Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXXIV No. 11, September 16-30, 2024
When 97 is Just a Number
-- by Srinivasa Chari
Visiting the Hande Hospital in Shenoy Nagar and sitting with its pater familias Dr H. Venkataramana Hande, physician to the hoi polloi (leading the treatment of MGR when he took critically ill in 1984 is a different and compelling story), wise politico and author of books including a prose rendering in English of the Kamba Ramayana, I am taken on a flashback of the 40s, 50s, 60s and so on. At 97 years, his remembrances of national and local events including names and dates are vivid. A sample – in connection with the Quit India movement,Nehru, Sardar Patel and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad while addressing a meeting in Chowpathy, Bombay, were arrested on the evening of August 8, 1942. The next day when the news was splashed in the papers, it led to students coming out into the streets en masse. In Mangalore, H.V. Hande was among the students who came out and were lathi-charged. The injured were taken to hospital and it so happened that Hande’s father was the RMO there.
Dr. H.V. Hande. Picture from our archive.Dr. Hande respectfully addressed as ‘Periyavar’ in the hospital, still treats patients in the same neighbourhood where he started practice in 1950. Recently, I was witness to his no-fuss treatment and his innate bedside manner. Concerning this city, he has cherished memories of ‘Madras’ and sadly not such a complimentary opinion of ‘Chennai’ of these days. Going down the memory lane, he says there was a time when children living nearby would come alone to meet him and return with mixtures and tablets dispensed by the compounder. His fees – half a rupee for children and a rupee for adults. Fast forwarding to 1980, he was my family doctor too. I can’t forget an incident when I was a 16-year-old (now 60)… he had lost the Anna Nagar Assembly election by 699 votes to a formidable opponent, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, but won the hearts of the people. Having taken the verdict sportingly, he offered me a toffee when I went into his room.
A special reminiscence of the Doctor is his first visit to Madras as a 10-year-old in 1937. He accompanied his father Dr. H.M. Hande, Government Assistant Surgeon, travelling from Nellore to the city to watch a cricket Test match between England and India at Chepauk. Paying five rupees for the 5-day game and seated on wooden benches, they saw Lala Amarnath score a century before lunch and Amar Singh take 6 for 36. Of course the Indians won. In 1943, young Hande had been admitted to the GH for 15 days for suspected TB. His doctor was a Britisher – McRoberts, a kind man who assured the senior Hande that his son was in safe hands. This was a time when the city residents fled to the suburbs fearing Japanese bombing. In 1945, H.V. Hande came to Madras for his medical studies in the present-day Kilpauk Medical College. Here, all the students were members of the Indian Students Congress who gathered to discuss the day-to-day happenings including the details in the Constituent Assembly.
Continuing his recollections, the doctor tells me that in the days gone by the Madras beach was his favourite go-to place, visited on Sunday evenings with wife and sons Krishna and Vishwanath with a picnic hamper in hand, and on other days with his elder brother H.G. Hande and friend N.M. Narayan, the music critic of The Hindu. There NMN would regale them with Carnatic songs especially in Begada raga because he was a student of ‘Begada’ Ramanathan. Absolutely safe, the Beach was a heaven, he says.
He particularly remembers Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the city when he stayed in the Hindi Prachar Sabha campus in 1946. Dr. Hande never failed to attend the evening prayer meetings of Gandhiji who would also give a short speech. After his marriage, he discovered that his wife had also been present at those prayer meetings as a Sarada Vidyalaya student-volunteer.
On a lighter note, he displays his amusement at the memory of watching people deftly get off the trams before they came to a stop. Asked about the cars he had, the first was a used ‘Morris 8’ costing Rs 4,000, his second a new ‘Standard 10’ costing Rs 10,500 and his third a new Ambassador costing 17K. The last was with the registration number 5959. Since then all his cars bear the same number. He has a special word of praise for the Connemara Public Library of yore which he frequented. Dust-proof, it was a fine place, he says.
His electoral debut was a triumphant one. In 1964 he won an MLC seat from the Madras City Graduates’ constituency trouncing candidates of the DMK, Congress and Swatantra Party who lost their deposits. ‘‘Of course I had prepared for six months before the election,’’ he smiles. Veteran K. Kamaraj who was the All India Congress Committee President at that time asked to meet him and complimented him for his victory and his attire – Khadi shirt and a Khadi trouser – which was a novelty then. Dr Hande smartly remarked, ‘Naan medu neenga malai’ (I am a mound, you are a mountain). Another classic anecdote: It was the year 1967 and DMK was emerging victorious in the Assembly elections. Dr Hande won from Park Town representing the Swatantra Party who were in an alliance with the DMK. He was at Anna’s house having gone there to thank him. There was a burst of fire crackers outside and Anna asked what the matter was. Party workers said that Kamaraj had lost and hence the crackers. Anna angrily asked them to stop the celebrations and remarked that a leader like Kamaraj could not be replaced in a hundred years.
Just as our meeting comes to a close, a young postwoman is ushered into the room with an MO. She verifies that Doctor is the right recipient and hands him a 10 rupee note. Quizzical, ‘the good doctor’ signs where he is supposed to and thanks her for all the trouble she has taken.
