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.