Filmindia (1941)

FILMINDIA I was alone — and on a holiday. "It will be a grand holiday for both of us, Rita" Those words I was rolling in my mind. The holiday had begun taking a grand shape. Kalyan, Karjat, Lonavla, Poona — all throughout so far, not one minute was lost. Questions came at the rate of one a minute. Faults were found at the rate of two a minute. And between proverbs and lectures we travelled on our "holiday." Even the train seemed to run faster — away from this man who likes his own voice so much that he likes to can it in the ears of every one whom he calls a friend. "An idle mind is a devil's workshop"— that came when I closed my eyes for a moment to relax. With Baburao Patel you must think and think furiously every minute but not in advance of him. Your speed of thinking must synchronise with his. If it is faster than you get "Don't be smart", if it is slower then "Oh, what a dumb-bell! Haven't you any brains?" And with this man, I have spent years and I am still holding the .iob with the same "certainty" with which I began on the first day. But let me turn to my "holiday." March 1941 Did I forget the other passengers? Yes, we had four others. I wonder what they thought of us talking all the while. One of them had to bear right till Madras. He did seem like needing first aid at the end of it. MANAGE ONE, MANAGE ALL Baburao Patel not only knew everything about his own business, but he did manage to get everything out of the other passengers. One of them was an oil company inspector and under the fire of questioning— ofcourse, more subtle and soothing with strangers — we knew that petrol would be soon rationed, that the prices per gallon of petrol would shoot up — that Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer has a son employed in Rally Brothers — that Sir AUadi, the Advocate-General of Madras is a simple short and unassuming person — that the Aiyangars were Vaishnavites and the Aiyars were Shaivites — that Tamilians were commercial and the Telugus emotional — that the Tamilians were hard-working while the Telugus took things more easily. Oh, just imagine Baburao Patel at his throat for a day and a half — asking, asking and still asking. The poor man even told us of his sweetheart beside his wife and took some expert advice from Baburao Patel. A million things — too numerous for an article — were taken out from the man who took forty years to know what he had to shell out within a day and half. Breaking for dinner Baburao Patel still talked, his interest in food being, as usual, casual — we thought that we had all worked hard for a good night's sleep. The conventional preparations prior to actual sleep were made but just then Baburao Patel wondered about humidity and one of the passengers, who had a flare for star-gazing entered into a discussion. Between my boss and that man the entire weather of the world was discussed effectively till the climate in the compartment became too warm and oppressive. THEY BEGIN COmNG Morning, we reached Adoni and a crowd of over sixty students called for Baburao Patel. They were his "filmindia" fans, who asked lor Aiter all, Suhrahmanyam is not so harmless as people think. Ever Smiling and generous to a fault Director K. Suhrahmanyam seems to he having a lovely crowd of his own. The eldest is, of course, Lalita. 24