Gangaraju Gunnam

I would never have been in HPS, but for a Government Merit scholarship.

I wouldn’t have been in this batch either, celebrating the Re-union, but for Mr. Ahsan Ali Khan, our class teacher in 9th . That’s when you chose between the streams to drown in, Matric or ISC. I opted for Matric, in keeping with the prevalent perception that ISC was tough. Mr. Khan demurred and here I was, stuck with you guys.

Was a boarder, from 5 B to 12 B. Did nothing noteworthy except when hailed, “Dey! Gangaraju, get your dynamite!” by Mr. Daniel Sam for the fiery ‘Avakai’ I’d bring from home. Then the whole dining hall reverberated with my name. Even the boards with names of Captains and Head boys shook.

A few months after passing out of school, I met a girl. She was 14, just written her 10th, I was 16. We married immediately in our minds and in a mandap 7 years later.

In between, I failed to crack medical entrance tests, loitered for a year, then joined BA, was booted out of Andhra Loyola College for a strike, loitered another aimless year, passed BA privately while I Sales Repped for a tobacco company and sold cigarettes to every pan-shop in EG District, did MA in English at Andhra University and joined State Bank of India as a Probationary Officer. By now I was married. And by all counts, I was finally settled.

I resigned within 18 months realising I wouldn’t’t be a bankable banker. Along with friends, started an Ad agency which raced for 5 years, then turned turtle. Opened an ice-cream parlour that simply melted away, designed and published ‘Font’ Greeting Cards, made 6 movies (a double hat-trick, all failed to make money) and 8 TV serials.

They won some awards, but then, awards are more a reflection of the quality of the jury than that of the movie.

After all the loitering, I did end up doing the work I desired. But my movie career resembled Richard Burton’s face. As described, “five miles of village dirt road.” The path was/is pock-marked and pitted. Yet it’s what I love.

Abiding memories of school are the friends, the library books, and of course, the teachers — Jim Bray, Usha Gideon, Chandrasekhar, Cherian, Ahsan Ali Khan (distributing Cadbury Gems during an exam).