Matric, marriage and communism

While writing this blog, I keep going back and forth with Ammamma on chronicling her amazing journey, it is inevitable that there are repetitions. There are times she tells me the same incidents again and again and refuses to believe that we covered the ground already. There are events that she remembers distinctly and some she is totally hazy on. Considering my own memory at this stage, I am not surprised that at 83, people, places and events appear so far removed as to seem unreal. The upshot of all this preamble is to appeal to all you readers of my blog to forgive ramblings and repetitions, which is actually a reflection of my own memory and my inability (or laziness) to devote time in rereading earlier blogs and editing.

When Ammamma came back from Allahabad, she was accepted back into the family, as they were willing to forgive her escapade for the genuine and legitimate reason for pursuing studies and also because, Satyam Mamayya and Suryavati Atthayya may have taken the brunt of it already for having abetted her 'crime'. The one person who felt most bereft about Ammamma leaving was her younger sister Vanakumari, who not only had to deal with not having her playmate, companion, confidante and sister around, but also to put up with the household chores. I am actually surprised that there was no rancour about this between them then or later, even though it must have been really tough. How wonderful it would be if we could emulate these great relationships!

However, as far as continuing studies were concerned, there were no champions, except for Satyam Mamayya and Suryavati Atthayya. It is her noble heart that made Suryavati Atthayya to set aside the fact the Ammamma had rebuffed her own brother's marriage proposal and was willing to support her further studies. Isn't it remarkable that a deep friendship would develop and remain steadfast between these two till July 14 of 2008, when Suryavati Atthayya passed away? In her death too, she was asking for Ammamma. Exceptional relationships such as these are seen by exception alone. Anyway, all of us who had witnessed this friendship at some time or the other, have not come away without some degree of impact and an enormous feel good satisfaction with us. Isn't it also remarkable that they were willing to make Ammamma study higher and higher even though none of them could go beyond the primary in their own education?

Satyam Mamayya then took her to Guntur and housed her in the house of Chadalawada Pitchaiah, who was active in the cause of Communism and supported students and others in their pursuit of education or political careers; by this time Satyam Mamayya had become a fan of Communist philosophy. Police would keep a watch on this house. Ammamma took tuition and started preparing for her Benares Matric exam in English meidum. Here she met many activists and intellectuals, she particularly remembers Vishwanadham, a good orator, Makineni Basava Punnaiah, Kanthamaneni Venkatratnam, Vemuri Srikrishna, Pullupula Sivaiah, Pratapa Rama Subba Rao (After my marriage, I met Pratapa Rama Subba Rao and his family as they were staying in Vidyanagar, and their fondness for Ammamma was evident even after so many decades) and many many more. The highlight of her stay here was the acquaintance and friendship with Moturi Udayam, an activist and the wife of a communist leader called Moturi Hanumantha Rao. Udayam was spirited and adventurous, given to wit and therefore, it was instant friendship that blossomed pretty rapidly (in Telugu it is described as 'one plate, one bed' - oke kancham, oke mancham). It was as if Ammamma was looking for a twin soul and could not find any till that time amongst her own sex. I myself had the occasion to meet Udayam when she visited us in our house at Amrit Nagar Colony (Troop Bazar, near Kothi), just about the time Maapi (for other readers - Maapi is short for Madhuri Pinni and my sister, eight and half years my junior) was born. She is a gregarious woman of generous proportions, full of beans and an ever smiling disposition. I was fascinated by her and also marvelled at her courage to wear a man's bush shirt as a blouse, simply because she was so fat. She was quite comfortable about it and was all the more admirable because of that. I was petrified that she would think of me as a weakling, but Ammamma and she were ever busy taking pot shots at each other in an enjoyable manner.

Moturi Hanumantha Rao was underground that time and police surveillance increased. When a message used to come that he was in the vicinity, Ammamma would do a recce to check out the police personnel, who, she said stuck out like sore thumbs in their civilian camouflage, with a pen and pad to take notes. Udayam used to go by the front or the back door to avoid them and meet her husband and come back and the police were none the wiser for it. Little wonder that there is so much lampooning of them in our movies and even in Enid Blyton's books (Mr Goon).

Political activism also spurred on exercise and fitness fads amongst the aspirants and they were strongly advised to build their bodies by exercise. There was a guy called Dandamudi Rajagopal who developed his bod so much that he used to demonstrate it by getting people to stand on his chest. Together with another such man called Kodi Rammurthy, their muscle prowess made a great impression on their young minds. Adventurous that they were, Udayam and Ammamma took turns and balanced each other on their chests at home, as they wanted to do everything that the boys did. Luckily for both of them, neither got injured in the process. They also suddenly decided to do early morning jogging. I don't know how many days they actually kept up with this, but they did succeed in scaring away women who used to get up at 5 am for their nature calls near to their house as at that time, Brodiepet 4th line was sparsely inhabited and ideal for open air business. These women got the fright of their lives when they saw these two girls pounding down the road and they left their mugs/lotas and ran for their lives!

Ammamma was preparing for her exams, but by now, Satyam Mamayya landed himself in financial difficulties because of lack of planning and some injudicious expenses. He had donated part of his property to the party, and spent generously on buying books and magazines, a cycle (a fashion in those days), smoking cigarettes, etc. He had to struggle quite a bit for some years after that, yet, I do not remember either Satyam Mamayya or Suryavati Atthayya show any time that were burdened with problems. They were always happy together, but their style of talking was as if they were fighting with each other. These kind of parleys were very enjoyable not only to them but to others who were fortunate to be in their vicinity. In any case, this brought home the reality to Ammamma that she will have to seriously think about her future. She also knew that from now on she would have to earn and learn to progress further in her studies. It was slow, given the need to work for thee party and to survive economically, but she did not give up - she did her Sahitya Ratna and Vidwan exams (MA equivalent exams in Hindi) years later, a couple of years after I was born. I think she passed Bhushan when I was born.

So when her brother Satyam brought a young man called Krishna, a dark, handsome man with great writing skills and a dash of humour, Ammamma agreed to her brother's proposal to marry him. They were married on the terrace of a house in Guntur amidst friends and comrades. They did not invite family, however, when they later came to know that anger subsided in both places, they visited each other's houses. Getting married was good because the alternative was marrying a farmer and remaining confined to the villages, which I think would have stifled Ammamma. For as long as she could move, I have never in my life seen her staying in one place. She went to every place at every opportunity and she took me and Maapi along with her always. We got to see a lot of things and discover so much of the world and that did us a world of good. It was also well that her marriage was not arranged by other members of her family as is evidenced by Vanakumari being married off to an affluent but a widowed man, who luckily was a nice man alright, but ended up losing money in a hotel venture and then went off in search of a homestead in Karnataka. It took years of hard toil to make their riches, which did come around the time I was in my late teens.

I always found it strange that settlers moved west in most locales, whether in our own country or in the UK or the US. I wonder why? Is it because the lower reaches of rivers are easier to negotiate and amenable for tilling than the upper reaches and therefore become affluent and competitive? And those who found opportunity for growth uncomfortable in a crowded place, chose to exercise their spirit of adventure and entrepreneurship and moved towards more difficult but attainable challenges? From Ammamma's family, Satyam Mamayya went o Miryalaguda, Bhushiah Mamayya went to Nizamabad and Vanakumari Pinni went to Bellary(Sanapuram) and made the dry, unrelenting soil turn soft and produce golden crops. Ammamma and Tatayya chose to go to Tenali, Guntur, Vijayawada, Kurnool and then finally Hyderabad in pursuit of their own mecca in careers.

In those days party membership of the Communist Party did not come easily. There was a process. First one had to be a sympathiser, then an associate member and then graduate to being a cell member. Ammamma and Tathayya took a house in Tenali, where he was working as a clerk in the sub-Registrar's office. Ammamma started taking coaching classes in Bharat Tutorial College next door. During this time, Ammamma, alongwith Tathayya visited his village China Pulivarru in Bhattiprolu for the first time. I remember Tathayya sanskritising his village name and telling me that is Bala Vyaghrapuri. I loved the way my father made up all these things. Jokes apart, it is a fact that Bhattiprolu was very ancient and was also an important centre for Buddhism as evidenced by relics and excavations. Its earlier (real) name was Pratipalapura.

When they were returning from the village Tathayya said that his parents wanted him to tie the traditional mangalasutra and since he refused, his mother still pressed it into his hands when they were leaving. Ammamma was quite delighted and wore it in the train itself because it was perhaps the first and the only jewellery she had till date! She returned to her studies and went to Benares to give her exam, which she passed. She was pregnant with her first child at the time of writing her exams, a boy, who was born in 1942 during the eighth month of her pregnancy and survived just for three days. After this, Ammamma got into the thick of activist politics, which is subject matter of my next blog.