Nanjappa, was one of the wealthiest men in Bangalore, years ago when it was a sleepy town and everyone's favourite reply to any question was "gothilla", meaning I don't know. He had moved from Mumbai and he loved the relaxed pace of life.

Nanjappa's grand parents lived a very eager existence in Bombay. Mumbai wasn’t thought of. The grandfather worked at the railway station; he was the one who waved the flag when it was time for the train to leave the station. His prized possession was his whistle which he blew even when he was signalling to his wife to get her attention. His name was Thimanna (senior) and his wife was Sudha and they had two children Nanjundiah and Gayathree. All four of them lived in a small one bedroom house near the harbour.

One day when the four of them were sitting and eating lunch they heard a muffled explosion coming from a distance. They first ran for cover and huddled together in their tiny bedroom under their tinier bed and amongst suitcases that they hoarded beneath. When nothing happened and they realised that there was no war breaking out they ran out of the house to figure out what it was. Finding nothing they turned around to return to their lunch half relieved, half disappointed that there was no drama when a glittering object caught their eye. It was lodged in a corner of their tiny garden catching the sun's rays. They looked closer and they couldn't believe what they saw. It was a large brick of gold. It had wedged itself in the crack it had caused in the wall while it fell. The Thimanna senior family were stunned, guilty, and nonplussed, all at once. They quickly glanced around and dug out the gold brick only to discover three more underneath. There was one for each. Feeling blessed and confused they claimed their brick of gold and ran back inside the house. The rest of the lunch was barely eaten and everybody spoke in whispers. The rags to riches story from here becomes hazy because there were many theories about how the gold was sold. The truth was hushed up although no one knew why because the Thimannas waited for a week for someone to claim the gold bricks before they decided to own it and invest it. It wasn't as though they had stolen it. The only thing that everybody knew was that life took them from meagre means to a life beyond their wildest dreams.

Thimanna senior retired early, Nanjundiah and Gayathree got a good education. Gayathree was married off with a handsome dowry, jewellery and spent her life as a housewife cooking and caring for her in-laws and her four children. They all lived in a normal dysfunctional joint family. Nanjundiah also got married to Janani and became a homeopathic doctor. He wanted to do some good for people and not run behind money, so people paid him as they pleased and mostly not at all. Janani and he had a son, Nanjappa. When Nanjappa was ten years old, his father on his solo holiday, went to explore the Niagara Falls and never came back. The story was that he climbed to the top and fell off but no one can say for sure. Janani focused solely on her son's education, closed the homeopathic clinic and lived off the ample family wealth. Thimanna senior had invested wisely and now that Sudha, Nanjundiah and he were dead all the healthy return on investment came to Janani. She held it till her son turned eighteen, handed everything over and renounced the world.

Nanjappa had his life planned out. He completed his MBA, moved to Bangalore and started 'Thimanna and sons', a jewellery shop. He found his own wife and funded his wedding just like everything else in his life. Ironically his wife was also called Sudha, like his grandmother; he believed that it was a sign. Nanjappa and Sudha lived in a modest bungalow in a narrow by lane in Shanthinagar, Bangalore. At the time of buying and building their house, it was called 4th cross road. It had a mud track and theirs happened to be the only house. Nanjappa felt a sense of ownership towards that road and so when the municipality came to lay it properly, he paid them to do it and name it after him. Thus was born Nanjappa 4^th cross road. He felt proud and this was his way of giving back because now other people who built houses there would now have a proper address and identity. Sudha gave Nanjappa his heart's desire by giving birth to a boy. They jointly decided to name him Thimanna.

Thimanna grew up normally and frugally. His parents regaled him with stories of his great grandfather. "He was a self-made man blessed by God", they said. "After he was blessed with the gold bricks, he quit his job and made his own fortune and this can only happen to a good and lucky man who had no bad karma to fulfil in his life", they added. Thimanna was mesmerised by these stories and wanted to be self-made like his great grandfather.

Thimanna's adventures began in first grade, when he refused to do his maths final exam because he wasn't in a mood. At that time the school thought it was cute and let him go to the next grade and they continued to tolerate his moods through grades II, III and IV. Things came to a head in grade V when he was asked to define electricity and he replied, "electric-city is a city in America where people lived and got a shock when they touched another". He genuinely thought his teacher would be impressed with his vast imagination. He had a variety of such imaginative ideas and couldn't understand why his father was summoned to school and why he was admonished instead of being praised. Nanjappa gradually became a regular visitor to the Green Minds Public School; 'Green minds are keen minds' was their slogan. The more he visited the bigger the school became and by the time Thimanna 'passed' out, it had grown from being only till grade V all the way to grade XII. It now had revamped and separate toilets for the girls, a fully equipped library, a proper canteen, tables, chairs instead of uncomfortable wooden benches for the students and one enormous computer in the principal’s office. As a parting gift and to get a good recommendation letter from the principal, Nanjappa installed a PA system in the school. The students from that day onwards never heard the end of the principal’s voice over the “Nanjappa Public address system”, which she never failed to mention.

Thimanna’s college life was a non-starter. He didn’t feel the need and his father didn’t want to pay. He hoped that his son would run his jewellery shop, so that he could retire and take his wife on an international holiday. It was his long standing desire to visit the Niagara Falls and pay homage to the grandfather he had never met. Thimanna however, had other ideas. He wanted to explore his options and secretly believed that he would also be blessed with gold bricks as he was his great grandfather’s namesake. Before he started working on his career options, Thimanna wanted to travel. So one evening he decided to ride on his motorbike from Bangalore to Madras. It wasn’t called Chennai in those days. When he was half way there, his bike stalled. It was dark and the only light he had was the moonlight but it was on the other side. He turned his bike around, repaired it and resumed his journey. As the sun rose he looked around and saw that everything looked increasingly familiar till he realised that he had turned his bike around and returned home. Thimanna brushed his travel plans aside and decided to start working. His wanted to try his hand at becoming a ticket inspector for buses. “If a mere bus conductor could become a super movie star, why not me?” he reasoned. The job he applied for had only one rule. When he stopped a bus to do a surprise check he was required to get in from the back, check tickets get off from the front, tap the bus twice and as the bus began to move, jump in again from the back. “So simple”, thought Thimnanna and felt insulted that his intelligence was challenged when he was asked to repeat the instructions. Armed with confidence and defensiveness he set off on his first experience. As expected, he flagged down a bus but he entered from the front exit, got off from the back, and tapped the bus twice; the bus left without him. With that his career as a ticket inspector came to an end because when he got a second, third and fourth chance, he did the same thing. Thimanna decided that the world didn’t appreciate his innovating abilities and nonconforming tendencies and agreed to follow in his father’s footsteps. On his first day at work, he took an antique silver cigarette case and gave it to a beggar who came to his door. The beggar went away happy, Thimanna had a philanthropic glow on his face and Nanjappa swallowed hard and thought about his retirement and travel plans. He was now eager to get Thimanna married to a “sensible and practical girl”. He agreed with himself that his son was whiling away a lot of his time hanging out with his friends especially Chandrashekar who was chasing, Kamala, the girl he was desperate to marry but to whom he needed to introduce himself first. One particularly sunny evening, Thimanna devised a plan so that the two of them could meet. They had noted that Kamala, all of sixteen rode her bicycle in her compound every evening from 5pm. He took Chandrashekar, this time on his scooter, to Kamala’s gate, removed the hub cap from the wheel and said, “When I throw this, it will fall into her compound”. “I will wait near my scooter, you can call her, she will give you the hubcap and you can talk”, he added confidently. Chandrashekar agreed nervously. Thimanna strode up to the gate and threw the hubcap forcefully. It sailed smoothly over the gate, went past Kamala’s compound wall and landed in the garden of Mrs. Janaki Pattabhiraman, the irascible and acerbic old widowed neighbour who everybody dreaded.

Chandrashekar, his parents, Thimanna and Nanjappa had a lot to answer for and Kamala, who shyly loved Chandrashekar blushed and smiled to herself. She felt so wanted.

Nanjappa had had enough and decided that marriage was the only solution for his son. Luckily he had found a perfectly matched horoscope. One week after this episode Thimanna was engaged to Pragnya, B.A in Psychology and P.G diploma in computer science and the wedding was to take place a month later.

The evening before the wedding Thimanna and Pragnya went missing.

Thimanna wanted this to be a unique and memorable experience because after all a marriage is only once in a life time and he wanted to save his father the extra expenditure. He picked up Pragnya on his motorbike and set off to Madras. His bike stalled in a dark and lonely place with the only light coming from the moon, on the other side. He turned his bike around, fixed the problem, asked Pragnya to hop on and they resumed their journey. As the sun came up, he found his environment increasingly familiar. He was home; again. So he rode straight to the wedding hall and married Pragnya the traditional way.

Thimanna, disappointed with his bike sold it and bought himself a car hoping for new and better adventures.