LIfe at Vittal, South Kanara

First appointment was as a gazetted officer at the very young age of 23. Not only I was the youngest officer of Central Areca nut Research station at Vittal, South Kanara but I was the youngest staff member there when I joined. I was in real financial straits then. At that time I could not afford a good shirt or a new pair of slippers. Sri Mohan Rao who was the Director of the Institute took an instant liking to me and asked me to stay with him in his house(He was staying alone at that time). Slowly I got many friends there. The most important was Sri Ahmed Bavappa who was a plant Breeder and Sri E.Velappan who was a research assistant. I worked day and night which lead to many great research findings regarding Arecanut. I was so much recognized that no one in the institute did any research without consulting me.
Since we could not afford to maintain two families, my parents chose to live with me. This was the time when my younger brother completed his M.Sc and joined as a tutor is some college in Belgaum. This was also the time when my sister was finding life extremely difficult because of lack of money. There was also a large debt incurred by my family to celebrate my sister’s marriage .Life was tough but pleasant. Most of the time in these seven years my nephews were with me and I took a lot of interest in bringing them up. Today both of them are great and sterling people. Since I was a young gazetted officer many matrimonial offers came searching me in that God forsaken village. But I was steadfast in my determination to educate my brother before getting married. My younger brother completed his post graduation some time in 1968 and got employment as a tutor in a college in Belgaum. I could help him get a job in Central Coffee Research Station, Balehonnur. By this time, I had completely repaid the debt of the family taken to get my sister married. Also by this time my sister gave birth to two very intelligent sons. One or other of her son lived with me at Vittal most of the time.
I did lot of meaningful research during this time. I became as one of the well known biometricians working on tree crops. I had to leave Vittal for moving to a better job. In June 1969 I left vital and moved to Coimbatore.