2.1 Polaki village and Mandal HQ in Srikakulam Dt of AP is my mother's (late Smt Ch Sugunavathi) native place. Polaki, Srikakulam district - Wikipedia). The distance between my paternal hometown Kotabommali and Polaki is about 26 KM. My maternal grandfather, late Sri Kasimahanthi Bhanu Murthy was working in SE Railways, in Kharagpur, West Bengal. All his four sons (maternal uncles S/Sri Jayarama Murthy, Narasimha Murthy, Bhaskar Rao (Babu Mamayya) and Dakshina Murthy (Baba Mamayya), were employed in SE Rly. in Kharagpur. He also had a widowed sister, whom we used to call Appa, living with them. I remember that I visited Kharagpur in May 1964 along with my elder brother, Nageswara Rao. I was eleven years old then, and my grandfather was no more.
In my mother's arms as a toddler
My mother late Smt Ch Sugunavathi (1934-2016)
2.2 My mother might have been married in the year, 1949 to my father when they were 15 and 20 years old respectively. My elder brother was born on 20 October 1950 in Bobbili both in Srikakulam Dt, AP. Around that time, my father was working in Education Department of Andhra Government and was posted in Srikakulam Dist. During 1953, my father was selected / appointed in Medical & Health Department and was posted in Madras (now Chennai), the then combined State Capital. Madras City / State (Chennai / TN) He went alone to that far off place leaving the family (wife and 2 young children) with my maternal grandfather. I have a photograph showing my Aksharabhyasam at my grandfather's house. I have no idea when my maternal / paternal grandfathers expired. But I vaguely remember some stories of village life.
My parents late Sri Shanmukha Rao and Smt Sugunavathi in 1990
My grandmother late Smt Sundaramma with our daughter in 1986 in Tirupati AP
My grandmother late Smt Sundaramma
2.3 My father had an elder sister Smt Nagarathnam and three younger brothers, Vajrala Rao, Madhava Rao and Narasinga Rao under his responsibility. Sister was married and lived in a nearby village. She became a widow very early, with two daughters. They had cashew plantation as property and source of income. My three uncles were not well educated and the first one took up employment in Araku Valley near Visakhapatnam and was married. Two younger brothers were my father's direct responsibility, besides his widowed mother, sister and of course his own family. Later, the second brother Madhava Rao died very young, and the youngest Sri Narasinga Rao Patnaik was employed in King George Hospital, Vizag, married and settled in Pendurthi, near Simhachalam, Vizag, AP.
2.4 In 1956, when the new AP State was formed, with a temporary capital at Kurnool, my father was shifted to Hyderabad, Telangana the permanent capital in later years. Hyderabad / AP / Telangana In 1958-59, he was deputed to Guntur to set up a Regional Office of Medical Dept and we joined him thereat. I faintly remember to have lived in Kankaragunta and went to some School for a year. In 1959, he was posted back in Hyderabad and at the Directorate's Office. We accompanied him to Hyderabad and my formal education started in Govt High School, Malakpet Colony, when as a six plus years old, I was admitted directly to Standard IV. My brother joined Standard V in same School. Here is a photo taken in 1964, when I was studying VIIIth Standard. I can recall a few names like Kesavulu, Papi Reddy, Upender, Sathish, GMS Rao, M Ramakrishna, Gopala Chary, D Ramachander, P Chandrasekhar, Y Purandhar, Sathya murthy, Adinarayana, Subhadra, Suchetha, Suryakantham, Rani, Savithri, Vasundhara, Padmavathi, Padma Jyothi and others with our Class Teacher Sri Suryanarayana and HM Sri Alapati Venkateswarlu.
Me standing in the 4th row, next to GMS Rao (at second position from left)
2.5 I studied in Telugu medium till my XIth standard (HSC), which examination I passed in first division in April 1967 at the age of 14+ years. During my studies between 1959 and 1967, the school had worked under four Headmasters, Mrs BA Richards (1957-61), Sri Vishwapathy (1961-63), Sri Alapati Venkateswarlu (1963-65) and Sri D Rama Rao (1965-). Sri Rama Rao taught us English in our Xth and XIth Standard classes in 1966-67. Sri Seshagiri s/o D Rama Rao was teaching us Mathematics and Somayajulu, his other son was my junior in School. We were good students but were also indulgent sometimes. In 1965-66, I was singing one day in class, waiting for teacher to come. Suddenly, new HM walked in and shouted at us. After some days, when the HM corrected our English Test papers, and announced the result, he was shocked that I was topper, which information leaked to me even before through his son Somayajulu. Somayajulu was a brilliant student, who passed his M.Com, CA and CS with high merit and was a professional in Hyderabad. Unfortunately, he expired prematurely.
2.6 He maintained good friendship with me till his death three years ago. We do remember some names of teachers who taught us Mathematics, Science, English, Telugu and Hindi. In fact, some of our classmates are in touch even now after 55 years of passing out in 1967. Prominent among students from both A and B Sections we maintain contact now are (mostly residing in Hyderabad) Ratna Mala, Purandar, Muralidhar, K. Murali Narayana Rao, Gopala Chary, GMS Rao, T. Sanath Kumar, Ramakrishna, Siva Ramakrishna, P. Chandrasekhar, S. Chandrasekhar, D. Ramachander, TP Haridas, et al thanks to Social Media Networking. As recent as on 8th Oct 2022, our School organised a get-together for all old students, which of course, I could not attend.
Re-union of our 1967 batch in Secunderabad in October 2019
Continued ......... 3
Friday, September 30, 2022
ROLLER COASTER
My Story of Seven Decades : Dr Chowdari Prasad, Bangalore, India
I completed my seventy years of age on October 19, 2022, while I was on a long vacation with my family in Melbourne, Australia spending my leisure time with my wife Smt Kondavalasa Ganga Prasad (nee Patnaik), daughter Smt Sravanthi Chowdari, Son-in-Law Sri Krishna Kumar Rao and Grandson Master Amay Rao (5 Years plus). During the time, I decided to pen down my memories as also document certain stages of my life, at least for the benefit of my grandson. Our daughter is now settled in Melbourne and Amay is born there, so he should know all about me. Not only family members, but I would like to share my personal and career indulgences with a large number of friends, colleagues and professional associates.
In the year 1978, I read with keen interest the 1976 USA’s Best
Seller Book, ROOTS authored by Alex Haley, when my friends used to read Arthur
Haley novels. Alex Haley - His Search For Roots (1977) - YouTube This book is not a Fiction, but research work by the author about his own ancestors (12
Generations of Blacks from Africa) taken to America as Slaves. Roots: The Saga of an American Family
- Wikipedia. A Television Serial Roots 1977 Cast: THEN AND NOW [45 Years After] - YouTube was also aired in US in
1978 with the story of ROOTS: Roots (1977 miniseries) - Wikipedia. Of course, there were some controversies too. Generally, my reading of books is limited to Biographies and real-life stories
of individuals or corporates of success, rather than novels or fiction stories, from which we can take inspiration to learn and progress in life.
I read books written by Lee Iacocca,
Steve Jobs, Akio Morita, Chetan Bhagat, Ravi Subramanian, Pearl S Buck, Capt GR Gopinath, Dhirubhai Ambani, Bill Gates, MK
Gandhi, Richard Branson, NR Narayana Murthy, Subroto Bagchi, Verghese Kurien, Robert Schuler, Sucheta Dalal, Jack Welch, Nandan Nilekani, Muhammad Yunus, Rashmi Sehgal, Rajesh Chakrabarti, Kishore Biyani, B Yerram Raju and on SBI, AMUL,
MARUTI, GE, McKensey, etc. There is a lot of learning
in all these books.
Last year, I associated with my senior ex-colleague of SBI, an Economist, Researcher, Risk Manager, Academician and Author of large number of research articles, columns and 15 books on SMEs, Agriculture, Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, Risk Management, Development Banking, Rural Development, etc who captured his 80 years of life having spent more than five decades in Development Banking. He is Dr B Yerram Raju of Hyderabad, and the book was titled ROOTS TO FRUITS: THE JOURNEY OF DEVELOPMENT BANKER. Yerram Raju (yerramraju1.com)DEVELOPMENT BANKER IN HIS LONG JOURNEY | AN INTERVIEW BY M.SOMASEKHAR - YouTube
I felt the need to document my own roots and different stages of my life and career, if not of the above levels or high standards, but in my own blog called Progressive Banker with a fond hope that my next generation viz., my daughter, son-in-law, grandson, nephews, nieces or grandchildren would someday lay their hands to know our roots viz., Relatives, Family Tree or Ancestors, Hometown, Community, Language, Culture, Festivals, Food, Education, Employment, Migration to different places, etc. Today, Life for the young / new generation may be a cake walk with all possible amenities and modern facilities, but their ancestors' travelled miles and miles to reach where we are now.
I chose to give the title of ROLLER COASTER to this story, with a view to requesting the reader to go through patiently the chronological events in my life and appreciate the UPs and DOWNs I went through in the seventy years. Some of these may be self-inflicted (like Aa Bail, Muzhe Maar) for which I own the full responsibility. Same time, I was also a victim of circumstances beyond my control, and I believed blindly in some fake friends. Those whom I thought were my Mentors, turned out to be Tormenters too.
I love friends, relatives, colleagues and friendship since my childhood and at School / College / Office / Society and maintain good contacts. Since 2009, I have been indulging in or using some Social Media Platforms like
besides my own Blog in the name of "Progressive Banker" since 2009 and StarMaker a Karaoke App for my hobby of Singing in Hindi and Telugu since 2019. Introduction of Prof Chowdaari Prasad
Albert Einstein advised not to share five things with anyone. I sincerely followed him.
Albert Einstein (11879-1955), well known German born Physicist advised not to share:
01. The Secret of your success
02. Your problems with anyone
03. Your dreams with anyone
04. About your Earnings and
05. Your family problems with anyone.
My attempt would be to recap the chronology of events in my life and career, with some supporting data, links, photographs, etc to narrate the story in the following order:
1.1 My native place is Kotabommali, in Srikakulam Dist., in North of Andhra Pradesh State. My grandmother late Smt Chowdari Sundaramma used to tell us that our great grandfather Sri Venkanna Patnaik and grandfather Sri Malleswara Rao Patnaik lived in Kotabommali. It is mentioned only in my School / College records and Passport but I hardly lived or known in that place, ever since my father late Sri Ch Shanmukha Rao Patnaik (1929-1990); I am his second son) moved out for his employment in erstwhile combined State Government of Madras, and later Kurnool, Guntur and Hyderabad (AP) during 1950s. I was born in Salur village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salur on 19th October 1952 and started my early schooling and further career in Hyderabad (from 1959) and elsewhere in last seven decades. I am now settled in Bangalore, Karnataka since April 1996.
1.2 Polaki village is the hometown of my mother, late Smt Ch. Sugunavathi (1934-2016). Kotabommali RS (Railway Station) is a small Village / hamlet in Santhabommali Mandal in Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh State, India. It comes under Govindapuram Panchayath. It belongs to Andhra region. It is located 42 KM towards East from District headquarters Srikakulam, 9 KM from Santhabommali and 716 KM from Hyderabad. I post here a few photos from the Internet.
1.3 Kotabommali RS Pin code is 532195 and postal head office is Kotabommali. Akkayyavalasa (2 KM ) , Jagannadhapuram ( 2 KM ) , Kurudu ( 2 KM ) , Jarjangi ( 3 KM ) , Sariyaboddapadu ( 3 KM ) are the nearby Villages to Kotabommali RS. It is surrounded by Santhabommali Mandal towards East, Tekkali Mandal towards North, Saravakota Mandal towards west, Jalumuru Mandal towards west. Palasa, Kasibugga , Amadalavalasa , Parlakhemundi , Srikakulam are the nearby towns to Kotabommali RS. It is near to Bay of Bengal. There is a chance of humidity in the weather. Telugu is the Local Language here. Total population of Kotabommali RS is 3377. Males are 1668 and Females are 1,709 living in 776 Houses. Total area of Kotabommali RS is 498 hectares.
1.4 Kotabommali in Srikakulam, (neighboring Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam Districts in North Andhra) is the focal point of Sistakaranams who have traditionally been holding the responsibility of maintaining village land records etc. Teaching is said to be the other profession the Community members are largely engaged in. In fact, there is a Karanam Bhasha, spoken language (hybrid between Telugu and Odiya) which our older members / natives speak at home. Over a period, due to political and administrative reasons, the position of Village Karanams got abolished and Govt Officials from Revenue Department manage the job now. The origin of Sistakaranams community is not totally clear but we have some literature connecting the community to Bengal, Odisha and North Andhra. Today, Sistakaranams are distributed all over..... in Telangana, Karnataka, TN, Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, MP, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, North Eastern States and also abroad like in USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Gulf, Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and many other countries where they migrated in search of greener pastures.
This blog was initially conceived to be purely for my professional and academic connect with the Banking Industry in India. In course of time, as my interests kept changing and I got some leisure to pursue Karaoke singing in YouTube and StarMaker platforms and share the same with my friends.
In fact, I myself realised the hidden interest if not talent or hobby of singing some of the old melodies from Hindi and Telugu films. Interestingly, the lyrics and background music available for several of the old movies which are eternal masterpieces came handy to me to develop a new hobby with passion coupled with a new learning challenge so that I venture to sing several songs, solos and duets in the two languages as also ghazals of Jagjit Singh or Ghulam Ali and a few English hits from ABBA and BoneyM of my younger years.
To my surprise, I went on recording over 200 songs in my YouTube page, of which some are posted here in this Blog. Similarly, I posted more than 3,600 songs in the new and highly popular and sophisticated StarMaker page where I partnered with about 100 female collaborators from all over India.
Today, I got an idea to write chronology of events in my life and career in this blog, covering my student days / years and professional career including the ups and downs I went through. Heading towards celebrating my 70 years of life in ensuing October month, while I am staying in Melbourne, Australia on a long holiday living with our daughter's family, I could find time to pen down memories.
As it is I have the strong flair for friendship and convenience of using several social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and other professional pockets. Let me make a beginning from today with posting some Karaoke songs from YouTube page.
.jpg)
