Life outside the silver screen

This picture was taken in 1994 close to a train, opposite Vijaya Bank, near Trinity Circle. The picture was taken soon after my elder brother Vijay Raghavendra won the ‘Karnataka State Award’ for ‘Best Child Artiste’ in ‘Chinnari Mutha’. Our father, A Chinne Gowda, was keen to have our picture taken together.

At the time of this shoot, I must have been in class five while Vijay was in class eight. He began acting as a child. I wasn’t much into acting but I would accompany him on all his shoots. In fact, in ‘Chinnari Mutha’, I too have a small role. And the whole idea behind tagging along with my brother was to bunk school. 

I was very possessive about my brother back then and even now, after all these years, that possessiveness still remains. I remember that I would never want to watch the first few scenes of ‘Chinnari Mutha’ because my brother gets beaten up in those and I could never watch that happen to him even on the screen. 

Vijay and I were very close as children and still remain so. Our father made sure that he bought us the same clothes, shoes, toys and accessories. We used to dress alike till class 10 until we both developed different tastes.

We went to school together and played together. There were a few games that we created like ‘cycle dashing’ where the chaser would have to get the front wheel of his cycle to touch the back wheel of the person being chased for the latter to be declared out.

Once  I wasn’t able to touch Vijay’s wheel so I overtook him and he fell down. I was so upset that he got hurt because of me. We used to play ‘gully cricket’ a lot. In our neighbourhood, we had a large circle of friends, enough to form two cricket teams. 

Vijay and I would be in opposite teams and would play against each other to win what called the 'Cricket Road Cup’. It was healthy competition and we would play in the spirit of the game, sometimes cheating in between as well. Another pastime of ours was playing videos games (‘Samurai’ being our favourite), until the ‘PlayStation’ arrived much later. 

Vijay and I were enrolled in several after-school activities such as music, karate and dance. Vijay would promptly complete the course but not me. I would drop out halfway. However, the good thing is that I’ve managed to gather knowledge about everything. One of the reasons for me to not complete the courses  was that I never liked being shouted at or talked down to. 

My father and his ideals have influenced my brother and me a great deal. He would treat both of us equally and taught us to work honestly and diligently, something we follow to this day.  Another thing that I like about my father is the way he loves and respects my sister. She is married but he still cares a lot for her and is always concerned about her well-being. 

He likes it when the whole family comes together. When we were younger, whenever we planned an outing, there would be at least 30 or 40 people from the family. My father would take everybody along — my cousins and some members of the extended family too. He is also someone who never cared for money and wanted to see everybody happy.  Vijay and I have grown up to be very different people. But I am still close to him and if there is anything important that I have to discuss, then it has to be with him.Between the two of us, Vijay is the more patient one and I have learnt how to be patient from him. 

He is also someone who is very dedicated and serious about things that he is passionate about. Even today, there’s a certain innocence about the way he insists on getting the things that he likes. 

Both of us have got busy with our respective careers and families but we still make time to get together on important occasions. The memories of my childhood with Vijay will always be precious to me. SriiMurali (Actor)