early schooling (continued)

Ok - yesterday was actually Mother's Day and not 5th when I started this blog. Anyway, as they say - it is the thought that matters........And as you girls have now trained me - we have to live by our thoughts alone!

I had already stated that it is difficult to string memories together in a coherent fashion. What I do is, I refresh chats with Ammamma on some of the incidents as I track her life's journey. Some of the details can get elaborate, specially because I am anxious to share all details with you girls - Sweety, Preeti and Nishu. So bear with me if I ramble along.

I continue with Ammamma's early schooling. I mentioned the lucky break she got with the school being opened in her own village. Apart from that, she got some encouragement at home too. In her days, there were no schoolbags or boxes. Books used to be wrapped in a particular way in a cloth and tied up, which would then be carried slung over the shoulder or on one's head. Ammamma's eldest Annayya (Chittattha's father) used to do this skillfully everyday for her (and he was quite interested in seeing her go to school, upto primary, that is). This particular thing was called 'Dastara' - etymologically, this shows the liberal usage of Urdu in the Circar Districts of Krishna and Guntur.

I mentioned in my last blog that Ammamma did rebel on issues that she perceived to be unjust, be it the apportioning of food in a discriminatory way between boys and girls, or against the assignment of subjects in school based on gender. She was also encouraged by Satyam Tata (her fourth brother) to read books and magazines which he used to subscribe to. She therefore read a lot (fortunately those genes appear intact with all of us!!). Among the publications were Krishna Patrika (thought provoking articles - a phenomenon in Telugu heritage), Vinodini (a comedy magazine, and as you know, Ammamma is very fond of jokes and ridicule and particularly remembers cartoons from this magazine which caricatured odd looking couples), and Chitragupta, which carried fiction through short stories. This was the second lucky break for her as her sharp mind absorbed more and more and brought her the knowledge that can come only with exposure. She also used to listen to nationalist speeches in the village when leaders visited and also her cousins and brothers started taking a lot of interest in these. in 1937, election campaigning was on for the Madras Presidency and she heard several speeches of the Congress Party and the Justice Party (Kalluri Chandramouli). Bharati Devi Ranga stayed at their house while visiting Bethapudi. Vemulapalli Srikrishna, a village resident propounded socialist ideology. Therefore Ammamma had opportunity to hear divergent political views at close quarters.

On the gender issue, she was faced with examples from her sisters and her sisters in law - her eldest sis in law already showed howt an educated woman can act and dress differently. She saw her sisters getting meekly married at an early age, particularly pathetic was the plight of her second sister Saraswati (Rangannayya's mother), who was whisked off to the French Quarter of Machilipatnam to be married off at 11 years, because the British had enacted the Sarda Act, which forbade marriages of girls below 12. Saraswati had to learn the hard way of taking up family responsibilities at a very tender age. I myself have been told of this in one of my annual summer holidays to Ravivaripalem, by her Thodi kodalu, of how Saraswati Peddamma used to get burnt and soiled with soot when she had to get food from stove to serve the large joint family she was married into. Perhaps, the biggest empowerment lesson that Ammamma got from her family was when she saw her second sister in law take up cudgels against Chittattha's father. It so happened that Anjiah had acquisitive tendencies and his brother Bhushiah was a mild man. But his wife stood up for their rightful share - an unexpected resistance for Anjiah. When arguments became really heated, he tried to intimidate her by bringing a stick (a very typical end to arguments between genders). However, this lady was not cowed down and she also picked up a stick and was willing to fight her way. Fortunately, the fight stopped then, but this made an indelible impression on Ammamma. She understood the power of courage and conviction and she also understood that studies are her only salvation. This was deepened when her father insisted on having a separate homestead and expected his pre teen daughters to cook and keep house for him. Ammamma naturally rebelled. Her skills were recognised, when her sisters asked her to champion their cause for getting their late mother's jewels from the Anjiah. On behalf of all, Ammamma demanded for them, however, it was in vain as he said that they were used for medical expenses of the deceased person! It is interesting to note that the separation and division of the assets left all brothers with no alternative but to seek better avenues and thus began the migration of the Kudithipudi family from Bethapudi. The first to go was the third brother Raghaviah, who first went to his in law's village and later settled comfortably in Koduru. The second brother Bhushiah first migrated to Khammam, where a malaria epidemic scared him to return. He then eventually migrated to Nizamabad and did well (this uncle of mine, during his last days - when I was doing my MBA - out of some premonition, visited all relatives in their respective places, came to our house in Hyderabad for medical check up and died in our house. When he was collapsing, he could not speak, but took leave of our Tatayya with folded hands. I remember trying to help him by pouring first water and then milk into his mouth. He died in the ambulance on way to Osmania Hospital). Satyam Mamayya stayed on longer in Bethapudi, but he squandered his share on cigarettes and vehicle (cycle - a luxury for middle income people in those days).The only person who stayed the longest was Anjiah, but he was prosperous.

Influence of Political Movements

Ammamma's further studies are invariably linked to the influence of the political awareness and social change sweeping the country then in the wake of Indian nationalism. Ammamma was influenced by several of her family members who dabbled in politics. This is where a little bit of ancestral evolution also comes into effect. It appears that five brothers came from somewhere and became settlers in Bethapudi. They all tilled large tracts of land and lives in homesteads stretching one after the other and became a dominant force in the village, alongwith the Vemulapallis, Paruchuris, Nallurus and Bobbas. Economically well off, as well as having enterprise in their thinking, which is the hallmark of settlers, they influenced all new things in the village. The younger brothers and the second generation became active in development and one of the first things was the setting up of the middle school. They also became active in politics and the events ensuing from this had an influence on Ammamma. Her cousin Pundareekakshayya (Leelakka's father!) and Ammamma's fourth brother Satyam were initially in Congress. They fell out when Pundareekakshayya continued in Congress and Satyam Tata became a communist for life later. It was the nationalist focus on development that influenced Ammamma's life from then on and had an impact on her higher education, marriage and work. It was Satyam Tata and his wife Suryavati who shaped her course and helped her continuously despite their own strained circumstances that gave her the leg up in life. In my next blog this is detailed.