§ Udupi-Ajja

He was born at around the 1930s; WW2 was going on when he was a kid. Of course, no records were kept, so we don't really know the details. When he was 5, his mom and dad divorced, and he went to stay with his mom. She was the most beautiful woman in town :P, and was great at chess. For two years they lived in Mangalore, where she worked as a nurse. He knew about WW2 as a small child, since he mentioned that it impacted their life. He learnt Konkani while he lived there. She passed away from TB.

After his mom died, he moved in with his dad. Great grandpa hated him, because he had deserted him, and Ajja was sent to work in the fields. Ajja always wanted to study. He was sent (sold?) to Kargal (close to Joga), where he worked at a hotel --- unclear for how many years. At the hotel, someone told him about Ujire (Dharmastala), and he ran away to the gurukul there. He learnt Sanskrit, Vedas, etc. there till 11th grade. This is known as fact , cause the person who taught him Sanskrit used to come home. Supposedly he always came first in class. Bhide taught him English at the gurukul, and while he was there, he worked(?) at Bhide's house. This is known cause their families know each other.

After his SSLC, he came to Udupi and studied his 12th/13th grade (intermediate) at MGM College, as a science major, grabbing one meal a day at the Krishna temple. He and his friend Kedlaya grabbed a job at the LIC right after 12th grade.

After 3-4 years of joining the LIC, he fell very sick. That was when he realized he wished to get married ;) There was no one for him when he fell sick. He apparently then went to his dad and said "If you don't get me married, then I'm going to marry someone regardless", to spur his family into action? He then learnt that there was someone at Narkata. He went there, and while he was speaking, grandmom came, knocked the jug of water on the table, and rushed off in anger. Supposedly this was love at first sight :P "Her fiery spirit" and all that. Grandpa's dad took dowry from the wedding and pocketed it; grandpa was against the dowry, and learnt of this much later.

He passed away in 2003, at around 70.

§ Huduco-Ajja

Ajja studied till 4th grade, and was then sent to work in Kerala. He was then sent to Ullala, which is at Karnataka, close to the Kerala border, where he worked at the home of an Ayurveda Pundit. He learnt his letters by reading signboards, and then learnt the vocabulary. He used to write Kannada poetry that was published in the local newspapers. He started translation when he was 30-plus years old, and won the Sahitya Akademi award for translation from Kannada to Malayalam (2012) --- he had learnt both Kannada and Malayalam.