On Dostoevsky

 What Dostoevsky knew about evil “ The trouble is that Dostoevsky is manifestly more than the sum total of his journalistic views. He may have defended tsarist absolutism, but he provides the most eloquent argument of the 19th century against religious tyranny. He wrote toxic nonsense about Jews, but objected to any attempt to limit their political and religious freedom. He believed that Christian (more specifically, Russian Orthodox) faith was the only hope for cultural renewal and global reconciliation, but wrote a scarifying catalogue of the unavenged horrors of human suffering (including child abuse) for which the Creator had to be held to account. He imagined Jesus Christ being tried and condemned by the Spanish Inquisition. He claimed, with a typical mordant irony, to have made a better case for atheism than most atheists would dare.”

Frederick Douglas in Haiti

 Frederick Douglas and American Empire in Haiti

And they are still paying the price for independence.

Fascinating interview with Ashwin

 The India spinner talks us through how he deconstructs batters' techniques ahead of and during a series, his struggles with injury, and more here

School Days-7

 School Days-7

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Perhaps the last of the series. 1952-54 in Chintayapalem.

With in an year of our stay in Pedapulivarru, we moved to Chintayapalem in Bapatla Taluk in 1952. My father was an imposing figure. His best days were probably in Gudavalli and his appearance reminded me of NT Ramarao in Shavukaru. By the Chintayapalem days, he weighed around 100 kilos, but was still agile and played volleyball regularly. Jo Marks tells me of walking with my father in Indian clothes in London and people impressed by his looks. He was also prone to short temper and cooling quickly and would beat up students for misdeeds. I remember a Christian student by name Somayajulu from Ganapavaram. It was alleged that he had an affair with a local. It was reported to my father and he was beaten up mercilessly in school.

Chintayapalem was a sandy place but mainly agricultural with rice, peanuts and other crops as well as mongo groves. It was a small village and we shared the house with a local landlord near the school. The landlord was married but was supposed to be having an affair with a lady in Bapatla. Her adopted daughter came to study in our school andvstsyed in the house. I duly fell in love with her though I was only about eleven. She later became a lawyer.

My father got in to public speaking and used to go away regularly for meetings. Soon, the reasons for leaving Pedapilivarru became clear. When he was going away to one of his meetings he told me that if K came to the house, I should try to kick him out. To my eternal regret I did it. There were later some tearful scenes in the house but the parties reconciled quickly.

My mother's involvement with school children decreased but her friendliness won over many in that village and other places. She had even a group of admirers whom she never met before. She used to say that every village should have a school and a temple (బడి గుడి).

There were some brothers dominant in the village affairs, one of them might have the name Subbarayudu. One of the brothers was impotent and apparently his wife had an affair. There was story going around that she was stripped and whipped all along the only street in the village by the other brothers. I used to see her often sitting in front of the house. She was friendly and used to give me sweets once in a while.

Unlike the other villages earlier, I do not remember harikatha in Chintayapslem. But we had some burrakatha events and also tolubommalu. The usual entertainment was playing games in school ( we had baseball) like chedugudu or Khokho and marbles in the streets. I do not remember seeing films in this period but must have seen some films like Devadasu in nearby towns. But I remember a Raj Kapoor film Premalekhalu. I liked the songs and practiced them assiduously. Once when my cousin Baburao came I sang to him. He said it was ok but I should not sing in public and thus killed a possible career in music.

My father probably had good reputation by this time. Apart from students from nearby villages, some came from places like Appikatla which had a school. Thummala Sitaramamurthy (chowdary) used to teach there and I think Kosarsju Raghavaiah was also was from there, but am not sure. For some reason, many added Chowdary to their names whereas earlier it was Naidu. My father's favourite was Gurram Jashua and I too acquired a liking for Jashua. Once there was a celebration of  Jashua ( and also Thummala) in Nidubrolu-Ponnur area. Jashua rode on an elephant and then there was kanakabhishekam for him. I attended the function with my father.

Heros  those days were sports persons like Buchiramaiah in volleyball and various chedugudu players like Avadhani and Meka Sitaramaiah.

Our family, probably like many other agricultural families were keen about education though some well to do people did not work after their degrees as they did not want to work under others. Since my father was a teacher various relatives studied in the schools he taught and there were lifelong relationships with many of them. Cousin Bsburao stayed with us for six years or so in Gudavalli. In Chintayapalem Radha Babai sent his son to stay with us and study. But he was a strong kid of my brother's age and used to beat up my brother. After an year or two my mother put her foot down and said no more. I was not particularly good in school but my father was very ambitious about my studies and try to send me to schools beyond his means. Once he tried to send me to an expensive school in Dehradun and luckily it did not materialise. Another time he took to me Madrss and tried to join me in Adyar school. That did not materialise either but I remember staying in Avula Sambasiva Rso's house during that trip. He was probably a relative and friend of my father and later became the chief justice of Andhra high court and was also an influential rationslist. Indid not know about toilets and I remember sitting down in a chair with a hole which was supposed for toilet purposes and the children laughing at me. Manjukata told me later she was not there but was with her grandoarents. The memorable part of the trip for me was watching some wrestling matches participated by King Kong and others. Anyway, we got back to Chintayspskem and my studies improved a bit and I ended up being first in class 11. Until that time we did not wear shoes or sandals. In 1954, before I joined Andhra Loyola College, we made a trip to Bapatla, got half a dozen pairs of clothes made and also got some shoes called belt boots. That was the end of my school days but not my contact with villages.

During 1956-1960 I was off and on in Loyola College, Madras. I developed an interest in mathematics after coming across some ideas of Cantor. I stopped attending classes and tried to study by myself and was rusticated twice. During this period, my father worked in Thullur, Vullipalem and later Kolakalur. I remember the first two villages vividly and reading books like 'The brothers Karamazov' in Thullur. Also some Eliot and Auden in my grandfather's farm in Pesarkanka. My father and mother were grief stricken and my mother became very protective. The most influential book for me was 'Asanadhuni Jeevayatra' by Tripuraneni Gopichand. A cherished moment is a glimpse of him Hyderabad standing outside a restaurant in Narayanguda. I finally realised that I did not have the talent to study mathematics in villages and went to Hyderabad to study B.Sc with the help of money lent to my mother by her friends. But that is another story.

P.S. More about my https://gaddeswarup.blogspot.com/2007/06/remembering-my-father.html?fbclid=IwAR3mW4uWXcfIgqcgNpZ_UMUjIeeFq10qt3s8ydccRbY4D5-J4N_WvD_Ug9o

School Days-6

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School Days-6. Holidays in Avanigadda.

During the years 1948-54 described in these posts, I was 7-13 years old. I passed S.S.L.C.  (grade 11) in 1954 at the age of 13 and then studied in Andhra Loyola College Vijayawada and went to Loyola College, Madras in 1956. It seems to me that I did not really think during these years in spite of some exposure to communism. There was an existing system in place and one just adopted or reacted to it. With this proviso, I will come to the family background in Avanigadda,

Avanigadda was the taluk headquarters and a big village. Our family house was near the centre of the village close to a temple, a largish house which was later divided in to three. My grandfather Venkaiah  ( wife's name Venkamma) had three sons and two daughters and by the time knew, sons were in charge of the family affairs.

My father born on 25-7-1915 was the middle one. His older brother was Chalamaiah and younger brother Venkatakrishnaiah ( called Radha babai) and two sisters Koneru Rukminamma ( older than my father) and Vemulapalli Annapurnamma. And as far as I know Venkaiah was small farmer who owned about six acres of land. By that time a few from agricultural families studied and some like Tripuraneni Ramaswami and N.G. Ranga even studied abroad. There seemed to be some glamour for education among the farming families. Avanigadda had high school up to grade 11 and apparently my grandfather promised to send any of the son who finished school to college ( the nearest was in Masulipatam). The sons worked on the farm in addition to studying and I think only my father finished school. He went to Masulipatam, about 35 km by road, rented a house with fellow students and used to take some rice and pulses from home and work on the farm during holidays. I heard that to the high busfare, he walked to Masulipatam every term lentils and other groceries on his head. He took one of the standard groups MPC  ( mathematics, physics and chemistry)in his intermediate class of two years. It seems that the lecturer for logic gave interesting lectures and there was not much guidance and he started attending logic classes instead of mathematics classes. After some months, it came to the principal's notice and luckily for my father, there was a group LPC. After some scolding, he was shifted to the new group and finished B.A. in the same college.

I heard that several relatives also studied in Avanigadda school and some stayed in my grandfather's house. Probably he got some supplies from their families. I met some who remained life long friends with our family. There was also brahmin student with whom my father had combined studies in school for some time. They met in Bombay around 1970. My father stroked one of his hands which had six fingers and exclaimed 'It is really you'. I do not remember when he finished college but he finished B.Ed in Rajahmundry in 1941. He worked as a teacher in Masulipatam and I remember him saying that some brahmin teachers helped him in getting the job. But soon he became a headmaster because the villagers wanted one from their own caste. He married my mother Lslita Devi in 1940.

By my time, life was much easier and we just enjoyed ourselves in relative's houses during holidays. Apart from Pesarlanka and Avanigadda, I also spent holidays in close relatives' houses in Repalle, Potarlanka and a few other places. In Avanigadda,we just wandered around the fields and I sometimes went with the cattle to River Krishna. The channels close to the fields were dry during summer months and sometimes the water was salty. The dry channels were mud baked with mud in dry pieces. If one dug it out, there was sand underneath and one took out some sand, fresh sweet water would emerge. We use to have lunch with that water on the occasions when we took lunch with us. There were mango and guava groves between the bund and the river and a few lemon groves and some banana plantations, Many other crops like toor dal were also grown. Apart from playing with friends and spending with cousins and some other relatives from BhatlaPenumarru and such places, I do not remember any activities except interactions with communists and municipal elections one year. I remember Gunturu Bapanaiah, a Dalit and communist leader from those days. He did not make any money in politics and I later heard that Radha babai sent him rice for a long time.

School Days-5 continued

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School Days-5 Continued.

Continuation of school holidays in Pesarlanka.

Another constant during Pesarlanka holidays was Basavamma (Basivi pinning as we called her). She was elder Reddiah's daughter, I think. She was married to somebody who had already had a relationship and was abondoned. She stayed in her father's house and afterwards with her brother Bhaskara Rao. In my eyes she was a very goodlooking woman and I could not imagine how anybody could abandon her. She was always there, very kindly and smiling whenever I passed through the houses on the dibba. She had a several brothers I think, I may be mistaking brothers and cousins. She moved with Bhaskara Rao to a house almost opposite to my grandfather's house when I saw her in 1970 and later. Then there was Balaiah, her brother or cousin, always sitting in front of the elder Reddiah complex with a cigar. He always had a friendly hello whenever I passed the house on the way to the farm. He studied for a few years in Gudavalli and married the daughter of another well-known headmaster Guttikonda Lakshmi Narayana, originally from Gudavalli ( See the correction in the comments). Lakshmi Narayana used to teach mathematics and I spent a couple of weeks in his house in Karmchedu supposed to be learning mathematics. His younger brother Ramanaiah was married to my mother's older sister. There was another younger brother Narahari, perhaps the only intellectual in our families.

Narahari was a radical humanist. He was in Burma for a while and ran a news paper. After he came back to India he was in politics for a while and even contested some elections. At some stage he ran tobacco business with his brother Ramanaiah and both became very rich. But then they started a cigarette factory and lost money I heard. I heard much later that Narahari lost his mind and used to wander around the streets.

Basivi pinni continued to be good looking even in her eighties. She would be still erect when she served coffees to us and died in her nineties a few years ago. I used to imagine that my mother would have looked like her had she lived longer. Around 1970, I visited Pesarlanka with a couple of young British friends. We had to wade through mud and ate in Bhaskara Rao's new house fed by Basivi pinni. I think the villagers were fascinated by the foreigners and Sheila got lot of sarees as presents. I continued to visit Basivi pinni whenever I went to Pesarlanka and once in Guntur. Her face and fate still haunt me.

School Days-5

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School Days-5

During my high school years (1948-54), holidays were mostly spent either in my maternal grandfather's place Pesarlanka or paternal grandfather's place Avanigadda, one inside the river Krishna and the other on on a bank outside the bund. By this time all the uncles were in different places either in Guntur or Krishna district and sometimes there would be other aunts, uncles and cousins would also be there during holidays in one of these places. So we noticed various cousins from childhood. They were all different and later on acquired some social graces which seem to have externally smothered the differences somewhat, but differences remained. I remember one cousin from my mother's side who I saw in several places including Pesarlanka. Her's was the richest family among us having made money in business. She was acquisitive and wanted any nice thing she saw. We did not like it but put up with it since parents were always careful with the rich. This particular cousin had a good career Independent of her wealth, married for love but later suspected husband of infidelity and became addicted some drugs. She later came down with paralysis. I saw her much later with her husband taking care of her, brushing her teeth, dressing and feeding her.

My maternal grandfather Reddiah was an impressive figure, sturdy with no hint of paunch and challenging younger people to Chedugudu (later called kabadi). He was a very good farmer living in a good house with a big compound at the end of Persarlanka, adjacent to Pedalanka. His older brother also Reddiah lived on a very elevated place towards the centre of the village with a couple of other families including his son in law. That place was the refuse during floods. Grandmother Kamala was from Pedana and was somewhat fashionable wearing blouses with frilled arms. I do not know how a villager like him acquired a wife with city airs. He used to bring flowering plants and mango plants from various places. His front yard was full of crotons about 4-5 feet high, backyard some fruit plants like jambu and also sampenga. There was hand pump between the jambu plant and kitchen in the backyard and one of the workers used to fill up a pitcher with water from the pump and water the plants. 

My daily routine during the holidays, when there no other relatives was to walk after breakfast, which was regular food, to my grandfather's farm about a mile away. Some houses had elevatedplatforms outside the houses and some of the villagers would be sitting and chatting. I assumed that these were the rich and lazy ones since my grandfather left for the farm early. I used to be quite fair and one Purnachandrarao used to shout 'red dog's when I passed by. I used to call him 'black dog' and run away. Then there was Reddiah's raised house and opposite to it where one friend Venkataratnam ( later Dr. Bssava punnaiah) lived. I remember that he had eczema all over his legs. His father was communist who was underground and he grew up in his grandfather's house for some years. Just behind elder Reddiah's house was his son in law's house and M..L. Naraysna Rao, a well known communist his son. Narayana who we called Nari did a ph.d. in Chemical Engineering and taught in Andhra University before joining the armed struggle. Much later he farmed in the village, became a successful farmer and was popular with labourers. Then to the right were potter's ( Kummari) houses, from those families several children came to help us in the house, and at the end a temple the right and village munsif's elevated house on the left. I often saw the villagers Karanam sitting in the front. There was a depression and the houses of the poor and suddenly a big bunyan tree in the middle of the path (Donka) and path divided in to two to get around it. Somewhat further I had to turn right and walk another furlong or so to reach my grandfather's farm. I spent a lot hours in that farm watching lemon trees getting watered from an arrangement which used bullocks to raise water from the well. Then there was a big mango grove and a lot of vegetables grown near the well. Nearby Kantham Ramaiah (Kantham is throat, he had some growth on his throat), a big strong man used to grow vegetables watering them with a pitcher.He seemed less well to do and used to transport vegetsbles to the market on his bicycke, I think. There were a couple of sheds and my grandfather used to each lunch in one of them. Unlike Ramaiah, he did not really labour but used to supervise labourers and often tended to lemon trees removing bad growth and infected areas. His wife passed away in early forties and he used to spend his time mostly there until the evening. I remember reading books and in later years authors like Eliot and Auden there. My mother's ashes were also somewhere there. In an emotional moment, I wanted to take them to Benares for immersion but later decided it was all nonsense.

My grandfather had three daughters and son. The son was not interested in farming and used to spend his time visiting nearby towns and bringing back fancy items, it was not clear what he did in the towns. Earlier he was sent to a school in Bangalore but came back or brought back by my father. Much later he became president of the village panchayat. His taste for fancy goods did not diminish it seems. When I came back from England he took my watch.

These are the of the vague remembrances of Pesarlanka holidays. 

This series is becoming unwieldy and unpredictable. I do not know how it will develop. Next time, I plan to describe holidays in Avanigaddaand then my school days in Chintayalem from 1952-54. Hopefully only two more.

School Days-4

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School Days-4

I tried to compare a bit with what a few I know remember about their childhoods. One friend with whom I have been chatting for the last thirty years or so is one Ramakrishna from Bapatla. He too remembers vividly his childhood incidents and friends. As in my case, though the family is constant, memories seem mostly of others. In his case, he remembers different caste groups and their habits. Bapatla is a much bigger than the villages I grew up and I remember no caste groups as they were mostlykamma villages. I first became aware of caste in Madras around 1956 I think where most of the classmates were Tamil brahmins. One day I was surprised to find Srinivasan very upset because Savitri married Gemini Ganesan who he said was brahmin.

Peter Scott who I know from 1968 says "A completely different world from my schooldays. My family consisted just of my parents and brothers, as all other relatives lived far away. And I lived in a big city (London), totally different from what you describe, and in many ways much more tightly restricted." 

I do not remember any inner world apart from becoming an agnostic by the time I left Gudavalli. There was some communism around but that mostly in terms of relative who were underground or jailed and no ideas about others were involved. So my memories are mainly of those outside the family and some of their interactions with the family.

Coming back to Pedapulivarru in 1951-52, the second turion master, I do not remember when I shifted from one to another, or whether second one was only part time. S was mathematics teacher who lived in a shared accommodation with the owners about 300 yards from us. He was an excellent teacher and strict. He was very well dressed with a muslin dhoti, a Kurta where the arms had buttons at the end and quite stylish. I used to walk to his house through a Kosaraju family house who seemed related. I called the couple pinni and babai. The teacher S was rumoured to be a womaniser but as far as we knew, his contacts seemed to be mostly with older students in the school. There may be some thing in it. He seems to have been forced to leave another school for similar rumours. One day I found that my mother had a letter from him. She seemed amused and pleased and kept the letter but was not interested. Her interests seemed elsewhere. Several years later, I visited S in his house in Repalle. He called me inside and sitting before the mirror in lungi and undershirt, perhaps shaving. He did not seem particularly handsome and another idol seemed to have fallen.

There were some beginnings of rebelliousness and also silliness in me. I remember taunting somebody  ( in the verandah of teacher's house which was also a place where some of the neighbours sat around) who was a non-smoker by offering a cigarette which I found a bit squashed to rectangular shape nearby. He was offended and I spoke back since I did not think I made any mistake. Somebody reported it to my father and my father came with a whip (chemtadu) and he whipped me all the way  home.

I vaguely remember attending a meeting of Moturu Udayam in Vellaturu full of red flags. This was the beginning of my interest in communism without knowing what it is. Most of the Gadde houses in Avanigadda were near a temple at the centre of the town. Two Gadde brothers were originally recruited from Nellore area to work on temple lands in Avanigadda and that may explain the proximity of the descendents to the temple. Our family house has big covered room with one side open and three raised platforms on three sides. It was good for small meetings and also lot people could sleep in the nights. The family arrangements at that time was my younger uncle Venkatakrishnaiah ( called Radha babai) would look after and develop family lands. My father worked as a teacher and older uncle Chalamaiah worked as a revenue collector (samuddar) for Challapalli zamindar. They would contribute money to the development of the family property which eventually expanded to 30 acres from about 6. Radha babai became a communist and the house conveniently at the centre of the town was a hub of activity for the visiting communists. I think that my father had leftist sympathies too and Chalamauah uncle did not have much interest in politics. I used to visit Avanigadda during summer holidays ( sometimes Pesarlanka) took an active part in municipal elections in one year around that time. It consisted mostly of putting up posters and listening to elders like Gunturu Bapanaiah who used to visit from Gudivada( Bapanaiah's role in Dalit and communist politics is described in a book by Sujatha Gidla: 'Ants among elephants'). Once I saw the flag on the communist party office torn and suggested to Bapanaiah that we should replace it. He agreed and I duly replaced it. It turned out the half next to the office belonged to the opposing candidate and it almost started a riot. It was explained that I and Bapanaiah were outsiders and finally both flags were raised. Somehow my interest politics slowly ended and I never did understand communism though I read a few books later on. My cousin M.L.Narayana Rao and friend Perepa P.C. Joshi remained communist and I used to learn a bit about communist politics from Joshi. I remain convinced that there is no theory of every thing.

Our stay in Pedapulivarru ended with in a year probably for reasons I could only guess later. I liked that village very much.

School Days-3

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School Days-3 Pedapulivarru 1951-52

In late 1951, my father went back to government service and was posted in Ravela near Sattenapalli. Compared to the wet irrigation areas we were used to, this was a dry cultivation area dependent on rains. People generally ate Indian millet and corn and we started tasting these for the first time. There was big lake near the village, possibly for cultivation and drinking water with big tamarind trees around. The villages were very friendly but my father fell sick with malaria and got himself transferred to Pedapulivarru. I remember several villagers coming to send us off and following our bullock cart for some distance.

Pedapulivarru was less than two miles from my mother’s village Pesarlanka, where me and my brother were born. There was high bund separating Pedapulivarru from the river Krishna. Pesarlanka was on an island in the river and one had go by boat. It is possible that the river started drying up due to various aqueducts and there some students in the school from Pesarlanka and nearby villages; there were seven or eight villages on that island. The famous Naxalite Dr. M.L. Narayana Rao was from Pesarlanka and was my classmate. ( The only other revolutionary I came near was Julian Assange who took Comlex Analysis course from me in Melbourne). There was a canal parallel to the river and there were prosperous villages like Donepudi, Vellaturu, then Pedapulivarru, Gorigapudi etc to Penumudi along the canal and river. My father’s village Avanigadda was on the other side of the river near Puligadda which was about six miles by boat from Pesrlanka. But those days travel was from Penumudi to Puligadda crossing by boat twice or thrice and walking the rest of the way about 2-3 miles.

Pedapulivarru seems to be a historic village, at some stage an agraharam. I remember the village more vividly than Gudavalli and felt at home there. There were lot of relatives. There was harikatha kalkshepam by Muslim in the temple. He ate in different houses and told us stories during the spare time. They garlanded him with rupee notes at the end of his stay. There were other entertainments like Karrasamu (stick play fighting). Some of the communists were supposed to be good at it.

I saw some famous persons in the village. The first was Yelavarthi Nayudamma though I did not know what he was famous for. He seems to have provided jobs for some people in the area. Another was the famous singer Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao. There were no toilets those days and like others he had to go to the bund carrying a mug of water. He wore a lungi and had a towel or some such over his shoulders. He really had big and round stomach. We speculated that the resonance in his voice was to the stomach. He was stopped by various elders for chats along the way to the bund. Another well known personality who I did not see was Samudrala Sr. He was supposed to be friends with the village munsif and some associated the munsif's wealth due to his association with Samuldrala. May be the munsif's invested in films. He built a big house but had only one daughter. Afterwards I learnt that the film director K.Viswsnath was as also from that village.

Our school itself in some fields in the adjacent village Guthavaripalem. We shared a house with farming family as before in Pedapulivarru. One had to cross a steep bridge and walk  a bit to the school. There were accacia (thumma) trees around and in rainy season full of thorns and troublesome. We did not have any footwear during school days. There were actually two parallel canals I think, and we used the road in between and the slope to learn cycling. There were some arvi plants in Guthavaripalem near the school and it is still a favourite, both pulusu and fry. Outdoor activities included wandering in the fields, frying peanuts in open fire and eating corn. I remember going to two tution masters. The second was near the school and we used to sleep there at nights. There was no cinemas nearby but there was one in Repalle about six miles away. I think I smoked a bit during those days. Once we let the teacher sleep and ran all the way to Repalle to watch Awara. This was 1951 and cigarettes might have helped in keeping awake. I vividly remember some scenes from Awara which I saw only that time reinforced by videos of songs later on.

I will say a bit about the other tution master next time.

School Days-2

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 School Days-2 Still Gudavalli

The origins of Gudavalli are not clear. It seems to be an ancient village going back to at least 12 the century. In the years, I was there, I saw Independence Day celebrated and mourned Gandhi’s death.  J.P. Narayan visited, Gandhi visited a nearby village Kavuru. In the school there were plays about Harischandra and Kashmir. We saw some documentaries and were surprised to see farmers wearing trousers. There were visits to Avanigadda and Pesarlanka and relatives during school holidays time spent mostly on farms. In Pesarlanka I came to know of the police presence nearby and various atrocities to communists by Malabar police. Somehow, the practices uniform used by the British seem to have continued. There is very little presence of police in Gudavalli and the usual rhythms continued.

There are lot of things which are dim and which I did not understand. We lived in one half of the house of a farmer Devaiah. Iyengar lived in the house of Subbaiah, who was Devaiah’s brother. It was just across a small street. I used to visit that house but do not remember which half. I have vague memories of Iyengar’s daughters but not his wife. But I remember the kitchen of the other half, yoghurt hanging from above. My first memories of sambaru karamu is from that kitchen. One day coming back from that house, I was poked  near the eye by bullock and still carry that mark on my eyebrow. On the other side is a lane leading to the main road about 150 yards away. We sometimes had to go to the main road to stop the bus for my father. He always seemed late and the conductor would use that time to fire up the coal at the back of the us. One woman used to pinch my cheeks and sometimes kissed me in that lane. Later I heard that she probably was having an affair with my father.

It is not clear to me how it is possible to have affairs in such open and crowded villages but there are hints of such things.

My cousin Baburao was about 6-7 years older than me and he lived with us. He and I used carry some curries made by mother to the tailor’s house. We called him Subbiri, his house half a mail away. Subbiri’s brother was more impressive looking but both wore regular clothes and plain lungis where as Subbiri’s wife dressed in the Muslim way. Though our exchanges were confined to food, she seemed pretty and friendly. Though me and my cousin have fond memories of my mother, he had to do more household work like pounding chutneys than me. My brother was baby and he used to carry him around. In many ways, I saw Indian women I knew being cruel to servants and children of relatives while they themselves faced various problems.

My father was originally taught in a government school for an year so. Gudavalli school was a committee school and I think he was chosen mainly because he was from the same community as the dominant farmers. But it was clear he would leave at some stage. There was also a financial scandal. One of the school clerks (called writers at that time) committed suicide after some school funds disappeared. He left a young wife. I do not remember what she did, but she started some sort of work, could be teaching, and seemed content. I saw her a few times in Jagarlamudi.

For a few months we had a house to ourselves on the Main Street near Ghantavari street. I remember playing marbles, rolling tyres and various games in that street and also visiting ashram at the end of the street. We had our first radio there and moved back to Devaiah’s house. My grandmother came to our house for medical treatment but died of cancer in her forties. We left for Ravela and soon after to Pedapulivarru in 1951.

School Days-1

From Facebook which has some comments. My brother wanted his children to know our background, 

https://www.facebook.com/749518284/posts/10159036765888285/

 School days-1

A post by Rahul Banerjee reminded me of my High School days 1948-54 in three different villages Gudavalli 1948-51, Pedapilivarru 1951-1952 and Chintayapalem 1952-54 where finished school at the age of thirteen. None of the villages had cinema hall but Gudavalli was long and big, contiguous with Nadimpalli. The school was near the border of the two villages. There was a touring talkies between Gudavalli and Kanagala and a regular cinema hall in Cherukupalli about three miles away. There was a village radio from which I remember listening to S.Rajeswararao songs. There was village library in about an acre of land. My older cousin Baburao and and I used to bring books from the library to my mother. She used to read lying in the bed and I read some of the books sitting behind on the floor. There were always girl students in the house training for school dramas and such, lot of singing some classical and many film songs from Telugu, Hindi and Tamil. There was a tailor hanging around for whom my mother provided various drawings from magazines. Then there some students who used to come to study in the nights. Those were also days of communism and when one of them went underground, his daughters and Makineni Basavapunnaiah’s son Jaswant studied in our school for an year. I remember the father coming for a night to visit his children. There was also of a circle inspector of police from the village who was working elsewhere but still wore uniform when he visited the village.

 

I heard that students were not coming regularly to school during seasonal work. My father, the school Head Master, coming from an agricultural community had good rapport with the villagers who were mostly from the same community. Sometimes he would go to the fields to persuade them to send the children to school. I only heard this later and do not know whether it is true. There were students from nearby villages including a number of muslims from Kanagala and some students who set up temporary residence in the village.

No really strong memories except listening to film songs from older students who could go to Bhattiprolu to see films like Barsaat and music at home. Some Tamil songs from the school teacher Iyengar’s daughter who lived next door. There was a talented teacher Tilak who was quite a famous bridge and chess player. And there were some excellent chedugudu players like Meka Sitaramaiah and Yelavarthi Satyanarayana. There was an acharyulu enclave around the temple; they seem to be descendants of migrants from Tamil Nadu. Some of them became school teachers, only one in our school. Surprisingly all the Telugu pundits in the schools I studied came from Kamma community.

 Even at that age, I noticed that there were affairs going on in the village and some with school teachers. Some were rumours but some I am more certain.

Being a school teacher’s son, one was always a bit of an outsider. I remember loosing faith in god and such and reluctance to take part in puja for Vinakaka Chaviti. I think that I became an agnostic by the time we left Gudavalli for Ravela. We spent only a couple of months there before moving to Pedapulivarru.

My main memories of that of my mother who made a lot of friends in that village and wherever we went and her singing light music. She had a note book of some of the songs she used to sing and I had it with me for a long time.