Initial days of Gokarna Mandala, New Delhi

It was a pleasant morning of Sunday, 15th October, 1978 a gathering of about 100 Havyakas (including ladies and children) assembled for a picnic-cum-lunch-on-meeting at Lodhi Gardens, New Delhi organized by senior Havyaka residents of Delhi/New Delhi under the leadership of late Shri Munglimane Subbanna Bhat (fondly known as M.S.Bhat or Subbanna)  and few others.  Myself and my wife were two of the invitees for the picnic.

I had landed in Delhi with my wife for the first time, a month before, as Branch Manager of Corporation Bank, GK-II Branch having been transferred from Pune. When we had landed in Delhi on 07.09.1978, we had known only 3 families – one, my cousin – Shri C.G.Shastry (since deceased) – then working for Engineers India Ltd., Shri M.S.Bhat (since deceased) – then at a senior post with Indian Railways and Dr. A.T. Jayagovinda – then professor of International Law, JNU (presently in Bangalore having retired as Vice-Chancellor/Director or so of Karnataka State Law University, if I am not wrong).

Shri M.S.Bhat had known me earlier also when I was in Mumbai (between 1970 to 1976) and was aware that then I was an active member and a Committee Member of Havyaka Association (now known as Havyaka Welfare Trust) of Mumbai in those days.

After lunch, in the meeting of the Havyakas then present (Constituent Assembly) on 15.10.1978, it was decided to formally register the Havyaka Association of Delhi and those present elected or selected Dr. L.S.Bhat (then working with NCERT) as the President, Shri T.S.Bhat (then retired from Central Govt. – if I remember right) as the Vice President, me as the Hon. Secretary, Shri Venkatesh (then working for Syndicate Bank) as the Hon. Treasurer, Shri K. Ishwara Bhat (Kannada School), Shri P.Vittala Bhat (BHEL) and 3 more whose names which I do not remember – as the members of the Ad-hoc Managing Committee. It was decided to register the Association in the coming days.  Shortly thereafter, Shri Ch.S.Bhat who was then recently transferred as Manager of Canara Bank and then residing at East of Kailash/Kailash Colony joined the Committee and he was appointed as the Hon. Joint. Secretary.

It was a great surprise or rather a shock to me for my election or selection as the first Hon. Secretary for 3 reasons – (1) I was completely new to Delhi – just a month old baby and not knowing rather anybody, (2) I had a challenge to establish my Bank branch as its opening manager in an unknown locality with unknown popularity of the Bank then and (3) I was just 26 years old then.

Anyways, accepting a challenge was my passion.  I had the experience of working in the committee (as Hon. Joint Secretary also) of the Havyaka Association at Mumbai.  I had done the spade work collecting the data of each and every Havyaka in Pune, by visiting the houses of each of them, for the registration of the Havyaka Association at Pune (which remained then to be my dream since I was transferred to Delhi – but Association was registered at Pune later for which the data collected by me was of much help, I am told).

Next, important job was to give a name to the Association to be registered. At that time i.e. in Dec. 1978 or so, late Shri Ramakrishna Hegde was the Secretary of the Janata Party (headed by Shri Morarji Desai) and he was residing in Lodhi Estate/Gardens.  It was decided by the Committee to consult him to suggest a name for the Association.  One of our members – Dr. Gangolly who was working for NCERT (if I remember right) who was staying in C.R.Park (close to my residence then in GK-II) was knowing Shri Ramakrishna Hegde personally.  So one fine morning, myself and Dr. Gangolly went by my Scooter to the residence of Shri Hegde to meet him when he suggested not to give the colour of any community but the colour of a region to the Association to be registered i.e. “Gokarna Mandala”  which is a coastal region spread from Kaali River in Uttara Kannada Distt. down South to Payaswini River in Kerala where the Havyaka community people were then abundantly seen. 

The next important job was to draft the Objects of the Association and the Bye-laws for the purposes of registration. I was carrying a copy of the registered bye-laws of Havyaka Assocaition of Mumbai which I used for guidance.  I was knowing typing (At that time no computer or electronic typewriters were in existence – only manual ones) and my Bank had a typewriter. So I typed the entire bye-laws myself during the week-ends and the same was approved by the Ad-hoc Committee.

The next job was to get it registered and I submitted the entire bye-laws duly signed by all the Ad-hoc committee members to the office of the Registrar of Societies – then at Kashmiri Gate, somewhere in March 1979 and the Association got registered as Gokarna Mandala in May 1979 or so – the registration certificate of which was collected by me personally.  The Ad-hoc Managing Committee became the regular Managing Committee after the registration of the Mandala.

This is how the Gokarna Mandala came into existence formally and under law.  The initial emblem of Gokarna Mandala with the logo of “OM” in Samskruta with in-built letters of “go” and “ma” (i.e. the short form of Gokarna Mandala) in Kannada of was designed by Shri P. Vittla Bhat who was an artist by hobby. This logo was accepted and appreciated by one and all.  I do not know when and why the logo was changed to the present one.

The Managing Committee was meeting at regular intervals at the residences of Dr. L.S.Bhat, Shri T.S.Bhat or at my residence till I left Delhi on a transfer from the National Capital branch to head the State capital branch of Rajasthan at Jaipur in Oct. 1979.  Upon my leaving Delhi, the charge held by me was handed over to Shri Ch.S.Bhat who held the post, if I am right, till he was transferred out of Delhi in 1981 or so.

During my tenure as the Hon. Secretary, much of my time went in formalizing the Association. Nevertheless, I had occasion and opportunity to meet, for the membership or otherwise, lot of Havyakas then residents at Delhi either on their posting in the transferable jobs (Banks and Central Govt.) or who are settled in regular employment (like Shri G.K.Kdekodi, Shri Narayan Joisa, Shri Ishwara Bhat of Motibag) or in their profession (like Adv. K.N.Bhat, Adv. Narayan Nettar, C.A.Ramachandra Bhat) etc. in and around Delhi

During my tenure as the Hon. Secretary, we had a memorable get-together of whole-day pooja and cultural program at the Kannada School on the day of Vijaya Dashami – thanks to Shri K. Ishwara Bhat and Shri Narayana Joisa who had made all the arrangements for the same for the appreciation of every one and without any complaints from any one.

One important thing which I had noticed whenever I had visited (alone or with any other Committee member or anyone else), every Havyaka family – irrespective of whether they hailed from North Kanara or South Kanara – was so nice to receive us, appreciate us and come forward to join the Association.

Long live Gokarna Mandala in flying colours.

(Down the memory lane)

By Adv. Gangadhara Shastry, Mumbai

(formerly known as C.M.G.Shastry)