While going over the last post, I realised that I am again depending on Ammamma's memories, without the benefit of my first hand experience of them, the same as it happened when I was recounting her life before my birth. This is happening because I think the age and distance in your college days - both spatial and psychological- widens around this time as you are preoccupied with your life and friends and you think you know more than your parents can ever know. Being in Pilani, and not part of Ammamma's life in Delhi, as also her reluctance to talk about day to day occurrences, led to the Delhi post being restricted to just one long post, even though it is actually five years. I am sure that it does not capture her trials and tribulations, which have been many, nor her work for which she has to jog her memory hard. Isn't it strange that our brains remember the crystal clear images of our childhood and have only hazy memories of our middle age? Is it because of the clutter of too many mundane things that rob us of savouring life's experiences at that point in time? Probably.
However, Ammamma is very excited about talking about her return to Hyderabad and is very keen to talk about her work. She just narrated to me one of her travel experiences, which, I am going to recount straightaway, even if does not fall in the chronological sequence. To keep it for a later date would be injustice to her excitement. I would however, refer to it again in the actual sequence of her life.
This episode has to do with her travel penchant of seeing different places and people. While it may appear quite normal to us, I must mention that this took place in a day and time when we did not have really professional travel services for the middle class, train journeys did not have computerisation and needed booking standing in long queues (I remember I had to do all the travel bookings for Jayattha and Jyotattha's families every summer as the ladies' lines were shorter!), and information about places to visit and places to stay were unavailable freely (certainly no net or google!) and more importantly, ladies did not, as a general rule, travel alone.
While in Delhi, I had mentioned that Chandra Rajeswar Rao introduced her services to the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), which was affiliated to the Women's International Democratic Federation. She got involved in these meetings and was particularly impressed with the Conference mode of discussions. She actively participated in one International Conference in Vigyan Bhavan on Illiteracy Eradication among Women. (She reminds to me record here that she also attended the dinner given in Hyderabad House after changing clothes in Rita Seth's house. Why this is important for her I have not been able to fathom). When she returned to Hyderabad, she actively got involved, not only in such conferences, but more actively in setting up of Adult Literacy and Bridge Schools. Working Women's Hostel and the like. These will take up the next few posts, but as mentioned in the beginning of this blog, I am recounting here, her travel adventure in connection with one of these conferences.
It was probably in 1978 or 79, Ammamma went to participate in the NFIW Conference at Jullundur in October. She had decided that after the Conference, she would not only visit some places in Punjab, but also visit Jammu & Kashmir. And mind you, on a shoestring budget! This excited the rest of the ladies in the delegation and about 10 or 12 wanted to join her. She however, said that she cannot possibly take the responsibility of such a large group and therefore, selected 4-5 of her friends. This included Tammareddy Krishnaveni (she is also Satish Babai's Peddamma), who till this day recounts the trip she had with Ammamma whenever she talks on the phone. So, with Ammamma leading from the front, both physically, linguistically, informatively and inspiringly, the motley group of 5 women set upon this adventure.
Travelling by rickety buses mostly, they went from destination to destination, managing to see all the important things and managing to find cheap but neat places all throughout. They first went to Amritsar and witnessed for themselves the mindless carnage unleashed by Gen Dyer in the Jallianwala Bagh. Ammamma says that it is one thing to read about it and another, to witness really how small the park was and to imagine the massacre triggered by men in cold blood. In the same city, she then visited the Golden Temple, while still beautiful, however, bore the scars of yet another carnage in the Bhindranwale episode which was infamous later as Operation Bluestar - an achievement of sorts for the Indian Army, but a blot on the collective conscience of Indians, once again triggered by moments of madness in political leadership. She loved the cleanliness and the service orientation in the Golden Temple and the langar that tickled her taste buds. They then went to Wagah border and witnessed the change of guard of Indian and Pakistani Armies guarding the border and the Pakistani soil.
They then travelled to Jammu and from there, took the bus to Srinagar. She remembers the back panel of every transport carrying the notification that the owners are not responsible for any mishaps or loss of life on the way, as the journey was on a very treacherous route. They got in nevertheless. They passed Udhampur, the only big city in the area and then on to the narrow road edging off the mighty Himalayas. The valleys were sheer drops and the vehicles appeared to veer precariously, even as onward traffic bore down on them. It was quite dizzying, I believe, to look down into the valleys. Ammamma was surprised that all passenger and cargo vehicles used the same route and it must have indeed been a long journey time wise and fear wise. However, the scenic beauty of the route was indeed a great compensation. In Srinagar, when the taxis and autos came to them to ask whether they wanted to go to a hotel or a houseboat, Ammamma was enamoured with the houseboat and they chose one within their budget, with Ammamma using her bargaining skills. She was awed by the facilities on all the boats and in particular, the luxurious ones. They stayed on the boat for 3-4 days, experiencing the October chill of Srinagar. They took help of Kangris and angeethis to ward off the cold. Everyday, small transport boats used to come and they used to go visiting in the city and the nearby areas. They visited Shalimar and Nishat Gardens on one day and on another, Gulmarg and Sonemarg. They rode on ponies to the highest point in Sonemarg, though I think the poor brute must have had a tough time with Ammamma's weight as she was well endowed but fit at that time! They also bargained for silk sarees and were flabbergast when another seller offered them for even less they had earlier bargained far. Incidentally, Ammamma made it a point to have financial discipline. She used to spend the money and account for it in the evening every single day, no matter how tired they were and divided up the contributions to be made by each. I wish her daughters and her grand daughters had inherited this very desirable trait, if nothing, we are actually quite the opposite. Even today, at the age of 83, she meticulously maintains accounts, shaming me often at my own scatterbrained way of keeping tabs (and I am supposed to be the MBA!). The closest in the family to be a bit disciplined I think is Preeti, probably followed by Nishu. The rest of us are terrible!
One day they went to meet a couple (who, incidentally were the in laws of Satish Babai's cousin Tammareddy Bharadwaj and therefore Krishnaveni's relatives), who had also come to Srinagar and were staying in a hotel, as they were part of a tourist package. Ammamma of course, had no intention of doing any package tours (no wonder Sweety is as determined about such things while I am more comfortable with someone else doing the planning) and they continued with their a la carte tour and having fun all the way long. It was also about finances! They would have probably otherwise missed the exhilarating experience of spring water gushing in the mountains. Ammamma feels that she should have written about all the experiences that time itself so that she could savour them again and enjoy the same feelings once again. Ammamma loved the saffron fields and sea of the beautiful and small blue saffron flowers. She marvelled at the short and slight apple trees that bore so much luscious fruit and at the very tall and stately walnut trees that bore such tiny fruit! Quite nutty isn't it?? (It was quite a nice pun to be passed by! Don't yell at me girls!). They took a cruise orund the Dal lake and among the sights they saw was Maharaja Karan Singh's palace, which by this time, ceased to be a dynasty and a kingdom.
One problem that Ammamma was not fully able to solve on the trip was that of food and of getting used to being served hot jalebis and other sweets for breakfast! They also discovered that roti always came with one subji or dal and you had to pay for all the extra things. In Jammu, while going to the station for the return journey to Hyderabad via Delhi, a very providential thing happened. First they were accosted by a lady who was behaving very strangely and whom they finally got rid off (not before some of the members got scared stiff), they had a miraculous escape when an electric pole fell on the taxi they were travelling in to the station. It hit the roof and slid off the back of the car. The glass splintered into fine pieces and showered Ammamma who was sitting in the back seat. Her hair and clothes were full of glass pieces. It was a very close call without any fatalities or any injuries and damned lucky - I bet the car was an Ambassador, any other car would not have stood a fighting chance even! More than rejoicing her own near miss, Ammamma thanked Providence for saving her from a possible lifelong scar on her reputation if anything had happened to her team mates, who were taken by her on this 'wild trip' by the conservative Andhras! Even today she shudders to think of the blame she would have got for something that she had nothing to do with, in case there were serious consequences of the same incident. I am of course, delighted that our Mother came back to us safe and sound and not shaken in the least by the incident, except for the feeling of what would have happened in case of an injury or casualty.
Ammamma continued her extended conference trips for all the other conferences as well, as I would narrate to you in later posts.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Delhi - phatphaties and barsatis
Going to Delhi was lots of excitement and again Ammamma joined us in this excitement like a kid and revelled in the tunnels through which the train went, laughed at the painted ads 'Rishte he Rishte - contact ---" a matrimonial ad from an agency that painstakingly daubed it en route from almost outside Agra till Delhi along the tracks. Our wonderment in Ajmal Khan Road as to why the day was still so bright at 7 pm in the evening and the loads of goodies on sale in the middle class shoppers' paradise. This time Tatayya had indeed found a flat in Rajendra Nagar, off Pusa Road, as he had learnt his lesson from his Madras experience. It was a nice little house, albeit like a railway compartment with two coaches and a pantry car in between! Our first exposure to Punju names were Dollar and Pinky the son and daughter of the landlord. We had a lot to learn in Delhi. It started with our maid servant - incidentally a Tamil, who soon dissipate dour bon homie of south south feeling by demanding hot water for washing dishes, throwing out leftover food (surprise for us as maids down south gratefully took away anything that we gave in leftovers - Ammamma used to cook a little extra rice for the same), and telling us what she will do and will not do. We got a shock when she threw away a big bowlful of rice into the trashcan. After that, we ate all leftovers ourselves!
The first thing Ammamma and Tatayya had to attend to was our schools. Tatayya went abotu finding out mine as it had to do with putting me into the integrated higher secondary course, where marks for 9th, 10th and 11th were counted together. It was a problem for all south based new comers. I was dreaming of attending Springdales School (I was fascinated by watching the premises and the kids in their smart uniforms), I was told that it would not be possible. Tatayya even tried the Tamil Education Society School because I passed my SSLC in Madras. I was beginning to get scared that I would have to waste one year when Tatayya was told that the Govt had made provisions for a one year Higher Secondary Course for cases like mine. So I was admitted into Pandara Road Govt School. We also were to learn that schools in Delhi opened and closed early as part of traffic management. So Tatayya used to take me to my school early in the morning at 6 am by bus. We used to get down at ShahJahan Road and then walk through Pandara Road Quarters - I loved the beautiful houses - wherein in famous people lived, including M Chalapathi Rau - the ace journalist.
Tatayya did this till I got used to going and coming on my own. Actually, it is in Delhi, for the brief period of one year that our family really bonded together, specially during winter months. Tatayya was also not very happy in Delhi too. He was one reporter among hundreds and covering Parliament wasn't that interesting. Moreover, all things promised by the Editor in Chief when he was being posted to Delhi such as perks and other facilities, did not materialize as the Finance man Kunchitapadam reneged on all of these. Tatayya was disappointed and he resigned from Andhra Patrika at the end of one year in Delhi and returned to Hyderabad to United News of India as Hyderabad Bureau Chief.
It was in this school that I became friends with Sashirekha (or Sashi as we called her), Mahidhara Suryamohan's daughter. I had both Maths and Biology as my subjects, something I insisted for both of you Sweety and Preeti in your plus twos. I feel that both should be offered to kids alongwith Maths so that options are not foreclosed on some study lines. Sashi and me became great friends and we had sleepovers in each other's houses, a la Enid Blyton's Famous Five having midnight secret parties - only in our case - Sashi's father himself used ot wake us up so that we could have our secret party!!! Ammamma indulgently looked at all this as also our teenage mania of seeing the 8 am morning show (I tell you - Delhi is crazy) of all Dev Anand films!
Maapi's school admission was left to Ammamma. She went round all the schools in the vicinity and we both liked St Thomas School. Interestingly, when Ammamma went to the school and searching for the Principal, a couple of other parents mistook her to be the Principal and started beseeching her for admission for their wards! Luckily, Maapi got admission in this school and it was a very good school. It was Ammamma's duty to take Maapi to school and bring her back. She used to see M S Swaminathan and his wife dropping their kid everyday to school in their car. He was already famous for his work in hybrid agriculture. Maapi had to learn Hindi for the first time and that too of a higher class. Ammamma and she struggled together and it is a great credit to them that Maapi stood first in class in Hindi! It is truly remarkable.
I don't know the exact reason, but we moved from Rajendra Nagar to Kirti Nagar as neighbours of SPK Gupta (mentioned in the blog of Maapi's birth as Panicker's son in law and the biographer of Bio-technologist Dr SubbaRow). This was around my exam time. Maapi started coming by the school bus. She was the last kid to be dropped. I still remember her sitting forlorn in her seat in the bus and as soon as she saw us, she would get up excitedly and smile and rush forward. SPK Gupta was very fond of science and he made me appear for the National Science Talent Test. He worked with me for a paper on Cosmic Rays and I remember referring big books. Of course, I did nto clear the talent search exam to te disappointment of Ammamma. Ammamma always used to make fun of me about my Maths and I was determined to prove her wrong. We also had a rare family picnic on the initiative of Gupta again. Tatayya, Ammamma, Maapi and me went to Surajkund and I fell in love with the flame of the forest flowers there. Surjakund was sleepy resort then, today it is a five star conferencing joint. We also attended some Telugu Association activities. I realised that to appreciate Telugu and its cultural niceties, you have to be away from it. I think culture thus is preserved in the diaspora because there is none of it otherwise - it provides an island of belonging. We thus saw several dramas, dances, met many artistes and litterateurs. I met Vakati Panduranga Rao, the journalist, essayist and novelist.
Once when we visited Mahidhara Nalinimohan at National Physical Lbaoratory (at his house), she aske dfor permission to translate his stories on Mulla Nasiruddin from Telugu to Hindi. He readily gave his permission. It was a gentlemen's agreement. To think of it in the current day context is unbelievable. Anyway, I already wrote about her publication fo this in Bala Bharati.
Having both of us now settled in schools, now Ammamma started taking us around. We visited many places and some of them with Tatayya too - such as the Republic Day parade, where Ammamma made me click many photographs and scolded me later because I would not move but click from my seat and therefore clicked people's heads than the parade itself! We also marvelled at the ingenuity of the Sardarjis in making an auto look like a truck in the form of what was called a phatphati! We travelled in these and drank water from cold fountains which we found fascinating. I remember getting stomach cramps from buying many glasses of water just to see how they pumped it!
Ammamma renewed her contacts with Chandra Rajeswara Rao and Savitramma who were now in Delhi as he was the Chief of All India CPI. Savitramma was as affectionate and particular about hygiene as Suryavati Atthayya was. She cooked such delicious snacks for us everytime we went to 4, Windsor Place. I used to be fascinated at how effortlessly she made them. If at all you like my pakodis Preeti, you have her to thank for them. Chandra Rajeswara Rao introduced Ammamma to Vimla Farooqui, the General Secretary of National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), and affiliated organization of the CPI. He told her that she has worked for the party earlier and her services may be used again. She used to attend to the correspondence and arrange meetings and make minutes. She used organize things when delegations from other countries came to India. Once an east German delegation of women came over. Ammamma asked them (you know she loves asking questions and debating), as to why they need special women's organizations in East Germany when govt had made everything equal for women and created several rights for them. They explained that though this was indeed true, in implementation there were defaults - they particularly cited domestic violence as one of the major issues.
By this time, Tatayya had left for Hyderabad and Ammamma and we shifted to a Barsati (actually a one room penthouse on the top of nay house!) in Karol Bagh, after having spent a few months in the houses of friends and distant relatives in Tilak Nagar. Ammamma made me apply to so many places for admission. In Delhi University, the funny system was that you apply for BSc in order of your subject and college preference and they will allot seats on availability of cut off marks. You had to join the first college the comes on the list and then wait for the second list to transfer your admission. I got Maths (!) in Dayal Singh College and I remember being very upset both because of the subject and because of the college reputation as being notorious. I later got in Miranda House as well. In the meanwhile, I got a call from Pilani and Ammamma joined me there. With nobody to advise her, she simply read the notifications in the paper and made me apply. She even made me apply for Kharagpur and also made me write the IIT entrance without any preparation! Over the next few months, I got calls from Guntur Madical College, a college in Tenali and a college in Manipal! I now wish I joined Guntur Medical College. God knows what stars prevailed on me, Ammamma sent me to Pilani. Just imagine, there were not many takers for professional courses then?
Ammamma however, did not take the right decision in case of Maapi. Initially it was thought that they would also go to Hyderabad and Maapi was taken off St Thomas. But the Telengana agitation was in full swing and academic institutions were closed. Also because she joined me in Pilani, Ammamma decided that she would stay in Delhi - a decision that had serious financial implications for Ammamma and Tatayya. Tatayya was not in favour of it as my education in Pilani was already very expensive, but Ammamma stuck on. She therefore took up a job as Hindi teacher in Andhra Edcuation Scoiety School in Devnagar and moved again. Maapi was joined in this school now, which was not doing that well. In fact Mr T R Rao and some others were seized with the task of improving it and Ammamma says that he even hawked his LIC policies to raise funds for the school. Govada Satya Rao was another person who was working to improve the school. While Ammamma and Maapi were in the house in Devnagar (I was in Pilani), once Hanumantha rao uncle visited Delhi and he came to see Ammamma. She wasn't home. And Maapi, who was in her primary school then, lit the kerosene stove to make him some tea and give him! He was so impressed that a small girl was so thoughtful of a guest in the house that he talked about it for years! Little did he realise that one day this girl would become his daughter in law and feed him more than a cup of tea!
Incidentally, Ammamma was very upset with the Telengana and later the Andhra agitation. She wrote to Indiara Gandhi exhorting to take a decision on Telengana in her characteristic style - Telengana - now or never! Does not appear that Indira Gandhi read the letter or actually thought about it, because that issue has remained contentious till date, causing untold heartburn all across the state.
Despite all financial troubles, Ammamma did not skimp on us. We were always taken to exhibitions and tours and travels, as she believed that the best learning came from exposure. Thus, on all my holidays (Pilani was only 6 hours away), we used to join the Central Govt Employees' Assn tours and saw Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Chandigrah, Kurukshetra, Bhakra Nangal and many others. Bhakra and Nangal dams were very exciting and remembered even today because Dr K L Rao, who was a Cabinet Minister then, gave letters for us to enter the inspection galleries of the dams in the middle of the river. It was a great experience, particularly in Nangal as it was an old construction and we could see water seeping through the walls and the river gushing above us. Bhakra was more 5 star. Incidentally, in the trip, there were many others, one of whom recollected me as being in the same trip because of the unique name Ammamma gave me. Sweety, if you remember, when you introduced Mrinalini's parents to us, her mother asked me if I was on that trip!
Ammamma took us again in a long queue at the USIS (in Madras, we used to get Span from USIS, a magazine that I used to like and all the Soviet publications too!), to see the moon rock that was brought by the astronauts! For all the wait, the rock was quite unimpressive I must say. I was more enamoured by the CCTV where I could see myself.
It was in the Delhi barsati that Maapi started coming into her own and Ammamma indulged her wishes as she was quite lonely without me. She brought home a dog one day and Ammamma had to look after it. It was called Mickey and it was always tied up as they did not know how to bring it up properly. That poor thing always used to bark its head off and I was petrified of it. It also tore into shreds my new and one of the most beautiful sarees I ever had (a chiffon, blue green floral saree, very pastel and beautiful). Poor thing, its tail had to be cut as developed distemper. Everyone was afraind of it. Ammamma had to cope up with a lot here. She developed an 8 inch carbuncle on her thigh and it was extremely painful, specially considering that she had to climb two floor to get to the barsati. She endured it all alone and took homeopathy to cure herself. In winter we loved the open tandoors in almost every street, where you could take your atta and come back with hot tandoori rotis. We spent many memorable winter evenings in such simple pleasures.
Ammamma had to also deal with my changing habits and thinking - I wanted to be doing the in things like going to parties, drinking coke, going to India Coffee House for lovely coffee and hoping to catch snatches of discussions of intellectuals, or go to the Rambles in Connaught Place for Cappuccino, or Softy ice cream in December. And also lots of English movies. I am surprised that despite her fear of my movements and her dislike of the things I wanted to do, she actually did not impose her views on me, she probably rightly assumed that I would outgrow of them soon. She had, however, a bigger problem to deal with. I fell in love with Murthy (Naanna), my senior in BITS, Pilani. She again did not impose her will on me, though it was clear that she was not too happy with the timing or my choice. I was just 17. Of course, the tragedy in Nanna's family of his father passing away did change everything for a very long time and Ammamma went through hell trying to control me without actually controlling. I was of course, wanting to rebel at the slightest excuse. These were very, very difficult days for Ammamma, but that did dampen her activities or her optimism. I salute her.
I completed my BSc with difficulty as Maths proved to be my bug bear (I took it only to prove to Ammamma that I could do it, I wish I had taken medicine or biology). After that, Ammamma, Maapi and me moved to Hyderabad to join Tatayya, who was living in a room in is office, which was above the once famous Gopi Hotel.
Back to pavilion - Hyderabad beckons!
The first thing Ammamma and Tatayya had to attend to was our schools. Tatayya went abotu finding out mine as it had to do with putting me into the integrated higher secondary course, where marks for 9th, 10th and 11th were counted together. It was a problem for all south based new comers. I was dreaming of attending Springdales School (I was fascinated by watching the premises and the kids in their smart uniforms), I was told that it would not be possible. Tatayya even tried the Tamil Education Society School because I passed my SSLC in Madras. I was beginning to get scared that I would have to waste one year when Tatayya was told that the Govt had made provisions for a one year Higher Secondary Course for cases like mine. So I was admitted into Pandara Road Govt School. We also were to learn that schools in Delhi opened and closed early as part of traffic management. So Tatayya used to take me to my school early in the morning at 6 am by bus. We used to get down at ShahJahan Road and then walk through Pandara Road Quarters - I loved the beautiful houses - wherein in famous people lived, including M Chalapathi Rau - the ace journalist.
Tatayya did this till I got used to going and coming on my own. Actually, it is in Delhi, for the brief period of one year that our family really bonded together, specially during winter months. Tatayya was also not very happy in Delhi too. He was one reporter among hundreds and covering Parliament wasn't that interesting. Moreover, all things promised by the Editor in Chief when he was being posted to Delhi such as perks and other facilities, did not materialize as the Finance man Kunchitapadam reneged on all of these. Tatayya was disappointed and he resigned from Andhra Patrika at the end of one year in Delhi and returned to Hyderabad to United News of India as Hyderabad Bureau Chief.
It was in this school that I became friends with Sashirekha (or Sashi as we called her), Mahidhara Suryamohan's daughter. I had both Maths and Biology as my subjects, something I insisted for both of you Sweety and Preeti in your plus twos. I feel that both should be offered to kids alongwith Maths so that options are not foreclosed on some study lines. Sashi and me became great friends and we had sleepovers in each other's houses, a la Enid Blyton's Famous Five having midnight secret parties - only in our case - Sashi's father himself used ot wake us up so that we could have our secret party!!! Ammamma indulgently looked at all this as also our teenage mania of seeing the 8 am morning show (I tell you - Delhi is crazy) of all Dev Anand films!
Maapi's school admission was left to Ammamma. She went round all the schools in the vicinity and we both liked St Thomas School. Interestingly, when Ammamma went to the school and searching for the Principal, a couple of other parents mistook her to be the Principal and started beseeching her for admission for their wards! Luckily, Maapi got admission in this school and it was a very good school. It was Ammamma's duty to take Maapi to school and bring her back. She used to see M S Swaminathan and his wife dropping their kid everyday to school in their car. He was already famous for his work in hybrid agriculture. Maapi had to learn Hindi for the first time and that too of a higher class. Ammamma and she struggled together and it is a great credit to them that Maapi stood first in class in Hindi! It is truly remarkable.
I don't know the exact reason, but we moved from Rajendra Nagar to Kirti Nagar as neighbours of SPK Gupta (mentioned in the blog of Maapi's birth as Panicker's son in law and the biographer of Bio-technologist Dr SubbaRow). This was around my exam time. Maapi started coming by the school bus. She was the last kid to be dropped. I still remember her sitting forlorn in her seat in the bus and as soon as she saw us, she would get up excitedly and smile and rush forward. SPK Gupta was very fond of science and he made me appear for the National Science Talent Test. He worked with me for a paper on Cosmic Rays and I remember referring big books. Of course, I did nto clear the talent search exam to te disappointment of Ammamma. Ammamma always used to make fun of me about my Maths and I was determined to prove her wrong. We also had a rare family picnic on the initiative of Gupta again. Tatayya, Ammamma, Maapi and me went to Surajkund and I fell in love with the flame of the forest flowers there. Surjakund was sleepy resort then, today it is a five star conferencing joint. We also attended some Telugu Association activities. I realised that to appreciate Telugu and its cultural niceties, you have to be away from it. I think culture thus is preserved in the diaspora because there is none of it otherwise - it provides an island of belonging. We thus saw several dramas, dances, met many artistes and litterateurs. I met Vakati Panduranga Rao, the journalist, essayist and novelist.
Once when we visited Mahidhara Nalinimohan at National Physical Lbaoratory (at his house), she aske dfor permission to translate his stories on Mulla Nasiruddin from Telugu to Hindi. He readily gave his permission. It was a gentlemen's agreement. To think of it in the current day context is unbelievable. Anyway, I already wrote about her publication fo this in Bala Bharati.
Having both of us now settled in schools, now Ammamma started taking us around. We visited many places and some of them with Tatayya too - such as the Republic Day parade, where Ammamma made me click many photographs and scolded me later because I would not move but click from my seat and therefore clicked people's heads than the parade itself! We also marvelled at the ingenuity of the Sardarjis in making an auto look like a truck in the form of what was called a phatphati! We travelled in these and drank water from cold fountains which we found fascinating. I remember getting stomach cramps from buying many glasses of water just to see how they pumped it!
Ammamma renewed her contacts with Chandra Rajeswara Rao and Savitramma who were now in Delhi as he was the Chief of All India CPI. Savitramma was as affectionate and particular about hygiene as Suryavati Atthayya was. She cooked such delicious snacks for us everytime we went to 4, Windsor Place. I used to be fascinated at how effortlessly she made them. If at all you like my pakodis Preeti, you have her to thank for them. Chandra Rajeswara Rao introduced Ammamma to Vimla Farooqui, the General Secretary of National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), and affiliated organization of the CPI. He told her that she has worked for the party earlier and her services may be used again. She used to attend to the correspondence and arrange meetings and make minutes. She used organize things when delegations from other countries came to India. Once an east German delegation of women came over. Ammamma asked them (you know she loves asking questions and debating), as to why they need special women's organizations in East Germany when govt had made everything equal for women and created several rights for them. They explained that though this was indeed true, in implementation there were defaults - they particularly cited domestic violence as one of the major issues.
By this time, Tatayya had left for Hyderabad and Ammamma and we shifted to a Barsati (actually a one room penthouse on the top of nay house!) in Karol Bagh, after having spent a few months in the houses of friends and distant relatives in Tilak Nagar. Ammamma made me apply to so many places for admission. In Delhi University, the funny system was that you apply for BSc in order of your subject and college preference and they will allot seats on availability of cut off marks. You had to join the first college the comes on the list and then wait for the second list to transfer your admission. I got Maths (!) in Dayal Singh College and I remember being very upset both because of the subject and because of the college reputation as being notorious. I later got in Miranda House as well. In the meanwhile, I got a call from Pilani and Ammamma joined me there. With nobody to advise her, she simply read the notifications in the paper and made me apply. She even made me apply for Kharagpur and also made me write the IIT entrance without any preparation! Over the next few months, I got calls from Guntur Madical College, a college in Tenali and a college in Manipal! I now wish I joined Guntur Medical College. God knows what stars prevailed on me, Ammamma sent me to Pilani. Just imagine, there were not many takers for professional courses then?
Ammamma however, did not take the right decision in case of Maapi. Initially it was thought that they would also go to Hyderabad and Maapi was taken off St Thomas. But the Telengana agitation was in full swing and academic institutions were closed. Also because she joined me in Pilani, Ammamma decided that she would stay in Delhi - a decision that had serious financial implications for Ammamma and Tatayya. Tatayya was not in favour of it as my education in Pilani was already very expensive, but Ammamma stuck on. She therefore took up a job as Hindi teacher in Andhra Edcuation Scoiety School in Devnagar and moved again. Maapi was joined in this school now, which was not doing that well. In fact Mr T R Rao and some others were seized with the task of improving it and Ammamma says that he even hawked his LIC policies to raise funds for the school. Govada Satya Rao was another person who was working to improve the school. While Ammamma and Maapi were in the house in Devnagar (I was in Pilani), once Hanumantha rao uncle visited Delhi and he came to see Ammamma. She wasn't home. And Maapi, who was in her primary school then, lit the kerosene stove to make him some tea and give him! He was so impressed that a small girl was so thoughtful of a guest in the house that he talked about it for years! Little did he realise that one day this girl would become his daughter in law and feed him more than a cup of tea!
Incidentally, Ammamma was very upset with the Telengana and later the Andhra agitation. She wrote to Indiara Gandhi exhorting to take a decision on Telengana in her characteristic style - Telengana - now or never! Does not appear that Indira Gandhi read the letter or actually thought about it, because that issue has remained contentious till date, causing untold heartburn all across the state.
Despite all financial troubles, Ammamma did not skimp on us. We were always taken to exhibitions and tours and travels, as she believed that the best learning came from exposure. Thus, on all my holidays (Pilani was only 6 hours away), we used to join the Central Govt Employees' Assn tours and saw Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Chandigrah, Kurukshetra, Bhakra Nangal and many others. Bhakra and Nangal dams were very exciting and remembered even today because Dr K L Rao, who was a Cabinet Minister then, gave letters for us to enter the inspection galleries of the dams in the middle of the river. It was a great experience, particularly in Nangal as it was an old construction and we could see water seeping through the walls and the river gushing above us. Bhakra was more 5 star. Incidentally, in the trip, there were many others, one of whom recollected me as being in the same trip because of the unique name Ammamma gave me. Sweety, if you remember, when you introduced Mrinalini's parents to us, her mother asked me if I was on that trip!
Ammamma took us again in a long queue at the USIS (in Madras, we used to get Span from USIS, a magazine that I used to like and all the Soviet publications too!), to see the moon rock that was brought by the astronauts! For all the wait, the rock was quite unimpressive I must say. I was more enamoured by the CCTV where I could see myself.
It was in the Delhi barsati that Maapi started coming into her own and Ammamma indulged her wishes as she was quite lonely without me. She brought home a dog one day and Ammamma had to look after it. It was called Mickey and it was always tied up as they did not know how to bring it up properly. That poor thing always used to bark its head off and I was petrified of it. It also tore into shreds my new and one of the most beautiful sarees I ever had (a chiffon, blue green floral saree, very pastel and beautiful). Poor thing, its tail had to be cut as developed distemper. Everyone was afraind of it. Ammamma had to cope up with a lot here. She developed an 8 inch carbuncle on her thigh and it was extremely painful, specially considering that she had to climb two floor to get to the barsati. She endured it all alone and took homeopathy to cure herself. In winter we loved the open tandoors in almost every street, where you could take your atta and come back with hot tandoori rotis. We spent many memorable winter evenings in such simple pleasures.
Ammamma had to also deal with my changing habits and thinking - I wanted to be doing the in things like going to parties, drinking coke, going to India Coffee House for lovely coffee and hoping to catch snatches of discussions of intellectuals, or go to the Rambles in Connaught Place for Cappuccino, or Softy ice cream in December. And also lots of English movies. I am surprised that despite her fear of my movements and her dislike of the things I wanted to do, she actually did not impose her views on me, she probably rightly assumed that I would outgrow of them soon. She had, however, a bigger problem to deal with. I fell in love with Murthy (Naanna), my senior in BITS, Pilani. She again did not impose her will on me, though it was clear that she was not too happy with the timing or my choice. I was just 17. Of course, the tragedy in Nanna's family of his father passing away did change everything for a very long time and Ammamma went through hell trying to control me without actually controlling. I was of course, wanting to rebel at the slightest excuse. These were very, very difficult days for Ammamma, but that did dampen her activities or her optimism. I salute her.
I completed my BSc with difficulty as Maths proved to be my bug bear (I took it only to prove to Ammamma that I could do it, I wish I had taken medicine or biology). After that, Ammamma, Maapi and me moved to Hyderabad to join Tatayya, who was living in a room in is office, which was above the once famous Gopi Hotel.
Back to pavilion - Hyderabad beckons!
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