Ammamma wanted to give a bigger exposure to the girls in the adult school. She approached the Social Welfare Board and orgnaized a camp in Vishakhapatnam for them. This camp consisted of activities, sightseeing and talks by eminent people and officials. One of the speakers was the famous writer and Tatayya's friend in Delhi, Vakati Panduranga Rao. Ammamma had to make several rounds of trips at the Board for getting the sanction and even more rounds in the Railways to get a separate coach for the entire group. She succeeded in getting it for the onward journey. In those days getting railiway tickets was a huge exercise and there were not many facilities available for return booking. Often, this had to be done on the other side after you reach the destination.
She also had to find accommodation. She took the help of Deepak Bhattacharya (UNI Journalist and Tatayya's Mentee), who organized it in a school building. She also helped out in the return journey by ensuring that the group got seats together. The camp was a great success and the officials who came from Hyderabad for inspection wrote excellent reports of the same and stated that this kind of a structured exercise was not done earlier.
Based on this, Ammamma wrote out a proposal for the funding of 100 Adult education schools (6000 women literates!). For this, she had to learn the nuances of statistical data collection fromt he Bureau of Economics and Statistics, had to analyse it and present the costs and the strategy. She worked hard at it as it had to be self learnt - the Samakhya, till then was only orgnaizing protests and rallies and the real activities for development were started by Ammamma only. However, once the project was sanctioned, there were the usual organizational power games and the entire project was given to the chosen in a district of their choice! The irony of it was that - when the renewal of the project had to be proposed , it was again Ammamma who was requested to do this!!! Human nature does not mutate, does it? It seems so resilient even after so many decades!
If only many more people carried out development work at the grass root level with sincerity, India would have developed long ago. However, we have more development on paper and enormous funds have been spent with little to show for it.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Builidng Communities and Capabilties
Coming back from Delhi, we got to setting up house with full family once again, after living apart for nearly four years. Can you believe it - it was only now that we bought a gas stove! A makeshift table was made out of wooden crating for using the stove! Quite an event it was. Tatayya also bought a Bajaj scooter, for which there used to be a very long waiting list of years! I tried learning to ride the scooter with the help of a neighbourhood boy, but did not succeed as I could not balance. I joined MBA in Osmania, where, for the first time, the entrance exam system was introduced (probably first in the country after the IITs and Med Colleges). Osmania was active in student politics and that entrance exam was declared null and void after an agitation. We had to write another exam and by the time I got into MBA first semester, it was already December. I used to go round Hyderabad quite a lot with friends, with Ammamma always worrying about me, specially as there were no means of communication. Maapi joined Rosary Convent, our alma mater in the 9th standard, after several back and forth movement of her application. We were worried as to her schooling which had seen so many changes in nature and content, and were looking forward to her being settled in Rosary. When she got in, we were all thrilled and Maapi spent some of her happiest days of her life there.
Ammamma now had to reactivate her contacts in Hyderabad. She went to AP Mahila Samakhya, which is the NFIW state branch. She met Gujjula Sarala Devi, Secreatary and Brij Rani Gaur, the President. Both were active in Leftist movement and had married communist leaders in their days of leftist activism. Even at this time, Brij Rani undertook a very active role in public issues, notably, staging a sit in and occupying government land for distribution to the poor (this was in Chikkadpally). She started an organization for poor women and named it as Working Women's Association (a misnomer, as it was actually meant as a collective for poor women workers, maids, petty traders and the like). Sarala Devi gave the job of managing this organization to Ammamma, in addition to taking part in the activities of the Samakhya.
Her first job was to increase membership, seek funds for its continuance. She organized a cultural programme (an arrangement with a friend's daughter's debut dance performance - aarangetram on a sharing basis). They brought out a souvenir for which they collected ads and got some funds for the Association. (Actually girls, the girl who performed the aarangetram was Kantakka's niece Sangeetha). She then moved an application for funding of a vocational training programme and a condensed course for preparing school dropouts from weaker sections, villages and including widows and other disadvantaged women for writing 10th class board exams. There were one or two girls from once well to do and forward caste families as well, who had fallen on bad times and financially weak. There was one girl who was a heart patient and used to keep telling Ammamma about the pain every now and then. Ammamma must have felt helpless. The girls were aged between 18-30 years. The girls used to get Rs 15 as stipend. The stay, food and teaching were free. Ammamma had to buy provisions for them for cooking their food.
Pending the sanction from the Social Welfare Board, they had to employ teachers, collect participants to the programme, run a hostel for their stay for at least 6 months (the girls used to cook food themselves and maintain the two rooms they were housed in). Then the sanction would come and Central funds would also be released for the same. An office had to be set up, care had to be taken for the welfare and safety of the girls, who were preyed upon by local eve teasers and gangsters and a host of such probelms. The girls were mainly from Telengana and a few from Coastal area and were usually poor communist families or sympathiser families. Slowly, other courses were also started for certificate programmes for which examinations were conducted by the AP Technical Education Board. This was a tailoring programme for women and a Balwadi for children was also started by Brij Rani Gaur under the Urban Community Development Project (MCH Project). Ammamma's arrival was a shot in the arm for these programmes, which were not running too well. Ammamma's organization skills and her interest and commitment to work went beyond her normal duties. She used to even take the children out for picnics and sightseeing.
Ammamma approached a friend of Tatayya, then famous as Dr N V Ramakrishna of the Ramakrishna Homeo Stores to open a free clinic for the poor in the community in Chikkadpally (Suryanagar Basti), under the aegis of the Lion's Club, which he complied with.
The Annual Day of the Bridge School programme for Dropouts was conducted in Ambedkar College at Chikkadpally, with thier permission and courtesy. The girls perfomed lambada dance and other cultural programmes. In other words, it was as normal as a paid school would be. Katragadda Prasuna, a lecturer of the College was thoroughly impressed with the entire effort and expressed a keen desire to also pariticipate in social welfare activities on a regular basis. It is another matter that she left her job and became an active politician when N T Rama Rao gave a call to the young and the educated to participate in the elections actively and build a new Telugu Desam.
Ammamma did not stop at this. She coordinated with a friend in a Junior College in Marredpally (this was your Peda Mamayya's maternal uncle's wife as we came to know later), and took the girls on an excursion to Ajanta and Ellora. The costs were lesser as they joined up in the same bus and MCH gave funds for covering this. Ammamma is reporting with glee that they had a great time, and on their return journey, they even plundered a sugarcane field! Bad!
While what I am recording sounds impressive enough, it actually was far more tough in practice. Ammamma had to shift multiple locations for the girls of different batches, and duirng this time, she was also shifting houses, first to Nallakunta and then to our house in Banjara Hills, which was finally vacated by a tenant with great difficulty (Nanna and me also contributed by hounding the tenant! Can you believe it?). Here Ammamma had to change two buses to go to Amberpet where the girls were now housed. The first location interestingly, was near Rajyam Sinha's house in Erra Manzil. (Rajyam Sinha was the Director of Information and Public Relations, an earlier activist and had married Bijoy Sinha. Their daughter in law is Shantha Sinha of the Child Labour fame). There was a problem of eve teasing and a police complaint had to be lodged. A second location was in the ground floor of the rented portion where we were staying in Nallakunta (not me though, I was already married by then). This place was cramped and in any case, Ammamma and Tatayya had to shift to Banjara Hills to their own house as they could not afford to pay rent anymore due to Tatayya's erratic earning. They chose a location in Amberpet near a Communist sympathiser's house. The sister of the landlady was not happy with this and she tried to create trouble by getting a ruffian to sleep in the same premises. The next day Ammamma and Sarala Devi lodged a complaint and police summoned the lady in question and warned her severely and threatened action if she did not comply.
One day, the girls had an altercation and one girl just left the hostel nd ran away. Ammamma and the the rest of the offcie bearers searched high and low and were worried sick as to the whereabouts of the girl. Finally, her father brought her back from the village and handed her over with a severe admonishing. After that all doors and windows were to be secured shut by girls on this specific duty. I really wonder how they must have suffered in Hyderabad weather because of this.
All these events described above took place over a period of 10 years and to keep the school programme in one place, I did not litter the narrative with the family side of the chronology and other activities. I will continue these in future posts.
Ammamma now had to reactivate her contacts in Hyderabad. She went to AP Mahila Samakhya, which is the NFIW state branch. She met Gujjula Sarala Devi, Secreatary and Brij Rani Gaur, the President. Both were active in Leftist movement and had married communist leaders in their days of leftist activism. Even at this time, Brij Rani undertook a very active role in public issues, notably, staging a sit in and occupying government land for distribution to the poor (this was in Chikkadpally). She started an organization for poor women and named it as Working Women's Association (a misnomer, as it was actually meant as a collective for poor women workers, maids, petty traders and the like). Sarala Devi gave the job of managing this organization to Ammamma, in addition to taking part in the activities of the Samakhya.
Her first job was to increase membership, seek funds for its continuance. She organized a cultural programme (an arrangement with a friend's daughter's debut dance performance - aarangetram on a sharing basis). They brought out a souvenir for which they collected ads and got some funds for the Association. (Actually girls, the girl who performed the aarangetram was Kantakka's niece Sangeetha). She then moved an application for funding of a vocational training programme and a condensed course for preparing school dropouts from weaker sections, villages and including widows and other disadvantaged women for writing 10th class board exams. There were one or two girls from once well to do and forward caste families as well, who had fallen on bad times and financially weak. There was one girl who was a heart patient and used to keep telling Ammamma about the pain every now and then. Ammamma must have felt helpless. The girls were aged between 18-30 years. The girls used to get Rs 15 as stipend. The stay, food and teaching were free. Ammamma had to buy provisions for them for cooking their food.
Pending the sanction from the Social Welfare Board, they had to employ teachers, collect participants to the programme, run a hostel for their stay for at least 6 months (the girls used to cook food themselves and maintain the two rooms they were housed in). Then the sanction would come and Central funds would also be released for the same. An office had to be set up, care had to be taken for the welfare and safety of the girls, who were preyed upon by local eve teasers and gangsters and a host of such probelms. The girls were mainly from Telengana and a few from Coastal area and were usually poor communist families or sympathiser families. Slowly, other courses were also started for certificate programmes for which examinations were conducted by the AP Technical Education Board. This was a tailoring programme for women and a Balwadi for children was also started by Brij Rani Gaur under the Urban Community Development Project (MCH Project). Ammamma's arrival was a shot in the arm for these programmes, which were not running too well. Ammamma's organization skills and her interest and commitment to work went beyond her normal duties. She used to even take the children out for picnics and sightseeing.
Ammamma approached a friend of Tatayya, then famous as Dr N V Ramakrishna of the Ramakrishna Homeo Stores to open a free clinic for the poor in the community in Chikkadpally (Suryanagar Basti), under the aegis of the Lion's Club, which he complied with.
The Annual Day of the Bridge School programme for Dropouts was conducted in Ambedkar College at Chikkadpally, with thier permission and courtesy. The girls perfomed lambada dance and other cultural programmes. In other words, it was as normal as a paid school would be. Katragadda Prasuna, a lecturer of the College was thoroughly impressed with the entire effort and expressed a keen desire to also pariticipate in social welfare activities on a regular basis. It is another matter that she left her job and became an active politician when N T Rama Rao gave a call to the young and the educated to participate in the elections actively and build a new Telugu Desam.
Ammamma did not stop at this. She coordinated with a friend in a Junior College in Marredpally (this was your Peda Mamayya's maternal uncle's wife as we came to know later), and took the girls on an excursion to Ajanta and Ellora. The costs were lesser as they joined up in the same bus and MCH gave funds for covering this. Ammamma is reporting with glee that they had a great time, and on their return journey, they even plundered a sugarcane field! Bad!
While what I am recording sounds impressive enough, it actually was far more tough in practice. Ammamma had to shift multiple locations for the girls of different batches, and duirng this time, she was also shifting houses, first to Nallakunta and then to our house in Banjara Hills, which was finally vacated by a tenant with great difficulty (Nanna and me also contributed by hounding the tenant! Can you believe it?). Here Ammamma had to change two buses to go to Amberpet where the girls were now housed. The first location interestingly, was near Rajyam Sinha's house in Erra Manzil. (Rajyam Sinha was the Director of Information and Public Relations, an earlier activist and had married Bijoy Sinha. Their daughter in law is Shantha Sinha of the Child Labour fame). There was a problem of eve teasing and a police complaint had to be lodged. A second location was in the ground floor of the rented portion where we were staying in Nallakunta (not me though, I was already married by then). This place was cramped and in any case, Ammamma and Tatayya had to shift to Banjara Hills to their own house as they could not afford to pay rent anymore due to Tatayya's erratic earning. They chose a location in Amberpet near a Communist sympathiser's house. The sister of the landlady was not happy with this and she tried to create trouble by getting a ruffian to sleep in the same premises. The next day Ammamma and Sarala Devi lodged a complaint and police summoned the lady in question and warned her severely and threatened action if she did not comply.
One day, the girls had an altercation and one girl just left the hostel nd ran away. Ammamma and the the rest of the offcie bearers searched high and low and were worried sick as to the whereabouts of the girl. Finally, her father brought her back from the village and handed her over with a severe admonishing. After that all doors and windows were to be secured shut by girls on this specific duty. I really wonder how they must have suffered in Hyderabad weather because of this.
All these events described above took place over a period of 10 years and to keep the school programme in one place, I did not litter the narrative with the family side of the chronology and other activities. I will continue these in future posts.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
From Russia with love
It is nearly 27 days since I continued Ammamma's story. And since none of you even questioned me about it, I guess all of you also were taking a breather from reading my long posts! Anyway, I was travelling, Preeti was taking up her new job with ICLEI in Delhi, Nishu was leaving for UK for her first job with Simmons & Simmons - all added up to a break in routine, lots of new excitement and therefore slip up on schedules. This also meant that Ammamma and me have also lost the thread, and the will to continue it from where we left. So henceforth, it may be the recording of recollections on individual events. Perhaps I will string them in sequence when I do finish recording all the events in Ammamma's life. Today's post is triggered by yesterday's incident.
For two and a half years Ammamma has been a virtual prisoner in our flat, because there was no lift and except for visiting the doctor, Ammamma never came out of the house. It is only recently that we got the lift and I took her out for a film at INOX yesterday! It was quite a treat to be out and free and Ammamma loved it. I took her up in the lift and she enjoyed the new mall. I tried to tempt her into getting the fish spa, and she just shushed me. At the movie entrance however, we had to take the escalator for one level. I was trying to find out a lift for her, but Ammamma is all game for trying out. She decided to get on to the escalator and she almost tripped and fell. I and the attendant there caught hold of her. I was pretty worried because of her heart, but she was alright in a second and was hurrying forward as the movie time was already on. While coming back, she was gloating on her escalator experience and said that it reminded her of her visit to Russia and how at that time also she enjoyed trying out the escalator without much difficulty, except for getting off, when the translator was supposed to have told them to jump off with both feet together! I thought 'lost in translation' meant something else! From then on till now, I am only hearing of the visit to Russia, so I better record it now itself.
In 1986, Ammamma went for a 15 day trip to the mecca of communists - USSR! This was organized by Soviet Women's Committee - a conference called "Women for World Peace" in Tashkent. Ammamma represented the National Federation of Indian Women and she was part of a 13-15 delegate team of different women's organizations including CPM, FICCI Ladies, Shramik Sanghatan and others. Sheila Dixit (now the CM of Delhi) and Sheela Kaul, Congress MP, Aruna Asaf Ali, President of NFIW, were also part of the delegation. Many were from Delhi, 2 from Tamil Nadu, 1 from Maharashtra, 1 from Punjab (a minister, Surinder Kaur) and Ammamma representing AP. Ammamma had to get her passport done, go tot Delhi for her Visa, buy gifts for giving to the hosts, etc. She and Maapi and Bhaiyya (Sulakshan Sharma) in Delhi did all this, while I was preparing for our first family holiday to Delhi. Nishu was just born and Ammamma felt a bit uncomfortable leaving Maapi with a small baby even for 15 days.
It was her second trip by air and she was thrilled by it. She says she was overcome by an overwhelming feeling when they were crossing over the Himalayas that she was leaving her country behind. She also said that when she was returning she experienced an even more overwhelming feeling - things like these may not appeal to your generation, who think that patriotism is an overrated feeling. I was teasing Ammamma that her return was more thrilling because she came back with Aruna Asaf Ali and she got her upgraded to executive class and this also made her get away with excess baggage!
As you all know, Ammamma never cared much for clothes or jewellery, except when she was buying for us. For this trip however, she needed silk sarees and she borrowed the same from Maapi and me and was quite amused when Sheila Dixit went on complimenting her on her choice possession of sarees. She had to prepare speeches on behalf of NFIW and she had to hand over her text to the organizers for translation in the conference. She was warned to take care of her health as in Russia, you will be put in an isolation ward should you even catch a cold! Ammamma was very, very careful, given her background with allergic rhinitis. (I wonder what they are doing with Swine Flu now!)
She met women from many countries and interacted with them. She was on a roller coaster ride, so much to do, so much to see, so many people to meet - she was in her element. She was happy to see people from USA in the conference. They had a special day with Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman astronaut of the world and presented her with a gift. The Conference lasted for 3 days and then they were given an exposure tour of many social and historical places. Among the places she visited, she particularly remembers the tombs of Babar and Timur, Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial (Shastri was the Indian Prime Minister who signed a historic Indo Pak treaty in Tashkent and he died under circumstances not fully clear after this in his hotel), agricultural cooperatives (collective farms), schools, dispensaries, hospitals, sanitariums, not only in Tashkent, but also in small towns and villages(Some photographs at the bottom).It was a visual exposure of their working of an equitable society. They then went to Moscow and Ammamma was thrilled to stay on the 27th floor of Hotel Moskva (I went particularly to photograph this hotel in 1995, when I visited it) for Ammamma.
Ammamma's observations include both the good things and the not so good things. She learnt about the advantages of collective farming - its organization, operations and sustainability model, the very practical orientation to students in schools at a very young age (eg primary school children learning to play with instruments and mechanics), inculcation of past history and culture among youth through cultural activities, the local language being very close in intonation to Urdu, etc. She also met some AP girl students studying medicine, whom she reassured that the flood situation in AP was ok and not to worry for their folks (she visited their rooms in hostel). She learnt from the girls that there was eve teasing there also, but she told them not to give importance to every little thing, only to face it directly in Moscow, when delegates were also eve teased by ruffians. In one of the programmes where they showcased war heroes, Ammamma was made to dance. So a la Fiddler on the Roof, Ammamma did a jig with the hefty and robust Uzbeks!
In Moscow, they visited Lenin's Mausoleum, Kremlin, Red Square, the Duma (Russian Parliament), Stalin's magnificent buildings built as a testimony to Russian grandeur and many other places. She could not see the famous Russian ballet as it had to be booked a year in advance, to her disappointment. In October, it was already cold in Moscow at 2 deg centigrade. She had borrowed my coat (of my first trip abroad to Holland), which did not quite fit her and she was shivering. At least she was better off than a lady in the delegation who was completely vegetarian. Another lady, a Punjabi, was resourceful enough to get a small heater, coffee and milk powder and she gave Ammamma coffee everyday, otherwise, the Indians found it difficult to stay till breakfast for their first cup of coffee, which was also bitter and often black! Ammamma had no problems with food, as she really does not crib about anything she eats. Within 15 days, she put on a lot of weight!
Ammamma noticed all the differences between Tashkent and Moscow. Tashkent had water problems, insufficient sanitary facilities in interior places and such like. In Tashkent she asked why a school building, built only 2 years ago had already developed cracks. She says quality is a problem maybe because of state employment and/or corruption. In Moscow, she asked why they were not able to see many women drivers (a fact that is glamourised in India and other socialist countries that women in Russia had access to all kinds of jobs and are truly liberated).
She also did shopping for her three granddaughters and two daughters. She could not buy Vodka for her sons in law as the line for rouble payment was very long and poor Ammamma had converted all her dollars into roubles! (In those days, you were allowed to take out very little foreign exchange with you and Bhaiyya's friend gave her a little extra as well to tide over. Even so, it was very difficult for travellers). Ammamma bought electronic play things for all of you, which were pretty heavy, given Russian workmanship. The train bought for Nishu was particularly heavy and everyone warned her that she will not be allowed on board with this excess baggage - she was lucky, Aruna Asaf Ali's executive class came to her aid and she sailed through with all her gifts intact. She also brought back some pomegranates which she also planted in our garden. In fact, it was Preeti who received the first gift as it was her birthday in Delhi on the day Ammamma returned from Moscow. But Preeti had 104 temperature and so it was Sweety who played with both the gifts.
Ammamma wrote a detailed account of her experiences titled 'Nenu Naa Anubhavaalu' and it was published in Vishalandhra. Ammammma's tenant Papa Rao was quite flabbergasted with her narrative (to him in person, about her disillusionment with the facade of development)- he said that he had not heard anybody speaking of any defects in Russia - the role model of development for all developing countries! Well, we have to see with our hearts and brains as well and not just with our eyes and ears!
For two and a half years Ammamma has been a virtual prisoner in our flat, because there was no lift and except for visiting the doctor, Ammamma never came out of the house. It is only recently that we got the lift and I took her out for a film at INOX yesterday! It was quite a treat to be out and free and Ammamma loved it. I took her up in the lift and she enjoyed the new mall. I tried to tempt her into getting the fish spa, and she just shushed me. At the movie entrance however, we had to take the escalator for one level. I was trying to find out a lift for her, but Ammamma is all game for trying out. She decided to get on to the escalator and she almost tripped and fell. I and the attendant there caught hold of her. I was pretty worried because of her heart, but she was alright in a second and was hurrying forward as the movie time was already on. While coming back, she was gloating on her escalator experience and said that it reminded her of her visit to Russia and how at that time also she enjoyed trying out the escalator without much difficulty, except for getting off, when the translator was supposed to have told them to jump off with both feet together! I thought 'lost in translation' meant something else! From then on till now, I am only hearing of the visit to Russia, so I better record it now itself.
In 1986, Ammamma went for a 15 day trip to the mecca of communists - USSR! This was organized by Soviet Women's Committee - a conference called "Women for World Peace" in Tashkent. Ammamma represented the National Federation of Indian Women and she was part of a 13-15 delegate team of different women's organizations including CPM, FICCI Ladies, Shramik Sanghatan and others. Sheila Dixit (now the CM of Delhi) and Sheela Kaul, Congress MP, Aruna Asaf Ali, President of NFIW, were also part of the delegation. Many were from Delhi, 2 from Tamil Nadu, 1 from Maharashtra, 1 from Punjab (a minister, Surinder Kaur) and Ammamma representing AP. Ammamma had to get her passport done, go tot Delhi for her Visa, buy gifts for giving to the hosts, etc. She and Maapi and Bhaiyya (Sulakshan Sharma) in Delhi did all this, while I was preparing for our first family holiday to Delhi. Nishu was just born and Ammamma felt a bit uncomfortable leaving Maapi with a small baby even for 15 days.
It was her second trip by air and she was thrilled by it. She says she was overcome by an overwhelming feeling when they were crossing over the Himalayas that she was leaving her country behind. She also said that when she was returning she experienced an even more overwhelming feeling - things like these may not appeal to your generation, who think that patriotism is an overrated feeling. I was teasing Ammamma that her return was more thrilling because she came back with Aruna Asaf Ali and she got her upgraded to executive class and this also made her get away with excess baggage!
As you all know, Ammamma never cared much for clothes or jewellery, except when she was buying for us. For this trip however, she needed silk sarees and she borrowed the same from Maapi and me and was quite amused when Sheila Dixit went on complimenting her on her choice possession of sarees. She had to prepare speeches on behalf of NFIW and she had to hand over her text to the organizers for translation in the conference. She was warned to take care of her health as in Russia, you will be put in an isolation ward should you even catch a cold! Ammamma was very, very careful, given her background with allergic rhinitis. (I wonder what they are doing with Swine Flu now!)
She met women from many countries and interacted with them. She was on a roller coaster ride, so much to do, so much to see, so many people to meet - she was in her element. She was happy to see people from USA in the conference. They had a special day with Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman astronaut of the world and presented her with a gift. The Conference lasted for 3 days and then they were given an exposure tour of many social and historical places. Among the places she visited, she particularly remembers the tombs of Babar and Timur, Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial (Shastri was the Indian Prime Minister who signed a historic Indo Pak treaty in Tashkent and he died under circumstances not fully clear after this in his hotel), agricultural cooperatives (collective farms), schools, dispensaries, hospitals, sanitariums, not only in Tashkent, but also in small towns and villages(Some photographs at the bottom).It was a visual exposure of their working of an equitable society. They then went to Moscow and Ammamma was thrilled to stay on the 27th floor of Hotel Moskva (I went particularly to photograph this hotel in 1995, when I visited it) for Ammamma.
Ammamma's observations include both the good things and the not so good things. She learnt about the advantages of collective farming - its organization, operations and sustainability model, the very practical orientation to students in schools at a very young age (eg primary school children learning to play with instruments and mechanics), inculcation of past history and culture among youth through cultural activities, the local language being very close in intonation to Urdu, etc. She also met some AP girl students studying medicine, whom she reassured that the flood situation in AP was ok and not to worry for their folks (she visited their rooms in hostel). She learnt from the girls that there was eve teasing there also, but she told them not to give importance to every little thing, only to face it directly in Moscow, when delegates were also eve teased by ruffians. In one of the programmes where they showcased war heroes, Ammamma was made to dance. So a la Fiddler on the Roof, Ammamma did a jig with the hefty and robust Uzbeks!
In Moscow, they visited Lenin's Mausoleum, Kremlin, Red Square, the Duma (Russian Parliament), Stalin's magnificent buildings built as a testimony to Russian grandeur and many other places. She could not see the famous Russian ballet as it had to be booked a year in advance, to her disappointment. In October, it was already cold in Moscow at 2 deg centigrade. She had borrowed my coat (of my first trip abroad to Holland), which did not quite fit her and she was shivering. At least she was better off than a lady in the delegation who was completely vegetarian. Another lady, a Punjabi, was resourceful enough to get a small heater, coffee and milk powder and she gave Ammamma coffee everyday, otherwise, the Indians found it difficult to stay till breakfast for their first cup of coffee, which was also bitter and often black! Ammamma had no problems with food, as she really does not crib about anything she eats. Within 15 days, she put on a lot of weight!
Ammamma noticed all the differences between Tashkent and Moscow. Tashkent had water problems, insufficient sanitary facilities in interior places and such like. In Tashkent she asked why a school building, built only 2 years ago had already developed cracks. She says quality is a problem maybe because of state employment and/or corruption. In Moscow, she asked why they were not able to see many women drivers (a fact that is glamourised in India and other socialist countries that women in Russia had access to all kinds of jobs and are truly liberated).
She also did shopping for her three granddaughters and two daughters. She could not buy Vodka for her sons in law as the line for rouble payment was very long and poor Ammamma had converted all her dollars into roubles! (In those days, you were allowed to take out very little foreign exchange with you and Bhaiyya's friend gave her a little extra as well to tide over. Even so, it was very difficult for travellers). Ammamma bought electronic play things for all of you, which were pretty heavy, given Russian workmanship. The train bought for Nishu was particularly heavy and everyone warned her that she will not be allowed on board with this excess baggage - she was lucky, Aruna Asaf Ali's executive class came to her aid and she sailed through with all her gifts intact. She also brought back some pomegranates which she also planted in our garden. In fact, it was Preeti who received the first gift as it was her birthday in Delhi on the day Ammamma returned from Moscow. But Preeti had 104 temperature and so it was Sweety who played with both the gifts.
Ammamma wrote a detailed account of her experiences titled 'Nenu Naa Anubhavaalu' and it was published in Vishalandhra. Ammammma's tenant Papa Rao was quite flabbergasted with her narrative (to him in person, about her disillusionment with the facade of development)- he said that he had not heard anybody speaking of any defects in Russia - the role model of development for all developing countries! Well, we have to see with our hearts and brains as well and not just with our eyes and ears!
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