Photo from https://sssmediacentre.org/sai-inspires/?date=2026-08-19 - I believe this is atop the 'Hanuman' hill, before the statues were built.
Morning was our chance. All the boys went for marchpast ⇒ Hospital + CTBT + Old Boys for bhajan. (CTBT stood for Central Trust / Book Trust - the nickname for us who were formerly students and now employed there. In those days, the morning bhajans were without mics, and bhajans were held in the bhajan hall - we would be seated right in front.) Ravi, Srinivas Rao, Lu led together. When You came in (inside with uncle [Sri Chiranjeevi Rao] till Ganesa bhajan) looked at us and sat down. Scanning all of us throughout. Tabla Srinivas Rao, Naal Chourey, Harmonium Dheeraj - You saw all the "old gang". Enthu, fast.
Evening, VCR (VC and Registrar) + Dr. U S Rao called in first - You came at 2.40 pm, cutting across ladies' side diagonally as ATP weren't there. You wanted the MBA boys, too, but they weren't around. Later, came one by one, and when Arun came, they went in, and KBR put off music! After half an hour, You came out, called ATP, went up to the window, "Boys, leke aao" - they brought cartons and cartons of tetrapaks. "Keep there" - other side of pillar, not on this side... You went in. In due course a flow of tetrapaks meant for boys, piled up near the lions. You came and asked BNN (Sri B N Narasimhamurthy, the Warden of Brindavan campus at that time),
"Chikkindaa?" ("Did you get?")
"Ledu, Swami" (No, Swami.)
- turned to Arun, "Kept separately".
"Cheppi ivvaali, kadaa? Ikkade. Petthe emi prayojanam?" (Must tell them and give, here itself, right? What is the use of keeping separately?) etc,
Walked up to VC, "Modern education, common sense, general knowledge zero. Thelivi ekkuva..." (They have more bookish knowledge...)
Later, cartons for boys and girls, boxes of mints, ... You came and told them to take the mints, then to VC, "Cheppi Ivvaali, kadaa?" etc. Then You came, spoke to Muni aunty, DJ with 2 buckets behind - more buckets of toffees - both sides.
Called Prusty, to tell the driver to get the jeep and take these things. Told ladies, jeep is coming.
After the incident with BNN, Arun spoke to Wardens, again You came and asked, "Janardan, how many?" 400. BNN? 400. SSSS? 400. Then, "Inka unnaaye!" ("Still some are left!) Arun mumbled something ⇒ 'How can you say you got before getting?' to SSSS! Another round of fetching.
Went to Poornachandra at 4.50 again cutting diagonally across. Came back at 5.20, told to stop flute and start bhajans (which would have started at 5.30). Delhi cultural program.
After bhajan, 5:45, Anil Kumar Sir announced Delhi Cultural Program at 6:30 & tomorrow at 7:30 AM (Sports Meet in the Stadium). Delhi school's was good. Small children ⇒ OK. Drama 'Dharmakshetra' with angel coming in to Namaskar music (which used to be "darshan music" for a while), Kannappa, fairyland, group song. After Arati, You stood at the centre of 100-odd kids who didn't push - while going, tweaked 'deer's nose!
Afternoon, got chit (for sitting in a special spot in Mandir) from Registrar from his house for Prof Arun of IITM, his engineer Jayaraman + 2 AC mechanics. But You cut diagonally across ⇒ their wait without food was of no avail.
(Planetarium) Show for Jaipur & Bhopal (Sathya Sai womens' colleges) - KVR (Prof K Venkataramanaiah, who was also Director of the Planetarium at that time) was called to mandir by uncle - "Swami's giving discourse, arrange table, mic" [All India Conveners, inside bhajan hall - You waved away the table ⇒ KBR (Prof KBR Prasad)/KVR came out - that's what KVR told me]. PR (Sri Pedda Reddy, who used to run the Planetarium shows as well as care for Sai Gita) was with the AC (repair) people, asked him & started. So, first show on my own. Bharadwaja story (in the planetarium show) was full of Kotlus (Hostel slang, indicating a mistake or malapropism) as I did not put the override off - all slides had to be manually forwarded! Anyway, I'll never do it again. Then, KVR told me to change (the planetarium show, from "Cosmic Architecture of the Universe") to "Celestial Cycles". One and a half hours to change slides and align projectors for PANs.
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