The Rise and Fall of Kurnool Sutthi Peetham (Hammering Club)

(KC Kalkura)

Friendly gatherings of like-minded people or different opinions during leisure hours are common. Intellectual conversations take place at these meetings. Ancient scriptures are the finest examples of such stimulating debates.

As they had no platform of their own, leaders of the American War of Independence used to meet in restaurants, particularly the centuries-old Union Oyster House in Boston. Photos of the celebrities are exhibited in the restaurant. (I visited it more than once in 2008.) They are inspiring. The origin of International Clubs like the Rotary, Lions, Leo, and Alleys can be traced to such meetings.

In the couple of years that followed the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, a joke made rounds in Hyderabad that the Cabinet formation was actually done in Vasanth Vihar, Mysore Cafe and Abids Taj Mahal while the formal swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan. New MLA quarters at the Basheer Bagh were yet to be constructed. So for want of accommodation in MLA quarters, members from Telangana were staying in Vasanth Vihar in Abids, those from Rayalaseema in Mysore Cafe on Nampally station road and Coastal Andhra in Abids Taj.

In the past, municipal councilors used to meet in hotels, discuss the agenda and then sign the Minutes books in the office. Madras Cafe in Adoni, Udupi Brahmins Hotel and Restaurant and later Welcome Hotel in Kurnool and Meenakshi Bhavan or Udupi Coffee Bar at Nandyal were favorite haunts.

Udupi Brahmins’ Hotel and Restaurant, Kurnool was the most modern hotel in Rayalaseema. Located in the Fort area, it was fully electrified and had many modern amenities. Earlier it belonged to Barrister O.Lakshmanaswamy Rao, a Congress leader. Hence the building was known as Barrister’s Bungalow. He lived there for quite some time. He was a municipal chairman and an MLA.

Kurnool District Congress Committee Office was located in a small congested room at the entrance of the King (Pedda) Market, Kurnool.  It was causing inconvenience to the leaders and workers to gather. Hence, most of them, freedom fighters, were meeting in the spacious compound of the Udupi Brahmins Hotel, sitting on folding chairs and carrying on discussions and working out strategies. Coffee and snacks were served in the hotel to the patriots; courtesy Udupi Padmanabhacharar, hotel proprietor. Leaders like Rajaji, Rajendra Prasad and Prakasam were put up in the Hotel.

The Congress was banned in the Nizam’s dominions. Social and literary organizations like Andhra, Kannada, and Maharashtra Saraswatha Parishads were confined to the Renaissance movement.  The Hyderabad Liberation movement was run from outside the State through camps at Vijayawada, Nagpur, Pune, Kakinada, and Kurnool. These meetings,  known as Hyderabad Political Conferences, were held outside Nizam as the political activities were banned in the Nizam domain. One such meeting held at Poona in 1928 was attended by none other than Netaji Subash Chandra Bose.

Paga Pulla Reddy, later MLA from Gadwal and litterateur, historian, and scholar Gadiyaram Ramakrishna Sarma, who renounced politics after independence, headed the Kurnool Camp.

A radio station was established on the banks of the Tungabhadra. Camp proper was housed atop the Udupi Brahmins’ Hotel. Leaders and workers used to cross the river after the sunset and return before dawn. They did not have to bother about food. The ever-generous Padmanabhacharar would ensure that. ‘Eat as and when and as much as you want and pay as and when and as much as you have.’ That seemed to be his motto, according to freedom fighter turned journalist Late V Krishnamurthy. In fact, hoteliers and restaurateurs all over the country were hospitable to the freedom fighters.

In 1960s, ’70s and 80s,  in Kurnool, town elders, mostly retired officials, would meet in Potti Sriramulu Children’s Park, while some of us, businessmen, pressmen, teachers, and advocates assembled at the Police Grounds, near Kondareddy Buruju until the Seventies. Our gathering was self-styled as SANDS’ CLUB.

One could not even imagine an electronic era during the mid-’70s.  Reporters would file their dispatches at the Telegraph office, near the then Bus stand, (Now old bus stand) by noon and rarely later.

Kalkura Hotel, opened in February 1975, was just a stone’s throw from the Telegraph office. After wiring their reports, reporters would head to Kalkura Hotel. The hotel office room on the second floor became a natural venue for politicians, professionals, and journalists to gather and discuss this and that, simply everything under the sun over a ‘half cup of tea’. Senior Congress leaders like Sardar Nagappa, member of the Constituent  Assembly; TKR Sarma, Ex.MLA,  A. Vengala Reddy, H. Satyanarayana, later MLAs, were among the regulars. JSRK Sarma, a Telugu protagonist was an occasional intruder.

The assembly was self-styled as SUTTHI PEETHAM (సుత్తి పీఠం). The members were served a complimentary half cup of tea or coffee by Kalkura hotel. Kurnool city also falls in the category of towns where friends share a cup of coffee by ordering ‘one by two’

As a regular and a host, I was made the Peetadhipathi. The first member arrived around ten and the last one left by 2 pm. The ever-smiling Moorthy or Raghavendra, Ranganath and Ramaswamy all cashiers at the hotel,  used to take care of the hon’ble members of the Peetham in my absence.

Among the journalists were the grand old professionals like V. Ramachandran of The Hindu, Krishnaswamy (PTI), and Pandit Siva Sarma ( AIR and Eenadu). Known to each other for decades, all of them, including the above-mentioned politicians, were witnesses to Kurnool becoming the Capital of Andhra State on October 1, 1953. After a long stint in Kurnool, Ramachandran was transferred. A vintage Halda typewriter was always made available to the scribes to file the stories in the afternoons now and then.

Dasu Kesava Rao of The Hindu came to Kurnool as Roving correspondent in 1977 and joined the peetham. Kesava Rao, who was transferred to Hyderabad in September 1979, retired as Deputy Editor cum chief of Hyderabad bureau of The Hindu.  He was succeeded by Mahesh Vijapurkar in Kurnool in 1979. He was an active member of the Peetham until his transfer to  Ahmedabad in June, 1983 and there on to Mumbai, where he retired as Deputy Editor cum Bureau chief.

 Ramachandran returned to Kurnool in 1983 for his third stint until the late 90s. He handed over the mantle to a youngster, D. Srinivasulu. Siva Sarma, Eenadu part-timer was the CEO of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, Kurnool District. Purushotham, who died recently (2021), was probably the first staffer of Eenadu at Kurnool.

T.Madhusudhana Rao came to Kurnool as the first staff reporter of Indian Express and Andhra Prabha in 1977 and soon made a mark for himself. He would lead reporters to the peetham. He formed an independent lobby for them. Later, Madhusudana Rao served at Tirupati, Bellary, Visakhapatnam, and Kakinada where he settled down after retirement.

Members of the media fraternity to join the peetham during the Eighties and later included Purushotham, K. Rangaiah (Vaartha), R. Jagadeeswara Rao (Indian Express and later The Hindu at Rajamahendravaram), Brahmanandam (Visalandhra and Andhra Jyothi), Mohan Rao (Andhra Patrika and later corporate PRO), Jinka Nagaraju of Vaartha and Srinivas Reddy of Andhra Bhoomi and Deccan Chronicle.

Politicians also used to join us and exchange ideas. The debates were sometimes heated, but never crossed the limits of decency and were free of rancor. We used to greet each other with the slogan, Sutthiyenamaha.

As years rolled by, politicians left the peetham. With the advent of modern technologies in communications, reporters became more preoccupied with their professional work and had little time for peetham activities. Attendance was thinning out. I tried to keep the peetham alive during my tenure as chairman of the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha (1992-96) when the sittings took place in my office, which was close to Kalkura Hotel.

The peetham slipped into history by the turn of the century. But nostalgic memories remain green. Whenever we happen to meet, we talk fondly about those good old days. The iconic Kalkura Hotel pulled the shutters down on the last day of the year 2003.

(KC Kalkura, a former hotelier, and  an advocate from Kurnool)