As mentioned in my previous post, Mr.Krishnamurthy prepared our balance sheet for the year ending Dec 1986 too. The total revenues were around Rs.11,000. Our projects included running the weekly dispensary at Thumnerale, arranging for blood donations for patients in K.R.Hospital, collecting physician samples from doctors in MMC and distributing them to poor patients at the hospital and arranging lectures for medical students on mostly non-medical topics. Those were indeed days of extraordinary excitement, learning and adventure. Each day would hold something new and the sense of togetherness and camaraderie was extraordinary. The lack of management experience was a blessing and the learning challenges kept us vibrant and involved.
I think it was after 1986 that the Income Tax department made it mandatory for all organizations to follow April to March as the financial year, commonly across India. The next balance sheet was for 15 months and our revenues for this period was around Rs.22,000. We were indeed making progress both in terms of our activities and in reaching out to more supporters and well-wishers. Pushpalatha and Sumana (who currently advises SVYM on legal issues and is a social activist) were mainly responsible for this increased revenue. They had worked tirelessly together in bringing out a Souvenir and most of the money came in through advertisements. Pushpalatha was a very active member and the Secretary of SVYM at that time. The foundations of future SVYM was strongly laid by people like Pushpalatha, K.N.Chandrashekar, Chandrappa, Devaraj and others who worked with so much of commitment and dedication.
By August 1987, I had moved to Brahmagiri and had established a good rapport with the Shankaracharya of Kanchi. During one of our conversations, I had told him about our need for a Chartered Accountant. A few months later, Mr.Sundarajan, a partner at MSSV & Co (a reputed Chartered Accountants firm in Bangalore) suddenly dropped in to Brahmagiri along with the coordinator of Jan Kalyan, a social welfare movement initiated by the Shankaracharya. Sundarajan offered to have our accounts audited free of cost and advised me on how to officially appoint his firm as our Auditors and on the paperwork needed to make this shift from Mr.Krishnamurthy.
After the financial year came to a close, Sundarajan informed me that one of his junior partners, Mr.D.R.Venkatesh, would visit our project, stay with us for a few days and finalize our accounts. On the day of his arrival, I went to receive him at Hand Post (the busy junction near H.D.Kote) and bring him to Brahmagiri. After waiting for him in vain for about 3 hours, I returned to Brahmagiri. It was around 9 pm or so when I heard some tribals knocking on my door. They had found somebody walking alone in the forest at that hour, looking for me and they had brought him to my modest dwelling.
It was Venkatesh! He had arrived late at Handpost, waited for sometime and realized that I had either not come or possibly left. After talking to a few people and exploring options, he was planning to return to Bangalore when he found a truck driver who offered to drop him near Brahmagiri. He took this offer and alighted at Jakkahalli and started walking towards Brahmagiri. As he was walking along, he had met these kind-hearted tribals who brought him to my place. Little had he realized that he had been walking through elephant territory!
Venkatesh fondly recalls those initial days even today. He and MSSV are our staunch supporters even to this day and they continue to audit our accounts without expectation of any audit fees.
– Balu
