A Few More Odd Bits and resuming life story

Ammamma has not been well since yesterday. Though it is nothing serious, I still get anxious when a heart patient gets gastric problems. I called our ASCI doctor and he told me to give her a digestive and not to worry. Ammamma herself seemed to bear it without any worry, so I hope she would be ok by tonight at least. Yesterday night she was not in the mood for going into details for our weekly post. She actually wondered if I cannot fast forward to Delhi and close the story after we reach Hyderabad. She feels that now that the political part is over, nobody would be interested in her work till we come back to Hyderabad and talk about her social work for women. I assured her that all three of you, Maapi, myself and all our friends and relatives who are reading the blog with affection and interest will not get bored. Yet, she was not in the right mood, maybe because of her discomfort. She was also keen to talk only about the things she forgot to add earlier, particularly about her writings. She felt that she tried her hand at many things, but did not pursue anything with focus and dedication and she wants all of you to remember this. I am therefore, recording in this post some of her recollections yesterday evening and my own remembrances of our life in Amrutnagar Colony. Some are repetitions, but I am respecting her wishes to record her writings in one place and not in chronological order. So please take this detour as she asks you to.

Ammamma said that when Tatayya was fighting Andhra Prabha newspaper, she was asked by Andhra Prabha magazine to start a column on women. She declined the offer as it would be contrary to the interests of the strikers to have the wife of one of them as a contributor to the group of publications they were fighting against. She also wanted her refusal on this ground to register her protest against the publications.

When Ammamma was refused a job in Andhra Mahila Sabha in Madras, she stayed for some time in Vasireddi Seeta Devi's house. Even beyond the Communist Party, Ammamma had a nodding acquaintance with her family much before. They are from Chebrolu and her brother studied in Repalle. She met many people in the course of her stay there and also recollects a visit to the office of Pandiri Mallikharjuna Rao, who published a story magazine called Kinnera. Another time when she came to visit Tatayya in Cuddalore jail, she stayed in Taapi Dharma Rao's house, who scripted the oldest version of Paramanandayya Sishyulu with Siva Rao as the leading comedian. It was a joint family and was a pleasure to be with as the entire family was very jovial. Ammamma loved tis happy family. Taapi Dhrama Rao's brother Taapi Mohan Rao and his wife Rajamma (who passed away recently - I tok her to visit her on her sick bed), were communists, and that is how Ammamma stayed here in this house. Another brother Taapi Chanakya later became a famous movie director. Taapi Dharma Rao published a magazine called Jana Dharma and Ammamma happened to help them out by writing out the mailing addresses of the subscribers to which they had to be mailed.

When Tatayya was jailed, and when she was struggling to find means of her livelihood (including selling her only piece of jewellery gifted by her mother in law), she came to know of the rights of families of political detenues, that they were entitled to a living allowance. She wrote two letters to the Collector staking her claim, for which she received no reply. She then went in person. The Collector scoffed at her initially and also taunted her that she came to claim the money dressed as a poor woman without any jewellery. He did not believe that Ammamma had no jewellery. Ammamma was very upset with his insensitive behaviour and wrote a letter to Blitz about the behaviour meted out to her, in her not so good English and yet it was published. Whether it was because of this letter or on his own, the next time Ammamma met him, the Collector did relent and sanction her Rs 20 a month with arrears. In fact Ammamma's first jewellery piece was in Kurnool, when she got a necklace made. This necklace had the design of jasmine buds and was called mallemoggala golusu (I had to wear it for any functions and I did not crib unlike the way you girls do!). It was made by a goldsmith couple who were also communists. An interesting thing about this couple was that they used to sit down for their dinner together and eat from the same plate. Though many communists kept in touch with Ammamma and Tatayya such as C Pulla Reddy, Gafoor (till recently MLA, lost in the recent elections to T G Venkatesh), etc., she stayed away from active politics. Once, in a public meeting which they both attended, Tatayya covered the meeting till more than halfway and then left to rush his phonograms to his paper. He asked Ammamma to take down notes and report on the next speech, which was that of Vavilala Gopalakrishnaiah. Ammamma's report was published in the paper as she wrote it and without changes - she was proud of herself. This recollection set her again recounting her writings and trying to recall all her writings.

In Vijayawada, she wrote a short story, which she showed to a communist writer named Tummala Venkatramaiah. He told her it was preliminary and asked her to expand on it. Already her translation on Chinese Women was published. She published stories in Telugu Swatantra, Andhra Bhoomi, Andhra Mahila and Andhra Prabha (the editor, Kamaraju prompted her to do so). The only title she remembers is only one recorded earlier - Kodi Gattina Deepaalu in Andhra Bhoomi. In Amrutnagar Colony after Maapi's birth, she wrote the information booklet on Avidya pai Yuddham and several stories under the pseudonym Avanti. She also translated Hindi writer Vishnu Prabhakar's stories into Telugu and I remember reading both the Hindi and Telugu versions. In Delhi, she translated Maulvi Naseeruddin stories (I think Mulla - Ammamma insists that it is Maulvi) written by Mahidhara Nalinimohan Rao published in Telugu in Andhra Patrika magazine section. She published them in Bala Bharati, Hindi (Delhi publication). Mahidhara Nalinimohan Rao is the son of a prominent communist called Mahidhara Rammohan Rao. He was working in the National Physics Laboratory at that time. This family is famous for another reason, all brothers and many of their sons had names ending in Mohan. We have acquaintances with some and friendships with some of the families. For example, my friends Shashi and Nimmi were Mahidhara Suryamohan's children. Preeti met Suryamohan and his wife in their flat near Fab India. I spent many nights at their house in Delhi and Suryamohan Rao was a delightful teacher. In his family he was very popular among kids. Nalinimohan Rao also published a popular science book for children called Suryam Mamayya kadhalu with easy to do experiments in an entertaining story telling mode. I now have a dear friend in my Book Club - Sarala - who married Chandra Mohan, the son of the youngest Mahidhara brothers. I also know Hema, who is the daughter of another brother. It is indeed a small world.

Ammamma also remembers giving a small write up on the way of life of an Indian woman which was published in the Soviet Woman. In 1973, we came back from Delhi after my BSc was over in Pilani, she was asked by Mahila monthly magazine to do an interview feature. Her first interview was with Sharada Mukherjee, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. She then interviewed Justice Amareswari, the first woman judge appointed in the state. During the interview, they recollected their very young days in Vijayawada when they stayed together. Student leader Pallavi, who had made many youth take an oath that they would not take dowry. She also interviewed Krishnaveni Sanjeevaiah, the widow of the late Chief Minister and a prominent personality.

Ammamma also wants me to tell you all that apart from the one widow marriage that I recorded in detail in an earlier post, she actually conducted many more then and also later in Hyderabad when she was working for the Working Woman's Association. i assured her that I would record these when I come to that phase of her life.

I now resume our life in Hyderabad and the changes that took place in Ammamma's avocations and interests. She devoted some time to writing, but I remember her socialising well by calling a lot of friends home, looking after relatives who came for treatment, experimenting with cooking new dishes and have a lot of parties for mine and Maapi's friends. I loved her cooking and so did many of the people who came to our house, including friends and relatives (and some politicians too who our father deigned to invite on those rare occasions). I remember how I stared at Gottipati Brahmaiah removing his dentures and washing them after the meal! I loved her cooking and Tatayya also being a foodie, Ammamma simply made loads of snacks. Tatayya particularly loved Gaarelu (vadas) and literally heaps were made. Murukus were made by the baskets! Ammamma, however made sure that I did a lot of work even though I was an only child till about 9 years. It was my duty to light the small coal stove and make coffee, while she cooked all other things on the kerosene stove - a jazzy looking one she bought, which showed more technology than all others prevailing at that time! It was also my duty to do maintenance jobs on the stove every week. I had to learn any art/craft I had to learn, play everything and read as many books and magazines as I could in all the three languages. She used to engage me in conversation on all these topics and made me enter different magazine contests. I once got an assemble it yourself aeroplane as a consolation prize from one of the Russian magazines. I tried to assemble it myself as the instructions were in Russian. Then I tried to learn Russian from two primers we had in the house! And the only thing that happened was that I cut my fingers and developed a plane that did not fly. I think Ammamma was more disappointed than me. I think this is the time we saw a lot of movies and dance programmes.

Maapi was sensitive from her childhood. We went to see Dosti and she cried her heart out bawling so loudly - we almost had to leave the movie theatre (Palace theatre - now the Big Bazar in Abids!) Of course, Ammamma was not going to leave without seeing the end - so we stood near the exit and saw the movie till the end, ignoring the frowns of other movie goers! Maapi cried a long time after the movie even. All I remember from the film were the songs, which used to reverberate from all radios, whether at home or in shops on the roads! When Maapi was three, she joined my school in what was called the Baby class. I was very happy. Till then I used to envy all my classmates who had sisters in the same school or brothers in the school opposite - All Saints. Now I also had a sister who came with me to school. Her first couple of days in school were bad - she cried a lot. On the third day she cried so much that the teacher and Ammamma got scared. We went straight to the doctor (Dr Manikya Raju) and he examined her and found nothing wrong with her. He observed her for a minute and then asked Ammamma to get her to pass urine. With that, all her problem was over. Next day Ammamma went to school and alongwith the teacher counselled the Ayah to take the kid to the toilet during recess. Maapi must have been petrified to ask anybody for anything - she was so quiet and shy. Maapi also had the good habit of making close friendships. However, she would insist on hanging out only with that particular friend and one day she stubbornly insisted that her friend should come home to stay with us! It was a herculean task for us to take her home and she was crying throughout. Ammamma had to summon up her unknown reserves of patience to manage Maapi as she would cry away if anybody shouted at her. Nonetheless, the poor kid got beatings and tongue lashings from both Ammamma and me. I remember that I was once serving her food in the afternoon and she wanted a lot of mulakkaadalu (drumsticks). I went on giving her more and she wanted me to serve her even more. I told her to eat them and that I would serve again, but she would not listen. In exasperation, I emptied the whole bowl of curry into her plate. She also stubbornly ate all of it! I don't remember if it caused her any problem, but Ammamma was shocked that I served the whole thing to her and did not leave any for anybody else and I got the riot act. It was also surprising that Ammamma started dance classes for Maapi even though both she and Tatayya were united in their denial to me for the same. I couldn't understand. Ammamma now says that she wanted music for one child and dance for the other and that was how I had music classes and Maapi had dance classes.

Maapi was very close to three friends in the Colony called Seeta, Radha and Umakanth.
I met this Umakanth later at Nagarjuna Fertilsers in Kakinada. My own friends were numerous - Radha, Geetha, Nandu, Krishna, Ravi, Ranga (joined Hindustan Richardson later), four Maharshtrian boys, whose names I don't remember now (!). My friends Anjani ( a physicist who is now a lawyer in Supreme Court), Shobha Reddy, Deep Rani Aminha (a cardiologist in US), Della Godfrey (MLC), Haripriya (the famous Carnatic singer now, known as Hyderabad Sisters alongwith her sister Lalita), were at house many times and so was I at theirs. Of course, Kantakka was always there.

Ammamma religiously took us to different relatives villages every summer and once even sent me alone to Nizamabad for my second uncle son's wedding (Jawaharlal - he is also Laxmana Annayya's father in law later). I remember once when we returned from from Nizamabad, Tatayya came to the station to receive us and had to pay penalty for a full ticket for me even though I was still under twelve and was allowed to buy a half ticket. Rather than argue with the TC, Tatayya paid up and Ammamma was offended. we reached home and Venkatachalam (office boy) came running to call Tatayya away as Nehru had passed away on May 23,1964.

Tatayya rarely took us out. He always made arrangements for us in buying tickets and all, but never came with us. I used to pester him and also visit his office which was on Tilak Road (Abids), on my way home from Rosary Convent. Sometimes he used to indulge me in taking me to Vasant Vihar cafe (then housed in the Golden Threshold, which was Sarojini Naidu's house and later became the first location of the University of Hyderabad) for some tiffin. More often than not, he used to send me with Venkatachalam to have the snacks and he must have been very happy to be given this duty because he could also have a good snack and coffee. When Maapi was born and I was getting bored at home, Tatayya made the unusual gesture of taking me to a movie! It was in Embassy - a cute little 50 seater theatre within Liberty Theatre. It was a great experience seeing Benhur there - gives a huge home theatre experience. You actually feel you were in a colosseum watching the races.

The biggest education Ammamma gave me was through books. We bought many books. My gift from Tatayya when I passed my eigth standard (to mark my getting into high school) was the collected works of Shakespeare. I lost it when someone borrowed it. Tatayya also brought many complementary books published by the Telugu Academy and that accelerated my Telugu learning (I loved one particular book on Telugu proverbs and adages). Ammamma subscribed to a very beautiful and innovative mail order and instalment based book scheme called Intinta Grandhalayam (a library in every house) by Emesco books (M Seshachalam & Co). It opened a whole new world to me. I read voraciously delighting both Ammamma and Tatayya. I read many Telugu writers, including Chalam (a libertine and too early for me to read him), a whole lot of Telugu translations of Bengali novels of Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, SaratChandra and Hindi novels of Premchand and the list goes on! When we had to move from Hyderabad, we gave away many of those books to libraries.

One curious thing though - Ammamma developed a persecution complex at this time as she became paranoid that some people were after her and her family to ruin them. This lasted for some years. She used to keep all our movements secretive as also asked us to write minimally in letters. I don't know why this happened and was happy when it was finally over.

In 1965, Tatayya was transferred to Madras as sub-editor in Andhra Patrika on promotion. He was wary and we all were thrilled to move to a new place. The next post will chronicle our curious experiences in Madras.