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SHAKE HANDS WITH VENKY
Vengrai Parthasarathy
Venky ? There is only one Venky in San Diego, the one and only. He is M.C. Venkatesh. M stands for you know what ( Ubiquitous MANDAYAM) and C for Chakravarthy.
Venky is a Malleswaram lad, the only son of late M.C.Sampathiyengar, noted Chief Engineer of Karnataka. He obtained his Civil Engineering Degrees from BMS College and Masters in Structural Engg. in USA. After a short stint in the Madras PWD, he returned to design and build several Water Towers scattered all over Bangalore for Gammon India. He recalls with nostalgia his younger days in and around Sampige Road where he had many friends and relatives. His heart is still there, in his favorite restaurants and eateries and haunts.
Like many young men of his generation, he was bitten by the America bug. Those were days when one could get a visa to UK and USA without even standing in the queue. Venky said hastala vista to Malleswaram. It was a great leap forward but he calls it a hop, step and jump. First, he hopped into London (to get a glimpse of the Westerns ways) and then took a calculated step into Toronto (to test the Pacific waters) before jumping into the California milieu, He has been with General Atomics ever since. Even after he retired they recalled him for there were not many with his specialization in areas like Magnetic Levitation
I saw an issue of UPDATE , the house magazine of GA in his home. There was this item about a patent conceived by Venky and another. He has several such patents to his credit, and when nudged he started in right earnest to explain the U.S. Patent on “Modular Guides for a Magnetic Levitation Vehicle for a Guideway module”. It was all mumbo-jumbo to me. Catch me listening to a technical harangue. Luck came in the form of a call for him from Meera. She didn’t know why I was thanking her but let me move on. Meera is a software professional of the top order and she would have gone places but for her desire to stay on in San Diego. She had spent some months in USA even before her marriage, on a scholarship for Outstanding Students. ( A few years back their sons staged a humorous Play by the side of the swimming pool in their spacious house. In it, Meera rejects suitor Venky on all scores but perks up and readily gives her consent on knowing that he is from U.S.A!).
The Venkys have two sons, both of them brilliant MIT graduates, well-married and well-settled in life. (Here is a conundrum: If Gandhiji is the Father of the Nation, Venky’s peripatetic younger son Mukund is the great-grand-son-in-law of the Nation!). Sridhar, the U.S. born elder guy, who is trying to reverse the brain-drain trend , is a top-gun in a French firm in Chennai. He has three sons whom the Venkys adore and dote on and and take every opportunity to visit Chennai to be with them and enjoy their pranks.
Venky is a soft spoken but focused person . When he wants to get something done he goes for it and does not rest till it is done. He is a family man and being gregarious by nature , he likes to visit friends and enjoys company. He is a great traveler having visited most countries of the world. He keeps some memento from each place.
The essential side of the man is his generous, altruistic impulses. In a world of Takers, he is a Giver. He, his wife Meera and her father Mr.MNK, are active adherents of the Yathiraja Jeeyar Mutt. They have given and also collected significant donations for the construction of the Community Hall and Shradha Bhavan in Malleswaram.
Venky has initiated a number of micro-credit projects in Karnataka involving lakhs of Rupees for helping the poor to stand on their own feet rather than on doles which are often frittered away. Solar pumps for villages, Computers for schools, microscopes and dialysis machines for hospitals ,fibre glass boats (for Tsunami victims)… the list goes on and on. He has initiated such projects not only in India but in many other countries in the African continent and south Asia. He says “ The problems of the poor are local and personal. They simply do not know how to organize their lives. Local leaders show alacrity when approached with plans to make small community groups to become self-reliant. No one person can solve all the problems in India or anywhere else but one can at least try to mitigate suffering to the extent of his or her ability” says Venky. He ensures that financial assistance is invested, to give self-helping means of income not charity to people. Accountability and periodic monitoring, which he insists on, ensures judicious use of the funds. A sense of religious duty and Noblesse oblige, is what drives him
Venky is constantly trying to reconnect with Malleswaram. Time and absence have brought about a disconnect and he manages to arrange re-unions with those of his friends who are still around in Bangalore. He is a good man, a fine friend and affectionate brother to his sisters who are in and around San Diego. In fact he was responsible for bringing them to USA in the first place. To keep the ‘Malleswaram’ flavour going in his life , Venky gets Koorgalu, and Kodubale now and then from a particular Malleswaram shop. He likes the good things of life, good food, good harattai sessions and an all-night game of cards. Meera, like all wives, is his benign Controller of Calories.
This good soul brings good cheer wherever he goes. May his tribe increase!