Page 68 - Demo

Sport was to remain a lifelong passion for PVG Raju. Besides cricket, he had a love for golf and horses. In golf, he was the Winner of the South India Open Championship in 1959 and 1960. He played a key role in setting up the East Point Golf Club in Visakhapatnam. Likewise, when the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan was selling the Malakpet race course in 1956, along with other racing enthusiasts he contributed in setting up the Hyderabad Race Club. He followed Sir Vizzy's footsteps in becoming the President of the Andhra Cricket Association. He also sponsored a Vizianagaram team playing in the Moin-Ud-Dowla Gold Cup in Hyderabad. The team boasted of cricketing legends like Tiger Pataudi, Salim Durrani and Chandu Borde.Like all aristocratic families, they lived wherever they wished to. Given their choice of accommodation across the land, a peripatetic existence was easily sustained. Their primary residence in Vizianagaram was the Fort. Then there was Phool Bagh. This palace came with an unsettling folklore of its own. It had been built by a preceding Maharaja who visited Kashmir. Inspired and captivated by the terraced gardens on his visit to Nishat Bagh on the banks of the Dal Lake, he had a similar palace built in Vizianagaram. It catered to many of the Maharaja's fancies. His love for horse riding led to the construction of a special entrance through which he could ride directly into the palace. One day, when the rains were heavy, the Maharaja's horse reared up unexpectedly, throwing him off its back. He later succumbed to the injuries he sustained from this fall. This sudden and tragic death caused the family to return to their old home, Moti Mahal, nestled within the Fort complex and Phool Bagh was tainted as a place of bad luck. 58