JOIN USI did my pre-university and graduation (BSc) in Vijaya College between 1961 and 1965. I lost a year and my sister who was one year junior caught up with me at the Graduation Ceremony.
Mrs Indira Gandhi, then PM of India, addressed the convocation of Bangalore University at the Glass House, Lalbagh. My sister and I took an auto rickshaw to Lalbagh North Gate enroute to Glass House. When we got down, we realised that West Gate was reserved only for VIPs. We walked along Krumbigal Road to the East Gate and then to Glass House with our gowns and caps.
Mrs Gandhi spoke for 10 to 12 minutes. We could hardly make out what she said because of the din in the auditorium. We were seated near the aisle and when Mrs Gandhi walked back we could see her within a close range, that is the closest I have ever come to a national leader. After that my sister and I rushed to Ajanta Studio in Gandhi Bazar to take pictures in gradutation attire.
Vijaya College was a grey-toned, two-storeyed, block-brick structure with a spacious quadrangle (which doubled as kho-kho ground and open-air auditorium). There was a cricket practice pitch on the right, a badminton court, cycle stand and reading room behind the college building with no compound wall around the campus. There was a huge slum behind the college.
The slum dwellers and residents of Jayanagar 2nd Block trespassed through the college yard. A decision was taken to build a compound wall around the premises partly with funds raised through contributions from students. The NCC (Rifles) Company led by 2/Lt K Rajagopalachar made a major contribution towards this fund.
I had secured a half-free ship in the final year so Rs 120 was refunded to me, which I donated to the compound fund without the knowledge of my grandparents. Most of the students came from surrounding areas – Jayanagar, Gandhi Bazar, NR Colony, Hanumanthanagar, Visweswarapuram, Mavalli etc. Some came from Malleswaram and Rajajinagar also. A majority of them came walking or by bus. Some came by bicycles even as far as from Malleswaram. There were only two students in the final degree class who came on motorbikes, one was LD Govindarajan.
Our college had a reasonably good cricket team. MS Madwesh was the captain. HR Venkatesh was our star performer: quiet, shy, thin and frail. He was the first batsman to score a 100 for the college team. He collapsed out of exhaustion almost immediately after reaching the century.
The college administration presented him with a Bradman bat. Another character in our team was L Venkataraman, a left arm seam bowler. He represented Bangalore University in a match against Bombay University and seemed to have bowled Farokh Engineer with a vicious in-swing.
The rest of the year, we patiently heard the graphic account of this one delivery at least a dozen times from him. Besides the excellent time I had during my college days , three incidents stand out in my memory – assassination of John Kennedy and death of Pandit Nehru. Both were my heroes. The third was India’s rare win against Australia in a cricket test in Bombay with great contributions from BS Chandrasekar, RG Nadakarni and MAK Pataudi.
We were in an NCC camp near KGF when the news reached us. All the cadets went wild throwing the lunch boxes in the air, screaming and dancing.