanan a famous astrologer in Chennai.  I showed my horoscope to Shri Rangarajan and he started giving me a commentary of my earlier life and predicted the future also.  Further he insisted my learning Astrology for which I was very reluctant and told him that I do not have any time.  He suggested that he will teach me Astrology during lunch hour in the UNI Canteen under a tree.  Thus my lessons in Astrology started sincerely.  This continued for nearly 8 years. After getting the basics of Astrology ie. Planets, Houses, Stars, their powerful places, Friends-enemies etc. of the planets, the house division etc. We used to analyse various horoscopes of personalities and discuss various nuances of prediction.  In fact at some stage, I used to foresee some events of national and international importance,  when there was conujunction of certain enemical planets.  Some of the events happened thus was the Air Crash off the Irish Coast, death of the then President Fakrudhin Ali Ahmed and Gujerat Earth quake etc.

After having learnt Astrology to a predictive stage, I was surprised to see my predictions to some of the people turned to be exactly true to the full extent.  One person came to be (stranger) and I predicted that when he comes to my house next, he would come in his own Car and that he would marry a girl chosen by his sister (without seeing the girl).  Probably he laughed at me and went away.   Nearly after two months or so, somebody was knocking at our door and the person introduced himself for whom I gave prediction.  I recognized him after sometime and he was followed by his Car Driver carrying a huge Sweet Box and he told me that he has taken delivery of his new car and just came to see my blessings.  After some time, the same person came to me with another lady  and gave me an invitation for his marriage.  The date of the marriage clashed with my programme of going to Chennai on vacation.  He insisted on my changing my programme or he will change the date of his marriage.  Even after coming to Bangalore, I had predicted to one of my friends in JP Park about the marriage of his daughter.  Again he could not believe that the marriage was settled within ten days. Some persons from Mahalaxmi Lay Out also have their horoscopes predicted and used to come for consultation when required.

 It used to take nearly 1 or 2 hours for he preparation of a horoscope manually with the aid of Ephemeries (Lahiris) and fix the position of various planets and work out the Lagna, Navamsa and the balance Vimshotri Dasa etc. on which basis a near accurate prediction could be made.  I used to buy books on Astrology written by famous Authors.  Of course, as on date I get the full horoscope with all the details in the soft-ware available.  Eventhough general prediction of the individual’s life event could be predicted from the individual horoscope, the actual current prediction is to be done with reference to the Planetary position on a particular date and time which is known as Prasna or Horary Astrology.  This year there has been movement of Jupiter and Saturn which are very important transits.

Shri T. Rangarajan my Astrological Guru has now settled in Chennai and I meet him as and when I happen to go to Chennai.  With best wishes to all.

DRAMAS

DRAMAS

As mentioned in my previous articles, I used to arrange for Dramas to be held for the Association.  Accordingly we had organized Dramas of SV Sekhar, Crazy Mohan and RS Manohar.  Usually the dramas are planned for three to five days.  Dramas of SV Sekhar and Crazy Mohan were held in an Auditorium which had all facilities in-built like Light and Sound Arrangement. 

In this article, I am going to mention about the Dramas of Shri RS Manohar which was really very very hard task.  During one of my visits to Chennai , I met Shri Manohar to ask for details of his staging his Dramas.  Initially he gave me the following amazing information, before venturing for his dramas to be held in Delhi.

1.       We have to provide Air fare for both Shri Manohar and his wife and provide a decent accommodation and he suggested that as a member of the YWCA he can be accommodated there.

2.       His troup will consist of around 60 artists.  Of them two will come one week before the Dramas. Another 6 people will come 3 days before the Drama and the remaining artists would come one day before the drama.  All of them excepting six persons will stay two days after the drama to pack off the stage materials.  Dormitary accommodation could be provided and given a daily bata for them.  To and train fare has also to be paid and the bulk of them would get concessional fare.

3.       All the stage materials would be transported by train in a double wagon and expenses of loading at Chennai and unloading at New Delhi and also for the return of the materials.

4.       For the stage lighting they needed a 10 KVA connection to provided at the stage and had to be arranged one day before the start of the drama.

5.       In view of the huge stage settings the dramas cannot be held in an Auditorium and has to be in a Open ground.   Accordingly we chose a open ground in Mandir Marg and made arrangements for 2500 audience.

Finally he informed me that in all his dramas the villain of the epics will be heroes i.e. Ravanan will be the hero in his Lankeswaran and Kamsan will be the hero in Maa Veeran Kamsan etc, etc, 

Being a very expensive programme to be undertaken by the JTA, we discussed threadbare and decided to have five Dramas of Shri RS Manohar.  It was felt that unless we have a massive programme we cannot collect sufficient funds for the upcoming school. 

Our entire planning went off very well and we could have nearly 2.5 lacs of rupees for our School Fund (nearly 25 years ago).   The Managing Committee of JTA had full confidence in my organizational capacity and have given me full cooperation. 

DRAMA ACTIVITY (DBNS)

Having settled down in my career, I thought of engaging myself in Drama Activities.  In New Delhi, there were two Dramatic Societies viz. South Indian Theatres (SIT) AND Dakshina Bharat Nataka Sabha (DBNS).  I joined DBNS for my drama flavor.  The DBNS used to stage dramas during the month of October-November every year for a three or four day Drama Festival.  I remember Shri Ramanathan (Director), SKS Mani, Yumuna Mani, Krishnaswami Sir, Delhi Ganesan, Thayappan, Smt. Anandi and her husband,  Vaidyanthan and his wife (others I do not remember) have been active participants in the dramatic activities. At any particular point of time, we used to take up three or four Dramas to be staged and start the rehearsan right from the month of May-June.   The old dramas (already performed) require few rehearsals and the new ones take a minimum of 12 to 15 rehearsals.  Usually, the rehearsals are held in one of the DTEA School in the evening between 7 to 9 pm on a daily basis.  All those who are actors in a particular drama and others will also attend the rehearsals for following the sequence of the drama during its performance on the Stage.  Everyone will take part in organizing the staging of the drama like make up, prompting, lighting, properties etc.   Usually dramas used to be staged in the AIFACS (All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society) in Rafi Marg where facilities like lighting, curtains, green room etc. were available.

I have acted in atleast six dramas which were staged and I only remember Oru Poi and Mazhai .  Delhi Ganesan was the leading role in most of the Dramas. 

There used to be lot of confusion behind stage when a drama is staged.  Normally every one will follow the Q word of the previous person.  Sometimes, a actor will forget to mention the Q word  and the next person will fumble without starting his dialogue.  At that time prompter will give the clue.   The light/screen operator will also follow a Q word to switch off the light and pull the curtain.  Sometimes, he will misunderstand or forget the Q word and switch off/or not switch off the lights are the right time.  When one scene ubruptly come to a close before time due to confusion in Q, persons to be present in the following scene will not be present when the next scene starts.  The lead actor will managing in dragging on the scene by talking some jokes and common issues till the actual person joins the scene.  Sometimes, I used to forget my dialogue, when the lead actor will inform me as if I have told him what I wanted to say and manage the situation. 

I wonder if anyone of those belonging to DBNS could contact me in the Face Book under :Rajagopalan Krishnaswami., I will feel very happy.