Bundoo, Gundoo and such others

Three families that come to mind from ACC, Wadi at this stage, and whom I feel like talking about a bit, are Rego, Soley and Isiah. Not for any particular reason except that all three men were built physically more or less alike. Atleast Rego did not have any children who were our classmates. Two of Soley’s children were much older to us, but Bundoo was our junior by two years. Isiah had several children of which Anand or Stanley was senior to us by two years, Gundu or Mary Magdalene was our junior by one year and Samson and Milton were kids. So it is not as if they were in class with me but they were interesting families for different reasons.

First Rego. He was a Fat Anglo Indian, who was at ACC, Dwaraka with my father before he came to Wadi. They spoke Hindi like Pramnath and family of the movie Julie. “Kya Kartai man? Kaiko Kitkit kartai man. Jesus Dekhtai” etc. They had children called Stany Rego and Claudie Rego, one of which was a girl. She became an airhostess, we heard. There was once an earthquake in Wadi. Rego was at our house at that time sitting on a reclining chair. He toppled and fell. It was the only earthquake I remember to have occurred in Wadi. We now hear Wadi is on the Deccan Plateau and is rather safe as far as earthquakes are concerned. Thank God for that. I don’t know where the Regos are now.

Soley and family were an orthodox Marathi family that lived above the house of Jayachandran’s neighbour Mathews, the Compounder from Valakom. They came from Kymore. (You will see that whenever I talk of people in ACC Wadi, I mention their ACC ancestry very much like the Gotras followed by Brahmins). I don’t remember their elder childrens’ names but they were of the age of Lakshmi Pathy and her brother Shashi. Mrs. Soley was a strict character, and the Soley’s didn’t encourage us to play around with their children or enter their house much because of their orthodoxy. Their son Devendra Soley, whom they called Bundoo, was our junior. Bundoo couldn’t pronounce “r” clearly. He was ordinary throughout, except that by the time we graduated, Bundoo had developed a debilitating form of arthritis, which severely handicapped him. By then Soley had retired and had taken a rented house in the Bajaar area near Kismet Talkies. This handicap made Bundoo rather special to us and his house became a favourite hangout for us, most evenings. Then on, the Soley household also eagerly welcomed us and for all of us they were very pleasant evenings spent, watching TV, sprawled on the floor, and having all sorts of snacks and tea regularly provided by Mrs. Soley, and Mr. Soley joking and enjoying our company much more than Bundoo himself. When we talked about Uncle or Auntie, we meant Mr. or Mrs. Soley. I don’t know where they are now either.

Isiah was a more curious character. P.D.Isiah. A Telugu converted Christian who came from Mancherial. He was a trade unionist. He ran a Network, much like the Bhais of Bombay. He stayed in our building, on the ground floor below Gomathy’s second floor house. (Between Gomathy’s house and Isiahs, on the first floor, were the Binny’s, another interesting family). He had 6-7 children I guess. Most people in the Colony were in fear of their family since Isiah was a leader and Mrs. Isiah was a shrew. An incident which we had heard about, was that, when their daughter Mary Magdalene ran away from home once (as the Isiah children were wont to do time and again), she was caught and brought back by the Network and Mrs. Isiah promptly shaved off her luxuriant hair. She thus became bald, and in Telugu Gundoo means bald. The name Gundoo stuck and we called her that thereafter. We kids of ordinary folk didn’t have much courage to mix up with their kids. Samson and Milton, the youngest ones were born while at Wadi. They used to run around the neighbourhood in the nude (as little children of course!). Anand was a sort of a hero, looking smart and well dressed, and was a classmate of Latha Thankachan. He harboured pretensions of being close to Latha, whom as I had already mentioned in an earlier post, was rather winsome. There were many terrifying stories surrounding the Isiahs, but as time passed and the Eighties came, Samson became one of my closest friends, and stayed so till I left Wadi.

Postscript: I heard that Mr.Soley passed away under tragic circumstances, and that Bundoo and his mother are not doing very well either. I dont know if what I heard was true, but if it is, then there is a lot, Humanity has to be ashamed about. If anyone who reads this blog, knows anything more about it, please post your comments so that atleast we, if not the world, may know.