Additions to Family and More Domestication

Maapi 5 months old

Before writing about Maapi's arrival into this world, Ammamma wants me to record how I gave her the heebiejeebies by getting lost once again. When I was admitted in Rosary Convent, an arrangement was made for me to go with another girl called Uma, known as Patel Saheb's daughter (Police Inspectors were addressed as Patel Saheb in Telengana areas) in a cycle riskshaw. This poor fellow bore all our pranks and used to indulge us by racing whenever we wanted him to! Uma and me were always playing together in all sorts of imaginary games. One day, I managed to miss the rickshaw after school. I was probably exploring something or reading somewhere. I must have also started walking out. The rickshaw man searched for me everywhere and then went home and reported to Ammamma. She was in a panic (similar to what I faced with Sweety in the US when she missed her school bus!) as Hyderabad was such a big city, unlike Kurnool and she was petrified that she would not see me again. She and Tatayya and their friends started searching for me high and low. Fortunately for them, I walked back the same everyday route from Abids to Char Minar and reached late in the evening. I must have been around 6 years old then. The next year, I travelled alone by bus and used to love the ticket roll paper that the conductors used to give me at the end of the trip because Char Minar was the terminus. I also used to love the way tickets were given in those days, rolled out of a hand held machine. I used to read anything that could be read and used to ask Ammamma what every abbreviation meant and Ammamma patiently expalined to me every word on the ticket.

When we moved to Amrutnagar Colony, it was as if it was a different world. It took all of us to adjust to living there. You had to belong there and we certainly did not. It took time. I was exposed to poojas, festival celebrations, and feminine pursuits of stitching, knitting, rangoli drawings and others. I was quite comfortable at learning anything new and surprisingly, Ammamma encouraged me to learn all of them - she probably felt that she could not do so many things and that I should know them. Of course, there was no compromise on studies. I learnt the Telugu alphabet by looking over my father reading Andhra Patrika, in which he now worked. My first Telugu letter was Aa, as Andhra Patrika was spelt. I am amazed how quickly I picked up the language (genes from my parents I suppose) and actually graduated to reading Bharathi - an intellectual magazine that they subscribed to. Of course, Chandamama magazine - a great Institution - was a great motivator for me to learn Telugu.

It is after moving here that Ammamma realised that she was pregnant again. It was quite a surprise for her, as she had not expected to conceive because she had reached 35 years of age. It also meant a break in her teaching career as well. So Ammamma's teaching career was punctuated first with Tatayya's move to Vijayawada, then with my birth and just when she was settling down into a successful teaching career at Narayanguda School, she had to stop working for the third time. When Ammamma was in her sixth month of pregnancy, an accident happened. I was getting dressed to go out with Tatayya to get some breakfast from a restaurant and Ammamma was cleaning the radio. There must have been an exposed wire because she got an electric shock and to compound it, the wire stuck to her middle finger. Tatayya and me were paralysed and I started screaming a the top of my voice, which brought the neighbours around. But by that time, Ammamma, with her presence of mind, walked to the other side of the room where the plug socket was, with her finger dragging the radio as well and switched off the supply. The radio fell down and after that Ammamma berated me for being so scared and Tatayya for not acting fast in switching off the electricity. It took me some time to get over it. Luckily, nothing happened to Maapi in the womb.

I was looking forward to someone younger to me in the family as it is pretty lonely for an only child. I was excited and waited and waited for the day. One night, Tatayya and Ammamma took me to Kacheguda and left me in the home of a Malayalee family, whom we knew from Kurnool. The name was Panicker and he was working in the Press Trust of India. His son in law was also known to us - he wrote a good biography of a renowned pioneer scientist called Dr Y Subba Rao (biotech), later. I was too sleepy to know what was happening, and when I got up in the morning, I was told that I have a little sister. She was born on the 15th of March, 1961 at 4.25 am in the morning. (Everybody was relieved that it was not 4.20 because of the stigma of cheating and fraud associated with Sec 420 of the Indian Penal Code and which term became popular because of a movie by that name. Any cheat was called 420!). I was very excited with the news of this birth for what seemed a very long wait, and since Maruti Nursing Home was just next door, I ran to see my little sister. I found it strange to see my mother in bed as I was not used to seeing her like that ever! My little sister was very fair, had a round face and a shock of jet black and thick hair. In fact the hair was the most distinguishing feature of her and whenever anyone came to visit us, this is the first thing they would comment upon. I wanted to hold her. I was made to sit down and she was then placed in my lap. I simply loved her.

But then, our Indian ethos does not allow this peace to prevail - everyone started saying that since the new baby looked so beautiful and fair - fair being the operative word, as compared to me - I started getting worried about my place in my parents' hearts. (I was quite dark when I was younger and had an oval face - how this became round and lighter in later years than what it used to be, and how Maapi became darker and developed more of an oval face, is something I am unable to understand. However, both of us are now well rounded and look very similar!) In any case, this kind of talk created panic in me. I am not one to keep my feelings to myself - I told my parents in English (assuming in my innocence that others would not understand) that they will not love me any more and was mortified when everyone laughed. Tatayya assured me that this would not happen as one loves both eyes equally. I was reassured. The next day, Tatayya and me went shopping for the first time (shopping was always Ammamma - Tatayya never bothered about anything to do with such things), and bought a brown and mustard dress with a low waist for me and a light blue frilly frock for Maapi as the day after Maapi was born was Ugadi, the Telugu New Year. Ammamma was surprised because she never thought that Tatayya could buy anything reasonably well! I was also surprised to see Ammamma still in bed - I couldn't understand why - and that her hair was plaited in two. She said that the nurses could not handle her thick hair and therefore made it into two!

We came back home and Ammamma managed everything herself as Suryavati Atthayya was also coping with her own problems of developing homestead in arid lands of Miryalaguda. In our Char Minar house, Ammamma had found a cook, who was as efficient as she was loving. She was a Marathi woman called Nagamma and came from a good trader family. However, after her husband died, she had to take up two jobs to keep the family running. No matter how many guests we had, she impressed all of them with her super speed and cleanliness. After finishing work in our house, she used to go to a shop and stitch buttons. I really hope she had a peaceful life later. I remember her rich relatives too and their extravagant wedding baraths going in front our house and wondered why they wouldn't help her. Anyway, this lady helped out Ammamma in the initial days after Maapi's birth by coming all the way from Charminar to Kothi everyday and look after Mother and Baby. I remember her distinctly, the way she tied her saree and hair and how she looked after me during my recuperation from paratyphoid. Without such people, Ammamma would have found it difficult to cope with life - something that many nuclear families undergo and support systems that are so badly needed simply don't exist.

Naming Maapi became a problem simply because of the uniqueness of my name. It was something Ammamma was not prepared for. She therefore asked Tatayya and his poet friends to list out names. These included Gopala Chakravarti (of Govt Information and PR Dept), Kundurti Anjaneyulu and another person. A list of names was being readied. In the meanwhile, Ammamma started calling Maapi Honey, because she liked the sound of that word when she first heard it in Vijayawada (imagine, a man had named his son Honey!). It also rhymed with Kinny, my own short name. When the list was prepared, we all pored over it. My choice was Nivedita. There was a name in the list Gagarini, in honour of Yuri Gagarin - the first manned space flight which was in the same year! Ammamma did not like any of the names. Finally she accepted that she would not be able to give a unique name and went about looking for names that sounded nice to her. As I wrote earlier, we used to subscribe to many newspapers and magazines. We used to get two Hindi magazines, I think published by The Times, called Dharmayug and Madhuri. Ammamma liked the name Madhuri and so was Maapi named. I still tried to call her Nivedita and also used funny short forms like Nivvi, Diti and others, but gave up after some time as no one supported me.

I grew very fond of my sister and almost was a second mother to her once she crossed the third month and I could carry her easily. I was very possessive of her and she would also run to me all the time. Ammamma taught her to speak 'ka' - short for Akka (meaning me, elder sister) and that was her first word at the unbelievable age of five months! I was thrilled to bits and very proud too. (However, Ammamma refutes this and says she taught her to say 'kya' as in 'what' in Hindi and not Ka! I believe in what I heard and Ammamma better not change this).

Ammamma has this knack of teaching which extended even to babies. I remember Maapi and me laughing when she was trying to teach Sweety when she was a month old baby to make sounds like 'ukhun' and other similar unintelligible sounds. Sweety actually learned to say them at the beginning of her second month and Ammamma challenged us triumphantly. We have to acknowledge - she's got the art of making kids and people do things. Maapi was once isolated from me because I had measles and she would try to climb stairs in the duplex apartment to see me and fall down. Poor baby, she also got measles despite Ammamma's care. I was also fiercely possessive of Maapi and Kanthamani used to mercilessly tease me that Maapi was actually a dhobi's daughter born at the same time in the hospital and I used to cry my heart out. I used to have nightmares thinking that the dhobis would come and take away my sister. Kanthi also used to claim being Ammamma's eldest daughter giving me scary thoughts about my own position. Ammamma used to laugh these away and never bothered to reassure me, but Tatayya used to do this for me and tell me how precious and beautiful I was.

Maapi had another tryst with life at Deepavali. Her cradle caught fire as a lamp placed close to the cradle lighted up the mosquito net covering her cradle and Maapi was sleeping inside it. Again, Ammamma jumped into action even before anyone could collect their wits and threw stripped the cradle of the net, threw it on the ground and stamped on it till it was extinguished. Her alertness to action is something amazing - nobody gets a chance to beat her to it.

After this, Ammamma's main job was to see us study well and get a good exposure to all things like books, magazines, children's plays, circus, exhibitions and also movies. She took us to lots of things and we really enjoyed and learnt a lot from this exposure. I remember the Russian Circus and the daring feats they performed. We went for this twice as the first time the gallery scaffolding gave way and people got injured and the show stopped. I remember one man losing his cool and shouting at the top of his voice if Soviet Russia was responsible for this fiasco, which was essentially poor quality construction on behalf of our own people! I also remember going for movie previews and cinema shooting as Tatayya used to get passes for them. In those days, the lead actors used to attend every premiere and I got to see all of them. Ammamma talked to some of them. I remember Savitri coming in a parrot green saree for Mooga Manasulu I think. I also saw a lot of cultural programmes with the passes, saw Vempati China Satyam and Yamini Krishnamoorthy debuting and I fell in love with Kuchipudi. I wanted to learn this - however, this was the only thing that I was denied by my parents. They somehow did not like dance whereas I loved it.

Ammamma decided that Carnatic Music was a substitute for dance. Firstly, Kanthi's sister Godamani (who later had two sets of girl twins and then some more girls), tried to teach me. Later Ammamma employed a master to come home and teach me. I wasn't in the least bit interested. Maapi used to watch me struggling to sing and hating every moment of it. Anyway, after a few months, Ammamma gave it up. She also took Maapi and me in the summer, braving all the difficulties of the journey and with a small kid like Maapi to take care of to all our relatives houses. Those were the days when going to Vijayawada by train, then taking a rickshaw to the busstand and waiting for the Nagayalanka bus (which was not that frequent) to go to Mopidevi, jostling with the crowd for tickets and space, looking after our food needs, getting the luggage (which consisted of two iron trunks and a holdall!) loaded and unloaded and after reaching Mopi Devi, getting into a rickshaw to go to Raavivari Palem - was a great trek. I wonder how se did it. After a few days in Raavivari Palem (where I played with Rani (Ranakka as you now know her in Michigan) and her brother Sivaram), we used ot cross the river Krishna by boat, again with all that luggage and go to Suryavati Atthayya's village - in whichever village Jhansakka was posted at that time and then to Vellaturu and Chinapulivarru and Koduru - all by herself! It was a herculean task and when women did not travel alone or were at least being seen off and being received also. We salute our Mother because we are better off with all this multi-faceted exposure that helped us adjust at any place, any time and with anybody.

Disillusionment with Political Movements

Instead of my weekly posts, I had to write a small piece today. This morning, the news item on proportionate electors and shared governance for political parties brought a wave of memories for Ammamma, and she talked a lot with emotion about the feelings she went through in those times. This is an account of what she told me this morning:

When the Constitution of India was being drafted, it was sent to various parties/district bodies for comments and inclusions. Ammamma had argued for exactly the same. (Later, in early 2000, she opined the same in an interview she gave to the Doordarshan that parties with their ideologies, and not individuals representing parties, should contest elections). This was not included and that was her first disappointment with the political processes.

In the 1952 elections, Communists did gain a considerable number of seats, particularly in Andhra, as the Congress was seen dawdling and evading the separate Andhra issue. It was also because of public sympathy for the Communists due to the severe repression put down ruthlessly by the erstwhile Madras Presidency, by bringing in the Malabar police and routing out whole villages which had a large number of Communists and Communist sympathisers. Many prominent leaders went underground at that time. Thus, when Andhra was formed in 1953, the State Assembly had a sizeable number of Communists. Bolstered by their successes, Communists not only became over confident, they actually became arrogant. They moved a no confidence vote against the Congress in 1955, and Ammamma saw the government fall as she was present in the Assembly at that time. She remembers a member named Doraiswamy, also of the Congress voting against his own government and siding with the Communists. The 1955 elections saw Communists making campaigns bordering on threats of making the rich by name (eg Challapalli Raja and others) work and toil like peasants (a la the movie - The Last Emperor) and of the things they would do when they came to power and who would man which ministries. The electorate rejected this boorish campaign and returned only 15 members to the Assembly. The tenor of this campaign was the second disappointment for Ammamma. She was also pained to see that a party which was praised by Gandhi also as being a disciplined party, a party that did not hesitate to suspend even its prominent members if they worked against the values being propounded by them for the creation of a new societal order (a member was suspended because he had a consanguinous marriage, when the party was propagating against it), now had senior leaders who had developed second families while they were underground. This included her close associates as well whom she does not want to name now. This was the third disillusionment because of compromise of values. The fourth disappointment was that at the village level, several women's organizations were now set up on party lines. She felt that development should be all party based and should not be politicized and it hurt her to see that this was going to be the end of creation of "Nava Samajam" or a new (model) society.

Her disappointment reached its pinnacle when Communists fought on ideological lines (Russia and China divide) and vandalism was rampant even among erstwhile friends and this stretched over 3-4 years. In Vijayawada, this was at its ugliest with houses being burnt and the like. Tatayya's reporting of these incidents, particularly the Vijayawada carnage, was appreciated by the then Inspector General (Nambiar??) as being highly balanced reporting. This was the time, many party members, including Ammamma and Tatayya became passive members or even withdrew from membership. Ammamma became active as a teacher for the next almost 15 years and then she again became active as a member of All India Women's Federation when our family moved to Delhi. Thus Ammamma dissociated herself from active politics and devoted more time to social development in her own way, which I shall continue to document in my continuing narrative.

I am reproducing below a gist of the Andhra struggle which I downloaded from the net, for the benefit of those who are following this blog, but are also interested in factual rather than anecdotal history.

Struggle for Andhra State

The Andhras were struggling for the formation of a separate Andhra Province since the period of British, but could not succeed. When India attained Independence on the 15th of August, 1947, Andhras hoped that their long-cherished desire would be realised soon. Inspite of several renewed efforts put forth by the Andhra leaders before the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the desire for a separate Andhra State remained as a dream itself.

The Dar Commission, appointed by the Government of India under the Chairmanship of S.K.Dar did not recommend for the creation of States on the linguistic consideration. This report of the Commission created such an adverse reaction in Andhra that the Congress leaders felt it prudent to assuage the ruffled feelings of the Telugus. An unofficial Committee, consisting of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, popularly known as the J.V.P. Committee, was constituted by the Congress. The Committee in its report submitted to the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress in April, 1949 recommended that the creation of linguistic provinces be postponed by few years. However, it suggested that Andhra Province could be formed provided the Andhras gave up their claim to the city of Madras (now Chennai). This report provoked violent reaction in Andhra as the Telugus were not prepared to forego their claims to the city of Madras.

Under the prevailing situation, a Partition Committee was formed under the Chairmanship of Kumaraswami Raja, the then Chief Minister of Madras. Andhra was represented by Tanguturi Prakasam, B.Gopala Reddi, Kala Venkata Rao and N.Sanjiva Reddy. The Partition Committee could not arrive at an agreed settlement. Prakasam disagreed with the views of other members and gave a dissenting note. The Government of India, took advantage of the dissenting note of Prakasam and shelved the issue. To express the resentment of the Andhras, Swami Sitaram (Gollapudi Sitarama Sastry), a Gandhian, undertook a fast unto death, which created an explosive situation in Andhra. However, Swami gave up his 35-day fast on the 20th of September, 1951, on the appeal made by Vinoba Bhave. Nothing came out of this fast except the increasing distrust of the people of Andhra towards their own leaders and the Government of India.

In the First General Elections of 1952, Andhras expressed their resentment towards the Congress leaders by defeating them at the polls. Out of the 140 seats from Andhra in the Madras Legislative Assembly, the Congress could secure only 43, while the Communist Party of India bagged as many as 40 seats out of the 60 it contested. In the Madras Legislative Assembly itself, the Congress could secure only 152. The non-Congress members in the legislature, numbering 164 formed themselves into a United Democratic Front (U.D.F.) and elected T.Prakasam as their leader. But the Governor nominated C.Rajagopala Chari to the Legislative Council and invited him to form the ministry.

After Rajagopala Chari became the Chief Minister of the Madras State, he tried to divert the Krishna waters by constructing Krishna-Pennar Project for the development of the Tamil area. The Andhras agitated against this as they feared that the Project spelt ruin to Andhra. The Government of India appointed an expert Committee under the Chairmanship of A.N.Khosla, who pronounced that the project in its present form should not be proceeded with and suggested the construction of a project at Nandikonda (the site of the present Nagarjunasagar Project). The report of the Khosla Committee vindicated the apprehensions of the Andhras regarding the unfriendly attitude of Rajagopala Chari's Government towards the Andhras. The desire of the Andhras to separate themselves from the composite Madras State and form their own State gained further momentum.

At this juncture, Potti Sriramulu, a self-effacing Gandhian, began his fast unto death on the 19th of October, 1952 at Madras. Though the fast created an unprecedented situation throughout Andhra, the Congress leaders and the Government of India did not pay much attention to it. On the 15th of December, 1952, Sriramulu attained martyrdom. The news of Sriramulu's death rocked Andhra into a violent and devastating agitation. The Government of India was taken aback at this popular upsurge. On the 19th December, 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru announced in the Lok Sabha that the Andhra State would be formed with the eleven undisputed Telugu districts, and the three Taluks of the Bellary district, but excluding Madras City.

On the 1st of October, 1953, Andhra State came into existence. It consisted of the districts of Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Nellore, Chittoor, Cuddapah, Anantapur and Kurnool, and the taluks of Rayadurg, Adoni and Alur of the Bellary district. On the question of Bellary taluk, it was included in the Mysore State on the recommendation of L.S.Mishra Commission.

Kurnool became the capital of the new State, under the terms of the Sri Bagh Pact of 1937 between the leaders of the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. T.Prakasam became the first Chief Minister of the Andhra State and C.M.Trivedi was appointed Governor of this new State. With the inauguration of the Andhra State by Nehru, the forty year old dream of the Telugu people to have a separate State of their own was partly fulfilled. They looked forward to the formation of Visalandhra with Hyderabad City as the Capital.

Police Action in Hyderabad State

Andhras were very much agitated over the developments in the State of Hyderabad during the years 1946--48. The Nizam was very anxious to become independent and he insisted that Hyderabad should be the third dominion. He tried to achieve his ambitious desire with the help of Khasim Razvi of the Ittehadul Muslimeen and its storm-troopers, the Razakars.

Meanwhile, the Hindus of the Hyderabad State who accounted for 93 per cent of its population, launched the `Join India' movement with the cooperation of a few patriotic Muslims for the integration of the State with the rest of the country. The State Congress leaders, led by Swami Ramanand Tirtha, invoked themselves whole-heartedly in the movement. As the State Congress was banned by the Nizam, its leaders conducted their activities from places like Vijayawada and Bombay. The Communists on their part organised village defence squads to protect the villagers from the attacks of the Nizam Police and Razakars.

All negotiations between the Nizam's Dominions and the Indian Union proved abortive. The Nizam Government did not agree to the accession of the Dominions to the Indian Union. The activities of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen and the Razakars within the Dominions were posing a threat to peace and harmony. The growing violence of the Razakars seriously jeopardised law and order. The Government of India, tried to make the Nizam see reason and sign the Instrument of Assession with India. After tortuous negotiations, the Nizam finally entered into a `Stand Still Agreement' on November 29, 1947, with India for one year to maintain status quo, which existed between the British and the Nizam before August 15, 1947. This agreement of the Nizam was only to gain time to procure military hardware from different parts of the world and smuggle them into Hyderabad. In the meanwhile, the Nizam sent a delegation to the U.N.O. to refer the Hyderabad case to the Security Council.

With the growing violence by the Razakars and the Nizam's attempts to get himself independent, the Government of India decided to curb these tendencies by launching a `Police Action' against the Nizam. On the 13th of September, 1948 `Police Action' on Hyderabad commenced. The Indian Army, led by Major-General J.N.Chaudhuri entered the State from five directions and the military action was a brilliant success. On 18th September, 1949, Nizam's forces surrendered and Mir Laik Ali, the Prime Minister of the Nizam, and Khasim Razvi were arrested. On September, 23, the Nizam withdrew his complaint in the Security Council. The merger of Hyderabad Dominions into the Indian Union was announced. Major-General J.N.Chaudhuri took over as Military Governor of Hyderabad and stayed in that position till the end of 1949. In January 1950, M.K.Vellodi, a Senior Civil Servant, was made the Chief Minister of the State and the Nizam was designated `Raj Pramukh'. After the 1952 General Elections, the first popular ministry headed by B.Rama Krishna Rao took charge of the State.

Emergence of Andhra Pradesh

The creation of Andhra State in October, 1953 strengthened the general demand for linguistic States. Andhras had also long cherished demand for the formation of Visalandhra, since the people of Hyderabad State were unanimous in their demand for the trifurcation of their State. Andhras hoped that the outlying Telugu areas in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Mysore and Madras be incorporated in the greater Andhra.

The States Reorganisation Commission, with Syed Fazl Ali as the Chairman, set up by the Government of India in December 1953, who heard the views of different organisations and individuals, was though convinced of the advantages of Visalandhra, however, favoured the formation of separate State for Telangana. This report of the S.R.C. led to an intensive lobbying both by the advocates of Telangana and Visalandhra. The Communists reacted sharply and announced that they would resign their seats in the Hyderabad Legislative Assembly and contest elections on the issue. In the Hyderabad Legislative Assembly, a majority of the Legislators supported Visalandhra.

The Congress High Command favoured Visalandhra and prevailed upon the leaders of the Andhra State and Telangana to sort out their differences, who, thereupon, entered into a `Gentlemen's Agreement'. One of the main provisions of the Agreement was the creation of a `Regional Council' for Telangana for its all round development. The enlarged State by merging nine Telugu speaking districts of Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam, Nalgonda, MahabubNagar and Hyderabad, into Andhra State with its eleven districts of Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Nellore, Chittoor, Cuddapah, Anantapur and Kurnool, totalling 20 districts* was named `Andhra Pradesh' with its capital at Hyderabad. It was inaugurated on the 1st of November, 1956 by Jawaharlal Nehru. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy became the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, who later rose to the position of the President of India. Burgula Ramakrishna Rao, last of the Chief Ministers of Hyderabad State was elevated to the Office of the Governor of Kerala. C.M.Trivedi continued to be the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.

"Savitri Teacher garu"

Ammamma was actually happy enough in Diamond Jubilee School and her ability to make friends helped her settle very fast in the school. Ramzan/Christmas/Deepavali saw hordes of friends as well as us, dropping in/visiting and I learnt a lot through this exposure to different cultures. To this day, I remember some of the faces and names. The true India in its diversity and unity even today lives in the habits and hearts of people who love other people irrespective of their background and this enduring quality endured relationships even when out of touch for years. One day in Maapi's boutique (Medha's in Dwarakpuri Colony), around 2001, Ammamma met a lady who was her student and had acted in a Hindi play which Ammamma had scripted and directed in Kurnool! In Diamond Jubilee School she was respected by all and earned kudos for the school from the inspectors. She asked and then fought for a raise and she resigned without a thought for livelihood problems on a matter of principle. She would have probably got her raise, had she given a little time for the Management to come back to her, but the fighting spirit of the communism days made her too action oriented, a trait that still lives in me when I take a stand on what I believe is right and with similar consequences!

As if Ammamma being so quick to action was not enough, Tatayya was also of the same genre. When he was working with Andhra Prabha, he and a colleague of his called Sampath, who worked in the sister publication Indian Express, went on a sympathetic strike for their colleagues in Madras. They were dismissed. Both of them filed a case against wrongful dismissal and won the case against the Indian Express group of publications - a case which Nishu had to refer to, to her pleasant surprise and pride, in her coursework at NALSAR! Now both Ammamma and Tatayya had to search for jobs and they soon found them by scouting around with friends and acquaintances from Kurnool Assembly days. Initially Tatayya even worked temporarily as a Transport Operator to make ends meet, refused a job with Times of India as they posted him to Bhubaneshwar, and finally landing in a job as a reporter in Andhra Patrika, an innings that brought him recognition in Telugu journalism and access to many people. Ammamma got a job as a Hindi Teacher in a girls' school as mentioned in my earlier blogpost.

The pinnacle of Ammamma's teaching was in Madapati Hanumantha Rao Memorial Girls' High School, more popularly known as Narayanguda Girls' School. It was here that I saw my Mother being adored by her numerous fans in school. Good teachers always make an impression on kids in school and mould the character of impressionable minds. The context in Ammamma's case is what makes it interesting. A language teacher, that too a teacher of the third language, is usually the butt of jokes in school or affectionately tolerated if he/she is a very nice person. That Ammamma was teaching the third language and she was one of the top favourite teachers in the school speaks volumes for the passion she brought into teaching - it was as if all her energies that were pent up in domesticity and withdrawal from active politics, were channelized into teaching. It also satisfied her penchant for creativity in writing. Sometimes I used to go to her school after my school, which used get over earlier and I was witness to her resounding and electrifying classes and the adoration of all her students. It was a sight to watch and it is etched distinctly in my memory. Her lessons were nothing short of a theatre performance - one special poem recital she was known for and for which she got a thunderous standing ovation and requests for encore was on Jhansi ki Rani Lakshmi Bai - "Khoob Ladi Mardani woh tho Jhansi wali Rani thi!" It gave me goose pimples too! I was also witness to many students wanting to befriend her - go out with her to movies and restaurants and take pictures with her. Can you believe girls, Ammamma prepared these Telugu medium kids to participate in inter school Hindi debates, where the participating teams came from Hindi medium schools? And the girls won prizes with her preparation! She was in the forefront of plays and other activities and the Principal, Kasturi always made Ammamma in charge of all the activities in Hindi, even though there was another teacher also (and, whose mother tongue was Hindi!). Neighbouring class teachers used to come and see why her classes were so lively and happy. Ammamma's several fans include Kanthamani (a lifelong friend), Balamba (the famous doctor), Vijaya Ghanta and others. Kanthamani became a permanent member of our household and her father used to come and literally drag her away at night.

I used to go to many of these competitions, as baby sitting was a concept unavailable at that time and urbanization made neighbours shy away from helping others. I remember going to one such debate and wondering why we had to sit on the ground in a school in Kothi, coming as I was from a convent school and blissfully ignorant of the harsh realities of some of the poorly endowed schools. I also remember going on a trip to Nagarjunasagar with hordes of students and teachers, including one teacher called Seshumamba, who was also fun loving and boisterous. So I had the advantage of not only my school excursions, but also those of Ammamma's school! Ammamma got along very well with people who had a sense of humour and were energetic. She was always cracking jokes or making fun of people and people used to be in splits - they used to beg her to provide some respite as their stomachs were paining with continuous laughter, both in school and in relatives' houses. And of course, when Suryavathi Atthayya and Ammamma used to meet, it was a riot of laughter with every body else running for cover from their practical pranks and scathing but highly humorous parleys.

A very significant event that Ammamma remembers from her days in Narayanguda school was the sad story of a teacher called Mythili and the suffering she had to endure because of media glare. This lady was a brahmin who had married a Scheduled Caste and the marriage went sour due to incompatibility at a later date after a couple of children were born. Divorce proceedings are in any case unsavoury - more so in those days, when facts had to be stretched in all their ugly details before the award of a divorce. To compound the problem, the husband of this lady chose to share his story with a novelist called Muppala Ranganayakamma, who used to be very popular because of her style, and she started serialising his version of the story. Obviously this made life even more difficult for Mythili, and this beautiful woman and her daughter were the butt of gossip in the school, of which many were brahmin teachers. A couple of times, she came with Ammamma to Charminar area for matters related to the court. Ammamma used to feel compassion for her, but there was little she could do for her in the glare of the popular serial and the media sensationalised court case. This made a deep impact on her as women do bear the brunt, whether sinned or sinned against. And even though media was hardly the kind it is today, this must have been thoroughly discussed, merely for the lack of many such items. I do remember reading the story in bits and pieces and not really understanding much - it was later made into a hugely successful full length feature film called Bali Peetham starring Sarada and Sobhan Babu. In this, stereotypically the man is a saint and the woman is arrogant and intolerant of the lower caste and status of her husband and finally dies after realising her error of judgement. Oh to be killed in so many ways by so many people while you are still alive!!! And to think that this story was penned by a person known for her libertine views and anti-religious radicalism was something that I could not digest. It appeared as if being a brahmin was the sole crime and all actions are therefore circumspect.

During this period I was also witness to the vividly discussed passion killing of a woman and her lover by her naval officer husband called Nanavati and this was discussed ad nauseum in a weekly called Blitz, which lived upto its name and was quite a paper. It was edited by Russi Karanjia, fearless maverick. I was around 8 or 9 years old, and I am surprised today that my parents discussed these with me when I was so young and allowed me to read all papers. I devoured anything that was written and I was made to listen to the radio for the children's programmes and the sunday afternoon radio adapted movie audio, as also the weekly plays. Radio was a great institution and I always got up to the strains of the signature tune of All India Radio and the dignified and imposing voice of Melville deMello with the morning news. The stars of those days were invariably the news readers like Surjeet Sen, Latika Ratnam, Kongara Jaggaiah, and anchors like Radio Akkayya and Annayya, Amin Sayani and his Binaca Geet Mala aired from Radio Ceylon, and Ratan Prasad (Manju Aunty's mother) in her very popular worker's programme, and the Vividh Bharati, and I am struck with the coincidence of reading the same in our latest Book Club selection, Llosa's Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, set in Peru! What effect those voices had on us! How powerful they could be and make you want to move into action! Of course, I was advised by Tatayya to never skip the news and also learn good English from the newscasts and the Presidential and Prime Minister's addresses on the eves of Republic Day and Independence Day. How wonderful the diction, word fluency and grandiose stringing of phrases of Nehru and Radhakrishnan! I was fascinated with the spoken and the written word and consciously or sub consciously I strove to use those words in my school homework, prompting teachers to ask me if I was helped by somebody or copy it from somewhere. This comment used to be invariably made of me even as late as in my Higher Secondary in Delhi. One thing that Ammamma and Tatayya did not scrimp upon even in their days of penury are newspapers and magazines, a habit that continues even today.

Both Ammamma and Tatayya loved languages. Ammamma was great at Hindi and had fluency in English, though the beauty and passion she could whip up in Hindi was much more expressive than her English. Tatayya was great in Telugu and English and he was a poet to boot. I fell in love with words, phrases, idioms, adages and alliteration because of being brought up with parents like these two. Tatayya wrote several poems on me and published some of them. Unfortunately, none of those endured and I wistfully hope that I would see one of them somewhere, sometime. Both of them thoroughly approved of the library habit enforced in school and encouraged me read as many books as I could and also write about them, but I was lazy and wrote only a few during th elong summer holidays when 24 hours was a very long time without TV or computer or games. I also educated myself with old coins, Ammamma teaching me the difference between old rupee and new rupee and why the beda (2 annas) had to be phased out. She took me to several programmes to widen my thinking, specially if they were children's programmes. She gave me a nurtured childhood that eluded her in her own childhood. But she wouldn't spare the rod either! I remember that on one holiday I had gone off to play in the Mecca Masjid with my friends Ravinder and Mahender and did not return till late afternoon - she hit me with such force that the imprint of her palm and five fingers stayed on my back for hours. Once when she was beating me up, Tatayya tried to protect me and he also suffered a couple of blows which were raining on me!

We lived for four years at Charminar. During this period, I basked in the sunshine of Ammamma and Tatayya, despite my various illnesses. Tatayya doted on me and I used to be wonderstruck at all the stories he used to tell me. He also used to show me newspaper headlines. Ammamma used to be busy getting things and herself ready for school and I was always indolent and dawdling. Tatayya used to shield me from her berating and indulge me to the hilt. It was his duty to make me brush my teeth and drink my milk and have my breakfast. This we did on a leisurely pace and enjoying talking to each other and having fun. One day Ammamma lost her patience and left me home and went away to school. I started crying and Tatayya somehow got me ready (with my dress all on the wrong side) and rushed me to school with my uncombed hair. After that of course, I got ready on time. Such was my mother's strictness in bringing me up, even though it is from her that I had the best of clothes and food and the best exposure to life and the world. One dress was particularly otustanding - a black taffeta with shining dots all over and stitched like a Jodhpur coat. Today I am mortified to think that I wore it (or made to wear it) to many places, though it was a sure attention getter everywhere. I adored her and I was pretty scared of her too! Charminar was a medley of cultures - our neighbours were bengalis, kannadigas, sindhis, telugus from all regions and this was also an education for me.

Suryavathi Athayya, Satyam Mamayya and Jhansakka came to live as neighbours initially and later moved to Seetaphalmandi when Ammamma and Tatayya managed to get Jhansakka a job there. Hyderabad was th eland of opportunity and several people came for some help of the other and Ammamma and Tatayya helped so many of the relatives and friends with education admissions, jobs, etc. I remember going to Warangal with Ammamma and Chittattha for her admission in the medical school, in which Ammamma and Tatayya helped a lot.

I loved those days with Suryavathi Atthayya - I used wait for Padmaja, Jhansakka's eight month's old daughter to be fed, so that I could eat the yummy ghee soaked leftover rice balls, and in any case I loved Suryavathi Atthayya's way of dealing with children with an acid tongue and a very caring touch. Between Ammamma and her, I was taught the way to bring up children as friends and cherish relationships with a solid grounding. Alas, in a couple of years they had to leave because Jhansakka's husband, Paramatmannayya did not want to relocate to the city. He was another person with rip roaring humour. Growing up with such sunny optimism around me even in the face of subsistence and adversity, I just could not cope later with many who do not have a similar disposition in life. Suryavathi Atthayya also made me overcome my hatred and nausea for yoghurt and cajoled me to eat it with allam pacchadi (ginger chutney). Preeti - are you listening??

At the end of 1960, a new chapter started in our lives, which happened when we moved to a house in Amrutnagar Colony in Kothi. This was a two bed duplex house which was allotted under the Rent Control Act to Journalists. It was the opening to a slice of India to which I had been shielded till then - a brahminical world and to Tamils. 1961 was to be phenomenal in more ways than one - it brought in my little sister Madhuri into our lives. The next blog is devoted to her arrival.

A Tale of Two Capital Cities and the beginning of My own Memories of Ammamma

While Ammamma settled into inevitable domesticity consequent upon my birth, she was however, witness to the huge riots for a separate Andhra Pradesh. Potti Sreeramulu was an avid Gandhian and a Sabarmati inmate. For a long time, he proposed the formation of a distinctive Andhra state, with Madras as the capital. The proposal, despite having Gandhi's support, went against the grain of thinking of Nehru and Rajaji. PS went on a fast and called it off when Nehru promised to consider the proposal - a promise, he had not the slightest intention to keep. Therefore, in October 1953, Potti Sreeramulu went on an indefinite fast. It lasted 58 days and culminated in his martyrdom, because the pressure of the Tamils was as strong as Nehru's own disinclination for division on linguistic basis and even more so, because there was little support within the Congress itself and compounded by the lack of unity amongst Andhras on the selection of the capital. There were many vying contenders - Madras, Nellore. Vijayawada, Kurnool and more. Which is also why not many appeared to take Potti Sreeramulu's fast seriously, that was for as a long period as 58 days. Then riots and vandalism took over, where Vijayawada was also active and much loss was inflicted on government properties as well as on innocent individuals. Ammamma narrates a story of one fellow looting some things from a shop and to his horror, found a whole lot of snakes in one basket which he thought contained vegetables! Why she remembers this amongst all the things confounds me - perhaps it is her penchant for practical jokes!

The death resolved the issue with Nehru being forced to concede the grant of Andhra state and forming the States Reorganization Committee (SRC) for division of states on linguistic basis. There were several pulls and pressures of various political parties and several regions remained in hot contention for decades later and the source of acrimonious debates between many people. Tamil Nadu did not concede Madras. Bellary was retained by Karnataka and Barampuram by Orissa. Notwithstanding the logic or propriety of issues involved, political compulsions and individuals prevailed ultimately. Andhra was carved out (sans Nizam's domain, despite it being annexed to India) and Kurnool was made the capital.

You might wonder why not just Ammamma, because of her domestic handicap, but also the Communists did not participate in the campaign for a separate Andhra. This was for two reasons - Communists talked about a larger Andhra Pradesh, including areas under the Nizam's territory, comprising of Telugu speaking people, and which they termed as Vishalandhra; and also because their rank and file were severely decimated during the Telengana Armed Struggle and the repression of Communism after the ban. For example, in Telengana alone, 4000 workers in the militant cadre were killed. It was a colossal massacre. After that, the Communist Party did not regain its strength of yore and compounded its problems by differences in ideology, till their ultimate formal split in 1964.

Meanwhile, Ammamma went about raising me and did all the things like weaning and introducing solid foods in the presence of her communist friends. I believe that my annaprasana was done my Makineni Jagadamba. Susila Gopalan visited Vijayawada and met Ammamma. After this, Ammamma and Susila Goplan did not meet till the late eighties. At a national Women's Conference, Ammamma met her again, but Susila Gopalan's memory failed her.

Anyway, when Kurnool was declared as the capital of Andhra, Ammamma and Tatayya moved there and Visalaandhra posted Tatayya its reporter in the capital. Before this, Ammamma made a round of her relatives, including her inlaws in China Pulivarru. I think she visited China Pulivarru more than my father - for some undeclared reason, he rarely visited his parents. I remember only one occasion when he went to his village and brought my grandmother for a brief stay after Maapi was born. I don't think he even visited them when grandparents died, though I do remember Ammamma and me going to the village for grandmother's ceremony, which I found quite intriguing both because of the ceremony and because Ammamma chose to do it rather than oppose it. Since she died in old age, while preserving her 'punya stree' status (i.e husband still living), most women would consider it a privilege to receive the offering made in her name from the daughter in law's hands standing in a river or pond.

Anyway, going back to that day, my grandparents wanted me, a one and a half year old toddler, to be left behind to be taken care of by them. It is not unusual for grandparents to bring up grandchildren and Ammamma appeared quite happy to oblige - I am sure she felt claustrophobic being cooped up and also worried sick of taking proper care of me. She was petrified that something would happen to me because of the death of her first two children. Can you imagine this fearless lady hiding me from public health officials when they came to vaccinate? This lady, who was such a daredevil for everything else, was ultra sensitive when it came to her child. She had the same sensitivity decades later, when I was giving birth to Sweety and Dr Rekha Arke finally decided that I needed a Ceaserian section as mother and baby were under distress, Ammamma cried and was scared of the operation! Tatayya was worse - he went home and took a sleeping tablet and slept off and did not know about his first grand child's birth till ten hours after she was born! So girls - before you get irritated next time with my and Maapi's anxieties, please understand - such is the vulnerability of a parent's heart that it can be very tough when it comes to facing anything in the world, but crumbles like powder concerning anything with their kids. Also, Ammamma had a near miss with me too apparently - I was in pain and crying continuously and a local compounder in Vijayawada had pronounced a few hours of life only for me and I had to be rushed to the Nursing home where I was born, to be assured that it was a false alarm. By the way, the health officials did come home and forcibly vaccinate me in both arms! Public health in action those days was actually visible. I remember municipal employees coming to houses to take details of malaria and other diseases.

Anyway, Ammamma was also exasperated with the responsibility of looking after me, specially because I would not give her even a minute for mixing my feed, I used to bawl at the top of my voice. I was also a light sleeper and everyone, including neighbours had to be silent when I slept, otherwise, of course I would start my bawling. It was also a period of shortages of milk powder. Decades later, I met a journalist called Rambhatla Krishnamuthy (in Granite's sister's wedding), who told me how he and Tatayya used to scout for shops where stocks of Glaxo milk powder were available. It was incongruous to hear of it when you are 50+ years of age!

Alas, Ammamma's joy of being free of me lasted exactly for two days. Ankineedu Bavayya (my cousin from father's side), had to bring me back because I just wouldn't stay without Ammamma. That poor boy (must have been around 19 then) had to tend to me all along the train journey, including washing me several times as I had a stomach upset!

In Kurnool, Ammamma and Tatayya set about finding some stability for their livelihoods. Initially, Ammamma worked for a month in the newly constituted Assembly Library for a one month temporary job. The neighbours agreed to look after me, since it was a matter of one month only and not actually realising what it would entail. After a few days, the neighbour lady used to wait for Ammamma to come home and hand me over immediately. Sometimes she would make me cry so that Ammamma would take me away faster. I see a replay of this whenever any of our maids have children - they can work only if they have cooperating neighbours. In India - neighbours, and not just extended families play an important part in providing support systems to working women. Ammamma then started studying for her Bhushan - Hindi exam and passed it. She also wanted to do BA from Andhra University - she wrote to them but got no response. In Repalle, Ammamma had discovered her alternative vocation in teaching. Through her own acquaintances in Assembly and Tatayya's contacts, Ammamma met the District Public Instruction Dept and through their offices got a job, first in Cole's High School and later in St Joseph's High School as Hindi Teacher. Since she was untrained (no B Ed degree), she got a temporary job on a lower salary. Here, she was quickly recognised by one and all as a competent person and several students took interest in studies. Here also she was the School Inspector's highly commended teacher. Kurnool being a small town, and yet the capital city, these two schools had the children of the elite also studying alongwith the middle class and commoners. Among her students were Sudhir and Amaravati - Neelam Sanjeev Reddy's (CM) children, Chief Secretary M T Raju's daughters and so on and so forth. She narrates the story of a poor boy who was a friend of Sudhir, who went to visit him at his residence and the security booted him out - Sudhir came out to personally invite the boy into his home after that. The story must have made an impression on the socialist side of Ammamma, which is why it is still etched in her memory.

A teacher called Sulochana was active in the Ladies Club and she invited Ammamma to some of the functions, particularly when someone had to give a speech in Hindi when the Governor's wife Mrs Trivedi graced the occasion. The DPI also organized several programmes for children and Ammamma was an active participant in all these programmes with her students. She ended up giving welcomes and vote of thanks in these functions after her students performed well. For working in the schools, Ammamma employed a young Muslim girl to look after me. She and I used to play in the verandah, and, though the key of the house was with this girl, she would not allow any relatives also to enter the house when Ammamma was away at school. Incidentally Ammamma met Sulochana once again in her life, probably in 2002 in Hyderabad, when both arrived at a marketing event for senior citizens organized by a real estate firm! (Preeti got the form for Ammamma for this when she bade her to do it!).

From here, I have my own memories of Ammamma, even though I was here upto the end of my third year. I remember a few things - Tatayya lifting me an showing me porcelain figures of two swans, two ducks, two rabbits and one squirrel (spoiling the Noah's Ark concept!) in the top shelf of the almirah - telling me they are mine but never letting me touch them because they were ceramic; trying my best to eat bitter gourd curry because Ammamma told me it was very good for health and I was in awe of her (I was never scared of my father, it is my mother who I was afraid of and always wanted to please her), I remember now helping myself to the food and eating by myself (at this age I wonder how a three year old was left to do this), running after cinema promotion rickshaws and collecting pamphlets, going off to movies and slipping in because everyone assumes that a three year old would be accompanied by an adult and watching movies or sleeping off (usually with another playmate Radha - an IPS officer Seethapathy's daughter and of my age). Several times we had police teams looking out for both of us. Once we also went away to the river Tungabhadra and played on its banks. Every escapade of mine must have made Ammamma and Tatayya loose many heartbeats. Even now this anxiety has not completely gone. Whenever I am late coming back from my Book Club, Ammamma is even now worried and keeps calling me on my mobile! And I am now 57! One image that is distinct on my mind is one in which I am being butted by a goat (or maybe it was a goatkid, at that age it must have looked like a big goat to me) and instead of rushing to protect me, Ammamma was standing in the doorway and laughing and I couldn't understand it. She probably thought this would build my character! Anyway, I was pretty upset with her then. In return, she was exasperated once when she went to a watch repair shop to fix her watch and I insisted that we buy a radio on display there and no amount of cajoling would quieten me and my crying lasted a whole four hours. But I didn't get the radio because we simply could not afford it. Tatayya left Visaalandhra on a difference of opinion and for some time was freelancing. He then joined Deccan Herald as stringer and later still joined Andhra Prabha.

In 1956, due to several discussions and efforts by many leaders also in Telengana, such as Burgula Ramakrishna Rao, Konda Ranga Reddy, Ramananda Teertha and others, it was agreed that the Telugu speaking areas would join Andhra and the new state of Andhra Pradesh was born with Hyderabad as the capital. The non Telugu speaking people did not like this and they used call this Andhera Pardesh for some time, innocently and deliberately as the case may be. Ammamma chose to shift to the capital city while Tatayya was still thinking about it. She moved with me to this new city with just two contacts - a compounder in a paediatric doctor's clinic whose relative was in Kurnool and a journalist Vaman Rao (he is currently the President of Journalist's Colony where we are staying), who was working for The Hindu then. She was shown a very nice house by Vaman Rao near Public Gardens for Rs 40 a month and the compounder showed an apartment in the first floor above shops in Charminar for Rs 20. Ammamma chose the Charminar house, and thus I got to use Charminar and Mecca Masjid as my childhood playgrounds, alongwith the heavenly sandalwood aroma and wonderful prasadam of the Shiva Temple down below. I also saw gold and silver jewellery being made and watched samosas and pooris being cooked in roadside bandis, and the annual chestbeating, back whipping Muharram procession and the road promos of rat poison, including one promo which had a live tiger in a cage being brought on to the road. I learnt the customs of Muslims and the Hindus who were in abundance equally in that area and we all had a pretty good time, despite the fact that the painful separation of Pakistan had cast its long shadow on Hyderabad a few years back. The compounder also led me to my doctor, who was a very popular doctor, and I needed treatment very often, as I fell sick time and again. Whooping cough, typhoid, innumerable chills and fevers and each time all his staff was required to hold me down when he examined me and gave me an injection. This doctor had an ingenious way of dealing with a crowd of patients. He had a chair with wheels that he used to move along an assembly line of patients - he would put thermometers in each of the mouths and slide along with his stethoscope and deal with a minimum of 6-8 patients at one go. I later met his daughter when I joined ASCI when her husband Shashi Karan became my colleague.

Ammamma now had to search for a job in earnest. She had to fall back on her teaching, as other jobs would have meant knowing the right people and Hyderabad was a new and vast city, already established as a capital, unlike Kurnool. She responded to an ad in the paper for a primary school teacher for a new school in Secunderabad near the Clock Tower. She got the job and also a promise to help find accommodations closer to the school. However, she quit the job within days when the Promoter started dropping hints like he has undergone sterilisation operation, etc. While she was attending school here, I was again looked after by neighbours and I used play with their boys who were my age. I was also put in their school - a government school in Chaderghat but was withdrawn by Ammamma within three days as she did not like the school. I did not know about this fact of my life till recently.

Responding to another ad, Ammamma applied for and got a job in the Aga Khan Diamond Jubilee School (run by the Khoja Ismailis) in Chirag Ali Lane. I was also put in the same school in the nursery. She gave me a zero in Hindi because in Hyderabad, Hindi was first language and I did not know any Hindi. For God's sake - how much can a nursery child know?? Here also Ammamma's teaching skills were highly appreciated both by the management and the Inspectors. She also had the opportunity to see the Aga Khan and his son Karim Khan when they came visiting from Iran. My memory of this school is that of a story of regarding the Aga Khan, a student running after my Mother and the admiration in his eyes, and attending a Muslim marriage function (of a teacher's brother). The story about Aga Khan is what normally constitutes folklore and told with such great conviction that listeners have to believe that it is the truth - 'when the Aga Khan ate pan, you could actually see the red liquid coursing through his throat because he was so fair' - for days I tried to imagine it and wondered if I would ever see it actually happen. Our story tellers act so naturally! The Muslim marriage function was fascinating, though I could not understand why, when the groom had to lift his bride and bring her in, he had to dump her on the bed with great force and pride and not lay her down gently. Of course I was unacquainted with the manifestations of macho behaviour then, but I did feel that something wasn't quite right.

Ammamma was equally at ease making friends with people of all religions and I had no preconceived notions about people before I became friends with them. One legacy I am happy about is my ability to talk to everyone around me that can be totally attributed to her. I also remember the high school student who saw Ammamma and me on a train bound for Nizamabad and came running along the running train to ask her where she was going. There was so much of respect and admiration in his eyes. Ammamma was very pleased, but she seemed oblivious to the danger of the boy hanging on to the running train and she took her own time answering his question. I was petrified of running trains and was worried sick that the boy would fall off. Fortunately, he didn't. This boy was punished many times by Ammamma for not doing well in tests, including rapping on his knuckles with a wooden scale, but that did not lessen his respect for her and this made a big impression on me. However, Ammamma's competence and popularity in teaching did not help her in getting a raise at the school and she quit. I was also removed and admitted in the nearby Rosary Convent High School (The Most Holy Rosary Convent Multi Purpose High School is what I used to recite!). She met the DPI, who said that in Telengana region untrained teachers were indeed inducted and he would be able to give her a job if she initially accepted a posting at Adilabad. She did not want it and therefore, he helped her get a job in a private school called Madapati Hanumantha Rao Memorial High School at Narayanguda. This was a good break as she had some of her best teaching moments here and students to this day remember her. I received special affection from many even after so many years just because I was Savitri Teacher's daughter.

This is a short post, and the reason will be evident to you as you read along!

1951! Tatayya got released from jail after Communist Party changed its stand on Armed Struggle and acknowledged that what was a localised strategy in Telengana, cannot be nationally applied, and the Government lifted the ban on Communists in response. Ammamma gave up her successful tuitions and moved with Tatayya to Vijayawada, where he joined Vishalandhra paper as Chief Reporter. They initially took lodgings at a locality called Suryapeta. It was a low lying house and they shifted to higher ground house in the same area later (This house was called Vennapoosa Subbiah's house as he used to sell butter. It was a very hard working family, later they also opened a shop in Chikkadpally in Hyderabad). Ammamma gave tuition to the son and daughter of a communist leader called Kadiyala Gopala Rao. A woman communist leader Mallu Swarajyam, who was still underground as she was involved in the Telengana Armed Struggle, stayed at their house for two days before moving on.

Ammamma became pregnant in the low lying house and Suryavati Athayya came down to help her in her confinement. (Suryavati Athayya attended your births too!). On the 9th of June, 1952, Suryavati Athayya's brother came visiting and a non veg feast was prepared for him. They partook a heavy lunch and then Ammamma went into the kitchen garden to pluck dondakayalu (small bottle gourds) for this man to take home with him when he left. She vomitted (and till date she reminds me that all the good food she ate was vomitted because I chose that inconvenient time to make my appearance in this world!) and went into labour and she was rushed to Janaki Bai Nursing Home. Almost within the hour at 2.50 pm in the afternoon, she gave birth to a baby girl and that is me! It is such a coincidence that the sequence of this narration came in perfect timing today, even the star is Moola, again by sheer coincidence! I am overwhelmed by this and Ammamma is also feeling so happy today.

Ammamma had a great love of literature and Tatayya was no less. He readily agreed to Ammamma's suggestion that I should be named Kinnera because of the poem written by Vishwanadha Satyanarayana called Kinnerasani Paatalu. This is a beautiful, long poem based on a legend on the river Kinnerasani - a tributary of Godavari. Ammamma loved the name. The name, however, was highly unusual and rare and most people used to do a double take and ask for the name again. They also found it difficult to pronounce it initially. In today's day there are quite a few Kinneras, but in those days, it was pretty rare. I have not come across any from my age group. The name gave me a distinct identity and lots of people remembered me merely because of the uniqueness of the name, despite the various pronunciations they ascribed to it. Even forty five years later, in London, someone asked me if I was the daughter of Savitri Devi, the great teacher they admired, only because of the unique name! Incidentally, the lady who asked me this question was Ammamma's student Yoga, whom she taught in 1960, but coincidentally, was also the grand daughter of the poet Vishwanadha Satyanarayana who wrote the poem!

Ammamma laments that she had so much talent for literature and writing, but that she did not pursue it. I am however, happy that her linguistic gifts and passion are vested in her three grand daughters and that one day maybe she will realise her dream through all of you - Shraavya, Laasya and Nishita!

Happy Mother's Day Amma - it is not my birthday - it is your day today! Love you.
This photograph of Ammamma and me was at Jhansakka's wedding (Suryavati Athayya's only daughter) and I was around 10 months' old.

Life in Jail and Livelihood Issues, Freedom won and Repression gained

I have decided that giving missing pieces of earlier posts is cooling down the tempo. I am going to fill them up in edits of the individual posts, except for facts that would excite you. So here are a few of those missing ones in italics and then I continue with the saga of Ammamma, which now takes on a more adventurous track.

1. When she went to Benares to give her Matric Exams in March 1942, she was given a tour of the famed institution by a comrade called Chakradhar. It was a mecca for higher learning and many Andhras went there for studies - but then Andhras are known to be educational fortune finders everywhere! They also take up pioneering courses in every field - they dare and recognize livelihood through education much before anyone else does I think. Anyway, Ammamma also wanted to meet S V Phule who was a known leader and was in Benares, but could not.

2. In the Bombay conference, she actually stayed at S A Dange's house (a very famous Communist leader, and some people in AP, as usual, named their children Dange!). She was intrigued by the fact that Dange addressed his wife as Tai, which in Marathi meant Mother.

3. The women's movement in Communist Party took shape when the leadership decided on taking the movement to the masses by active creation of youth, women and farmer associations. This led to the setting up of the first political school for women, whose picture I included in the last post. Tatayya at this time, started working for Visalandhra also

4. The district level capmpaigning started vigorously and Ammamma was particularly active in Guntur, Sattenapalli, Narasaraopeta and Vinukonda. For the Taluka Mahasabha meeting, Ammamma and Udayam went on foot creating awareness and mobilizing crowds in many villages - they used to cover 20 miles in a day! It was quite an experience. Ammamma remembers writing two songs for the meeting, which were sung by two girls.

5. At the Vijayawada Mahasabha, Ammamma enacted the role of Greta Garbo in a play directed by Dr Raja Rao, in which the worker is ultimately given the miraculous invention of a scientist by refusing it to all celebrities. Hanumantha Rao advised Ammamma and some others to detach themselves from cultural activities of the Praja Natya Mandali and other cultural teams and concentrate on village development and creating revolution.

6. During early days in Guntur, Ammamma and Tatayya stayed in a small rented two room house. For some time, they had a couple staying with them. The man used to work in the Agriculture department and the girl was preparing for her bar exams. This lady went on to become the first woman judge of AP High Court! Her name is Justice Amareswari and Ammamma interviewed her for a magazine called Mahila around 1974 I think.


In 1948, B T Ranadive passed a resolution in the Communist Party and called for Armed Struggle. This gave fillip to the already active movement in Telangana against the atrocities of feudalism of Jagirdars and Deshmukhs and turned violent. There was an immediate and a brutal crackdown in one of the worst repressions on communists in Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere in the country. There was a fear psychosis. Tatayya was arrested and sent first to Rayavellore Central Jail and later moved to Cuddalore Central Jail (Tamil Nadu). Many leaders went underground and the searches made the lives of many families horrendous as the police went berserk in their homes. A fledgling magazine called Andhra Vanita, published by Andhra Mahila Sangham was closed down. AMS took out a rally of 400 women in protest, defying the ban on the procession. Police used teargas at Gandhinagar Junction to disperse the crowd and rounded up about 70-80 people. Ammamma and 15 others were slapped with cases and lodged at Nandigama sub jail (40 km from Vijayawada). The sub jail was unused to such activity, small as it was and the accused were made to sit in the corridor. Among her co comrades were Dr Atchamamba, one 16 day old nursing mother and Mamidipalli Anasuya, whose husband was later killed underground. All these were remanded to 15 days in the open air jail of Nandigama.

Out of jail and no food or money, and without Tatayya also to support her, and the party literally closed down (in the party, they used to get Rs 50 per month and meals for Rs 12 -15 from the communal kitchen and a room to stay), Ammamma was hard put to find livelihood. The only person from her own family, Satyam Mamayya who could help, was underground fearing arrest. Tatayya was away for more than two years in jail and came out only in 1951 after the ban on Communist Party was lifted. Tatayya's family also refused to help her. She then found out that her Matric in English will actually not get her a job for reasons that were heavily loaded - there were many educated people in Guntur even in those days, she was a woman and she was a communist on top of that. (Yes! First this Telugu medium girl learns for Hindi Matric in Allahabad and then back in Guntur, prepares for Matric in English! Remarkable linguistic adaptability! I am indeed very happy that all three of you have inherited this gene girls - you express things so beautifully and logically. I only wish that you would also develop a love for Telugu literature and speaking as much as you have learnt English. It would a true tribute to Ammamma and Tatayya's linguistic prowess). She found however, that there were few Hindi teachers and it was still in demand. So she appeared for Hindi certificate exams of the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha called Rashtrabhasha (equivalent of mid school level), even though she had a higher command of Hindi, she had to get the minimum certificates first. Incidentally, did you know girls? Ammamma made me appear for Prathmik, Madhyamika and Rashtrabhasha when we were in Madras and I could not understand why I had to appear for these exams. Maapi was not subjected to this fortunately.

Kerala sojourn

While still searching for a job, she started applying for other courses as well. She even applied to a 6 month certificate course in Thrissoor in Kerala at the Wireless & Telegraph Institute and got admission! She now needed money. It was here that Tatayya's mentor Mallayya came to her help. He went to Tatayya's home and convinced them to help her financially for this course and they gave her Rs 400. With that money, Ammamma embarks upon her Kerala visit, this time unaided by anyone. She finds accommodation at the local YWCA and becomes friends with Suseela, who was studying BA and a communist and very much in love with A K Gopalan, a famous Communist leader, then lodged in Cuddalore jail. I don't know what prompted Ammamma, but she used to insist on becoming his pen pal by pencilling in a couple of lines in every letter that Suseela wrote to Gopalan. She ended up going to Cuddalore jail twice to see Tatayya and on the first occasion, demanded that she be allowed to meet A K Gopalan also. He also threatened protest if he was not allowed to meet her. Permission was then granted and she was happy to meet in person, the person she admired so much. On the second visit, she secreted a letter from him and passed it on to another courier in Madras Mint Street, called Vasireddi Seeta Devi (a very famous writer of fiction and non-fiction later).

While pursuing her course, she used to frequent the People's Publishing House which was next door and became friends with the local AISF boys and girls, who also came to know about her arrest history when summons came for her to appear in the case at Tenali. She became their hero and accepted an invite from them for flag hoisting at their AISF meeting. She did it and and also gave an anti government speech. She also met SFI leaders like Krishna Pillai (died of snake bite when underground) and Vasudevan Nair (later joined Congress).

After finishing her course, while Ammamma was returning to Guntur, police searched her suitcase at Shoranam station, but found nothing.

Jobs, jobs everywhere, but not for a communist!

On the strength of her certificate, she applied for a post in Railways. She was selected for the post of a Passenger Guide - a job whose main purpose was to facilitate women travelling in the women's compartment and not allow any males in that - and was posted at Vijayawada, for a princely salary of Rs 500! However, police clearance required for a government job exposed her jail record and the appointment letter was withdrawn.

She moved back to Bhattiprolu as Tatayya's father now said that as long as she was far away, he would send her rice and other food stuff somehow. She took a small room on rent in a weaver's house and they were happy that her teaching was very good and helping their children as well. In her free time, she embarked upon completing her translation of the book on Chinese Women and which soon got published. Police used to keep coming and checking her room for any subversive material and the landlord got scared and asked her to move out. She had no option but to go to Vellatur again and take up residence there, even though her staying so close to China Pulivarru was not liked by Tatayya's brother in law. She became a very popular Hindi teacher in Vellatur. She was however, still under surveillance on suspicion of being a courier and other subversive activities like spreading communist thought/rebellion etc. Once, she was returning home with four friends (one of them pregnant), after watching the cinema Keelu Gurram and the group was arrested and lodged in Repalle sub jail. The others were let off. Satyam Mamayya came to her rescue and tried to arrange for bail. She was given conditional bail in which she had to report daily attendance at Taluka Office. Later she was tried and a Tenali court sentenced her to 6 months Simple Imprisonment. She was sent to Rayavellore Central Jail.

Keeping the spirit up!

As soon as she entered the jail, Ammamma asked for a jail manual. She was not given one. In the jail, she was joined by a girl from Tamil Nadu and together they agitated for several things. They asked for the provision of papers and magazines, separation of political prisoners from ordinary criminals, permission to meet detenues (Manikonda Suryavati was also in the same jail, but not allowed to meet them), better food (it was horrible) and many others. These two girls wrote slogans on the prison walls and when pen and paper were taken away, they made a paste of neem tree leaves and used the twigs as a brushes and wrote anti government slogans on the walls. Jail life was indeed an experience. They were given a container for their morning ablutions and nature calls, which had to be carried to the wall and kept there for scavengers to take them and empty them. Male prisoners used to be on the other side of the wall and I believe that some prisoners on both sides would ingeniously use the opportunity for passing on messages. One major problem for Ammamma was her thick and extremely long hair which could not be washed well with the rationed soapnuts that the jail used to provide. She would trade some of the food and other things for more soapnuts to cleanse her hair. Detenues were allowed their own cooking and they used to send coffee through normal prisoners who hid the hot glass bottles under their sarees (near the stomach!) and bring it to these girls. The Telugu teacher also used to help them out by secreting mangoes for them.

After their rebellion and slogan shouting, they were punished with solitary confinement and were not let out even during the day. So they went on a hunger strike. The jail authorities then relented and rescinded their solitary confinement and shifted them to another block. Here they were made to work as punishment and Ammamma learnt to make nawar (weaving a long narrow strip of tough yarn, which was then used for framing cots). Even though they were under simple imprisonment and were not expected to do labour, they were put to work because they rebelled. Ammamma was even given 15 days remission of sentence for being good! Ammamma took everything in her stride in the jail but the only thing that broke her heart was the pitiful wailing of women on the death row. She also sensed the chilling routine of the gallows through the sounds. The same rebellion for better facilities in the Cuddalore jail where Tatayya was lodged, had serious consequences - there was firing and resulted in the death of several prisoners.

After her release, it was job hunting time again. She applied for and got a job as a sub editor of Andhra Mahila - a magazine of Andhra Mahila Sabha for Rs 150. When, however, she reached Madras to take up the job, she was politely given one month's salary and asked to leave because she was a communist. Ammamma had taken a taxi from the station in anticipation of a good job, but now she used the opportunity to visit Tatayya in Cuddalore jail. A K Gopalan was livid that Ammamma was refused a job - he asked her to meet lawyers Rao & Rao in Madras and file a case against Andhra Mahila Sabha, but Ammamma desisted from doing so. Incidentally, do you know girls - in the same jail was lodged Kavuri Kutumba Rao, a friend and admirer of Tatayya. (He later became a very successful real estate man and named a part of Madhapur as Kavuri Hills! It was his love for Tatayya that let me buy a plot in his estate at a lower rate. I believe he used to beg Tatayya to buy plots and remind him that he had two daughters to look after - but Tatayya refused to invest in things that he did not believe should be invested individually. Incidentally also, he is the brother of Ranakka's father, and you know how Ranakka is related to us through Rangannayya).

She had no option but to go back to Repalle. She took a house near Satyam Tatayya's house (they themselves were struggling) and started tuitions. Incidentally, she asked her elder brother for some rice, which he said he did not have. She then sold her mangala sutram (actually it was a small piece of gold without the chain) for Rs 4 and started life once again. Her tuitions were very popular and the local school teachers used to come and beg her to send students to their school during inspection time. One of the KCP Industries (Velagapudi) family child was also attending her classes. Her elder brother now sent Chittatha for studies, her second sister sent her elder daughter Charumati, the third brother sent his third son(he stayed with Suryavati Athayya, while the rest stayed with Ammamma) and Ammamma gladly looked after them and taught them - with nary a trace of any antagonism. A communist leader's brother's son Kantamaneni from Pallekona village was a boarder with her. She started enjoying teaching and thus her vocation came to her by default. She now started making a home - her first possession was a 'nawar mancham' - a frame woven cot - and a few utensils and other things which signalled the beginning of her domesticity.