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.