branches of the bank in Andhra, Gandhi Nagar (Vijayawada)
being the first, apart from attending classroom sessions in
the State Bank Staff College, Hyderabad and the training
institutes in Indore and Tiruchi. Vijayawada of the 1970s
had Carnatic music concerts on Sundays at the Rice Millers
Hall, Gandhi Nagar. It was at an evening concert by
Sandhyavandanam
Srinivasa
Rao
that
I
met
Seethamahalakshmi and her friend Kanakadurga. I met
them again the next Sunday when Nedunuri Krishnamurthy
sang at the hall. Mine was at best a nodding acquaintance
till I ran into them at a morning show of the old Bimal Roy
film "Sujata" at Navrang theatre in Governorpet, which was
just 20 min walk from Gandhinagar, where I lived. It was
then that I found out they were morning joggers like me.
We decided to run together in the mornings, and do longer
distance running on holidays across the Prakash Barrage to
the southern bank of the Krishna River, which would also
give us a chance to swim on the quieter less polluted part
of the river.
After the movie, they invited me for lunch at a nearby
restaurant called Kanakadurga. Seetha quipped,
"Kanakadurga is my dearest friend and partner, and my
favourite restaurant as well. The only problem is she won't
let me pay the bill as she has lent her name to this joint!"
198