“I don’t want that village alliance. I am not a little girl to be told which match would benefit me. Why don’t you listen to me when I say I’ll not marry till I secure a Group I post or a lecturer’s job? Each person has his or her own assessment of life. I may not be as experienced as you are. I am working as a teacher. I am also working in a village school. Don’t I know the mentality and attitudes of villagers?”

Kiranmayi possessed M.Sc., M.Phil., and B.Ed. degrees  and was a gold medalist. She was overcome by grief and anger. She cried inconsolably thinking that her humility destroyed her life. She could not sleep in the night. She was lost in hopeless despondency and did not know how to get rid of the alliance that was proposed.

“Ammaa (mother)! Instead of marrying you who hailed from Jagtial, father should have married one of his close relatives whom he had known for long in the village. Why should your brother be proposed for me now when father himself did not prefer such an alliance forty years ago?”

Lakshmi Bai, Kiranmayi’s mother was taken aback at her daughter’s argument. She cursed herself that things had come to such a pass because of the stubbornness of the old in-laws.

Rajesham, Kiranmayi’s father, was a lecturer in the degree college at Karimnagar. He kept his family in Korutla for the sake of his old parents and visited Korutla once a week. He had three children. Being the last child, Kiranmayi was pampered. The first son worked in Mumbai in a company. He married a girl from Sholapur and visited his place now and then. The second boy settled in Hyderabad and was planning to go abroad.

“Tatayya! Did you develop love for villages now which love you did not possess all these years! If you have true and deep love for villages, sell this building and settle in a village. What happiness will I enjoy by marrying a man who has three younger sisters? Our earnings will not be sufficient to spend on their marriages and deliveries. If you say you would die if I don’t agree to this marriage, better die now. Should my future life be sacrificed for the sake of you who may not live for a year or two more? Do you call this love? This is not love. It is the authority you have been enjoying high- handedly. This is arrogance. If you love me dearly you will bless me even if I marry outside the caste or religion. That does not mean I want to elope with somebody. If I love a man I will bring him to you and introduce him to you all. When you did not object the selection made by brothers regarding their wives, why should there be an objection in my case?”

Gangarajam, the grandfather and Lingamma her grandmother kept quiet thinking that Kiranmayi would go silent after shouting for some time. Their silence incensed Kiranmayi further.

“Tatayya! You feel proud that you had taken part in the freedom struggle. You loved yourself more than you love the people. You have reaped the benefits ten times for what you did long ago. You stopped there without progress because of your rank selfishness. If you had continued your struggle, society would have developed further. The post of the Sarpanch appeared a big post to you. Why did you not become an M.L.A. or an M.P.? If you had not been selfish why did you sell your properties in the village and settle in Korutla? As a result did not the village society go thirty years backward?”

Kiranmayi washed her face and got dressed. Her mother served her steaming food.

“Ammaa (mother)! Go and tell them to-day itself. Tell them that I did not approve of the match. Tell them not to come tomorrow for the engagement ritual. Tatayya! You Naanammaa! You brought the match. So you also go and tell them….. If I miss the bus I have to apply leave….” So saying she walked out. Her mother and others felt that the storm had passed with her departure.

She could not concentrate on teaching in the classes. She was worried as to what she should do if the match was not cancelled.

As soon as Kiranmayi left, Lakshmi Bai served food to the old couple and started out. “If we had thought of acting after the wedding invitations were distributed, we would have lost our face. She refused to listen to you however much you tried to convince her.”

Gangarajam and Lingamma did not relish to eat so early. Moreover they were worried and disturbed at the attitude of their granddaughter. They ate a little hurriedly and boarded the bus.

~*~

In their days Lingamma and Gangarajam were praised as veritable Parvathi and Parameswara, the divine couple. Gangarajam was now eighty and Lingamma seventy five. Lingamma was seven years old when she was married to Gangarajam. They had been married life for more than sixty five years. They were an inseparable pair and no one could think of the one without the other. But in recent times they were worried who would go first. “I’ll go first. I can’t live alone without you,” said Gangarajam. But Lingamma would say it would be good if she went first.

“Did you note what things she said?” asked Gangarajam in the rattle of the bus, expecting sympathy from his wife.

“What’s wrong in what she said? I’ ve been telling you from the beginning not to force her. She inherited all your qualities”.

Gangarajam felt hurt. He was pained at the grand daughter being supported and he being compared to her.

“Did I oppose my elders? Did I talk so rashly any time?” The old man.

“Didn’t  you revolt against your elders? Did you heed the words of your father not to meddle with doras, the overlords… Forget the slavish lives you have lived. We have gained independence. All are equal now. To whom is he overlord? If you ask me to stay at home I’ll do so. If you want me to go my ways, I’ll go. But don’t make me a coward. What’s the greatness of his life? If all the villages spit at him, he will be blown off. Did you not attack them in that manner?” A smile danced on the wrinkled lips of Lingamma.

Lingamma’s words took Gangarajam back sixty years. His understanding of things changed completely after he attended the Nizam Andhra Mahasabha meetings at Jagtial, Korutla, Siricilla and Metpalli in those days.

In the Nizam Andhra Mahasabha Movement he came into contact with many leaders like Burgula Rama Krishna Rao, Swamy Ramananda Tirtha, Suravaram Pratapa Reddy, Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Guntuka Narasaiah Pantulu, Ekkaladevi Lakshmana, Gangula Bhoomaiah, Vattikota Aluvar Swamy, K.V. Ranga Reddy, Chenna Raja Gangaram, Kasam Sivaraja Gupta, Baddam Yellareddy, Butti Rajaram, Amballa Rajaram, the socialist Tirumala Rao and others.

Till then his village was his world. Now he realised that there was a world far bigger than his village, a country bigger than these overlords, there was the British Empire where the sun never set, there was the Socialist Russia, there was the Andhra Mahasabha, there was the Congress, there was Gandhi. He went through many books distributed through the Library Movement. Whenever he went to Jagtial, he went through copies of Golakonda Patrika the daily news paper.

Though the Nizam repealed bonded labour in 1922, the overlords did not give up their hold on the villagers. To collect revenue and to run the administration the Nizam depended on the rich and the overlords or chiefs called ‘doras’. The Nizam had hoped that if he appointed people from upper class families and the wealthy people, they would not be greedy. But it were they who plundered the money. Caste and wealth helped them to torment the poor. They exploited the innocent people, made them into bonded labourers, enjoyed luxuries and grew into lazy officials. As a result the Nizam State fell behind other states in the country and the government got a bad name.

If the poor had been given jobs they would have worked hard, being afraid of the people and the government. So many atrocities would not have been perpetrated. The Nizam had thought of taking Ambedkar as the Principal Secretary, but perhaps the wealthy persons prevented this appointment by the Nizam.

Gangarajam stayed with his mother’s mother at Jagtial and pursued his studies. By 1927 there was a high school established by the Nizam government at Jagtial. A Bengali Banerjee was the Headmaster when Gangarajam was the student there. He had observed from close quarters the Vandemataram Movement and anti-separation Bengal Movement in 1905.

Banerjee used to talk with the teachers in whom he had faith and some students about the above movement. Gangarajam was one of the students who heard the talks by Banerjee.

Of course Gangarajam did not understand what was being explained. But the sessions did not go waste. He used to feel enthused when he learnt of the national movement, about Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, the reformation activities etc. But he did not find enough time to read while weaving on the handloom. The weaving pit did not release him after his studies also. Gangarajam chose agriculture leaving the weaving profession which pinned him down to the pit.

Gangarajam’s father’s younger brother Chinna Lingam who had gone to Bombay brought, along with money, Bombay culture also. He brought with him beautiful muslin dhotis, soft leather chappals, the musical instrument sarangi, coats, khadi caps, Marvadi black caps etc. The village overlord Tukka Rao also did not possess such costly clothes. Tukka Rao’s best clothes were those which Gangarajam’s father had woven on his loom.

Differences between Tukka Rao and Gangarajam’s
father arose as Chinna Lingam handled agriculture as well as weaving. Tukka Rao grew jealous of the prosperity of Chinna Lingam.

Lingaiah argued that Tukka Rao should pay labour charges for removing silt from his part of the land which was part of the tank in the summer season. The villages formed into a sangam, a trust or an association. Gangarajam’s sister was born at that time and she was named ‘Sangam’ in honour of the association formed then. The communists of Nizam Andhra Mahasabha supported Lingaiah.

Chinna Lingam, was active because of his trade union experience of Bombay. Some one murdered Chinna Lingam one night. Tukka Rao bribed the Tahasildar, the policePatel to escape from the case. Though Rangarajam’s father chose to keep silent, people supported the association and attended the meetings.

When Lakshmi Bai came to live with Gangarajam, there was still fear in the family after Chinna Lingam’s murder. Gangarajam started life cautiously. There was Nizam Andhra Mahasabha and also Arya Samaj which gave him courage and strength.

Many people got converted as Christians and Muslims not being able to withstand the injustices, bonded labour, excommunication from religion and such other indignities perpetrated by the overlords and their stooges. Gangarajam realised that the Arya Samaj could do nothing except take back the converts into Hinduism by purifying and sanctifying them. His father’s younger brother’s children embraced Islam, became Muslims and left the village.

How and why the conflict between the overlords and
the Nizam started no one knew. As a result many people left the village and ran away. Later the overlords themselves ran away. They left the villages, went to towns and began to earn there.

With the advent of razakars, decoities, rapes, killings and burning of villages commenced. There was no security and so Gangarajam who was suffering from malaria took refuge in his grandmother’s house at Jagtial. It was rumoured that the sons of Chinna Lingam were involved in the killing of Tukka Rao and the raping of his daughter in the guise of razakars.

The situation in Jagtial was worse. No one knew when death would overtake them. Some local muslims joined hands with Razaakaars founded by Kasim Razvi and took out an armed procession. They drew detailed plans to kill moneyed people and the distribution of the booty. All over Telangana such plans and agreements were made. The Hindus also took out processions with their arms. Plans for attacks and counter attacks were drawn all over. Lingamma who was attending on her husband Gangarajam was terribly shaken by the happenings. One night she went out and faced a group of razakars. As she answered them in Telugu she was surrounded and carried away and raped.

Fortunately Police Action took place about this time. The razakars disappeared. If the arrival of the Indian army had been delayed by a couple of days hundreds of people would have been killed. Lingamma would have been dead. One Ragella Latchanna broke into the house of a razakar, recognised Lingamma and took her to the house of her husband. She had an abortion and later she did not conceive. Gangarajam counted himself among the dead but the Police Action saved him.

Some overlords returned to the villages. Gangarajam carried out a propaganda against them. In 1945 Gangarajam met the Nizam along with Ekkaladevi Lakshman. Dasari Ethirajam through Hakeem (Dr.) Narayana Daas for the establishment of a handloom co-operative society in Jagtial and Korutla. They carried on their mission for the starting of co-operative societies, for the abolishment of bonded labour, subsidy for yarn and the Khadi movement. As a result Gangula Bhoomaiah was elected as the M.L.A. in 1952. Gangarajam felt as if he himself had won the election.

~*~

People thought that by winning independence they had entombed bonded labour. But the overlords emerged from the tombs with new strategies. The Metpalli Khadi Board which was established for the welfare of the common man went into the hands of the overlords Vijayarama Rao and Chokka Rao. They could prevent the leadership of B.Cs till the advent of Telugu Desam party. When the B.Cs managed to get Amballa Rajaram as their M.L.A., he grew haughty on being addressed as ‘dora’ by the people of his caste and others. With that, Gangarajam fell out with Amballa Rajaram.

Even before they could adjust themselves to the new equations in the struggle of life, history claimed many pages in the book of life. Gangarajam defeated Vijaya Rama Rao and became the Sarpanch. Later Vijayarama Rao became M.L.A. Gangarajam had to stop there as he had no financial backing. Though his followers could become Sarpanchs, the overlords, the police and the Patel joined hands, kept the officials in their grip and worked against him and the people. He did not know the art of destructive politics. His children were growing. They had to be educated and brought up answering their needs. So he rented a house in Jagtial and sent his wife Lingamma and children there. He lived alone in the village.

He realised that whatever the struggles, the life of the villages will be like the proverbial frog in the well until democracy made its presence felt in village life. So he concentrated on making a living. He became a contractor for tanks and roads. Also an excise contractor. He settled in Korutla where there was bus facility which helped him in visiting offices. His sons secured jobs, and married avoiding close blood relations. They married girls who had studied atleast upto the fifth class. Lakshmi Bai came as his daughter-in-law on this condition. The traditional nine yards saree which Lakshmi Bai wore when she married Rajesham, became a six yards saree when she gave birth to Kiranmayi. By the time Rajesham occupied a lecturer’s post growing from a school teacher, Lakshmi Bai had imbided and cultivated such culture in speech and other aspects as to produce the impression as though she had been a the degree holder.

When Gangarajam kept himself busy in the establishment of handloom co-operative societies, Rajesham got an offer of a teacher’s job in a village like Kiranmayi. But he refused to work as a teacher in a village. He preferred a job in the textile mills of Bombay. The teacher’s job carried a salary of only forty five rupees where as the Bombay job would fetch him a hundred and fifty rupees.

He did not get the Bombay job. This benefited him. Rajesham worked as a teacher, did M.A. and later Ph.D and became a lecturer. Lingamma’s younger brother’s son look a job in Metpalli in a Khadi mill and by the time he retired as a manager his salary was as low as that of an attender, drawing only three thousand rupees a month. Rajesham was now drawing a five figure salary.

No one believed that the lives of those who went to Bombay would take such an unexpected turn. Similarly the lives of those who settled in villages as agriculturists and cultivators remained static with no progress. But in the early days this category of people were proud and arrogant.

Once the parents of girls used to ask the groom’s parents how many ploughs and cattle, how much cultivation they had etc. at the time of marriage negotiations. Now those questions have been forgotten. What are the educational qualifications, what job will he get are the questions that are asked. Gangarajam bought gold at the rate of thirty five rupees a tola for his sister’s marriage. The marriage was celebrated for sixteen days.

Relatives used to arrive four days before the marriage. The dinners used to start with the anointing of Pochamma, the deity, by offering her a he goat as sacrifice. After all the celebrations and rituals were completed with the sixteenth day festival, the invitees used to go home. So these marriages were scheduled to take place in summer when agricultural operations were few. The number of carts in which the relatives came was counted. If hundred guests arrived in ten carts it was a big wedding. Gangarajam found it difficult to manage with guests who came in five carts for his son Rajesham’s marriage. Now marriages have shrunk into a single session festival. It looked as though Kiranmayi’s marriage will be a “meeting” wedding. She now said that gold and silver ornaments represented vulgarity. She did not wear bangles also except a watch on one of her wrists. It is likely that she would elope with some one calling it love. Rajesham tried to elope with a girl after he got the teacher’s job. It was Lingamma’s caution that preserved him as a good man.

~*~

“O my man, we have reached the place. Get off”, said Lingamma bringing back Gangarajam into the present. The bus stopped far away from the stage. Those who wanted to board it ran towards it. Gangarajam felt bad as the bus stopped far from the stage. He wondered whether he had fought for such buses as these.

“Do you remember how hard we fought for getting the private service buses?” asked Gangarajam walking slowly.

“Why don’t I remember? Was it not Vijayarama Rao that got the private bus service banned because his cart lost its prestige? He did not like the passengers sitting in private buses like lords, like himself. When the popular demand increased, he got the govt. bus cancelled, made his brother-in-law buy a new bus and put it into service. They bought thirty more buses with the earnings of that single bus, and built bungalows in the city.” Lingamma recollected angrily how people became rich, those who had nothing.

“Namaskaram, Tatayya! Are you coming just now? When is your grand daughter’s marriage?” asked the branch post master of the village distributing the letters.

“Namaskaram. How is your father, Sekhar?”

“He is well, Tata (grandfather). He went to near palmyra trees to buy a toddy pot. He always remembers you. He tells me with great spirit how you fought for a post office and gave the post to father when it was sanctioned.”

“Who is there now who recollect old happenings? By the by, I learn that your father moved with Vijayarama Rao’s son during the C.C.Bank elections. It is not known whether time is moving forward or backward. What is the use of having fought so much? The sun is severe. I will move up,” said Gangarajam and walked away.

Sangamma was all happiness on meeting her brother and sister-in-law. She thought that her brother followed the tradition of offering at the engagement function by flowers and fruits. She offered them eats again and again. Lingamma rested on the mat, Gangarajam on the cot. Ajay, the second grandson came on his cycle and greeted the couple.

“Tata! It appears the bus stopped far away from the bus stop. People say you fought for these buses long ago. Now the private buses are far better. They stop wherever wanted by the passengers.”

“What do you know about the old days? They ran private buses and prevented R.T.C. buses and did not want a bus depot to be established. After a long struggle this depot was sanctioned. These fellows who then said they did not want the depot, became its managers. They became Chairmen. All those young boys grew up fast-before my very eyes.”

“You could not get me a conductor’s job. Yet you boast that everyone grew before your eyes,” taunted Ajay. Gangarajam grew wild with anger. He controlled himself.

“Though I did not like to entreat them for it, I tried but failed. I walked back with shame. But should we always be begging and should they always be in places of authority? If I had kept touching the feet of every other man, do you think that this village would have developed so much? If you have courage, fight. In our time I could become a Sarpanch. Why don’t you become a mandal President or an M.L.A.? As though you have no one here you want to go to Gulf countries. If you go to Arab countries your women will become vassals of the men here. How useless are your lives there! You have no self-respect at all. When the country is being put to sale no one dares to fight.”

Ajay became furious.

“What has the country given to me to fight for it? Those who got benefited by independence and the development that took place must fight for it. This country cannot give even a conductor’s job to me and drives young men to Arab countries. If such a country is being sold why should I fight? If the country is sold I will ask for my share. What do I care if the country is sold? If this country gets into foreign rule, I will be happy. Why should others gain and enjoy the freedom and development which I do not enjoy the same?”

Gangarajam was deeply hurt at Ajay’s words. He was shocked at the thinking of the youth. Before he could say something Ajay left him saying that he would inform relatives about his grandfather’s arrival.

“Don’t take to heart brother’s words, Tatayya. Of late he has been talking in this manner with everybody,” said his grand daughter apologetically.

Gangarajam wondered why they could not gain anything during fifty years of progress while Vijaya Rama Rao and the people on his mother-in-law’s side could amass wealth to the tune of crores of rupees. Ajay’s father Anjaiah committed a minor blunder resulting in a growing loss over a forty year period. When he failed in H.S.C. he was advised to do teacher training in Jagtial which he did not do in 1960. If he had undergone the training for two years he would have got a salary of sixty rupees a month where as in Bombay textile mills, it was two hundred rupees a month. So he went to Bombay. But in Bombay the daily wages got reduced gradually while teacher’s salaries increased steadily. Whoever thought that the situation would change like that? Did he himself make bold to buy a bus? Did he not decide not to get involved in that bog?

Shankaraiah resigned his job in order to pocket the provident fund. With that money he bought four acres of land. But in order to cultivate his land he needed money. He went to Bhivandi. The strike by Dutta Samant for more than eighteen months created problems for the unemployed workers. The daily wages rate also fell.

He used to come home once a year. Friday the mother deity poojas and drink claimed a lot of money. Sangamma and the daughter-in-law worked hard, rain or sun, cultivating and growing crops. Shankaraiah said good bye to Bhivandi owing to age and ill health.

Shankaraiah was not poverty striken now. But his children could not reap the benefits of education. They did not get used to village culture. The Bombay culture did not suit village life. His nephew grew up between the two cultures over forty years. He died because of sun stroke. His nephew’s son Vijay had come of age by then. He was highly educated like Kiranmayi. He was running a school in the village. He had no inclination to take up any job. He had a mind to get into politics. He thought that if his wife worked he could make a name in politics without depending on others financially.

Gangarajam hoped that Vijay would carry out successfully the projects which he could not do himself. He could convince Kiranmayi. Kiranmayi was foregoing a chance to be the wife of a future minister. Who knows what things happen in politics? Kiranmayi herself may become a minister in the place of Vijay! Shankaraiah had committed a mistake going against the stream of progress forty years ago which resulted in his younger sister’s family getting distanced. Now he wanted to bring his son’s family and his sister’s family into the main stream of life and progress. But Kiranmayi was foolishly stubborn in rejecting the marriage alliance. Gangarajam had to hold his head in helplessness.

Kiranmayi called him a selfish person. Was it a crime to live one’s life on one’s own while working for the progress of the society? When Guntuka Narsaiah Pantulu dedicated his life to the handloom movement, people accused him that he swallowed the money of the Sangam, that he talked of the Sangam, not being able to earn by himself. He then did business in textiles, earned money and ploughed back the money into the Sangam. So he was honoured as the father of the Handloom Movement. If he had depended on people’s patronage, he would have been branded a middleman! How wrong was Kiranmayi’s thinking? If he had not worked hard, would Rajesham have become a lecturer and would Kiranmayi have reached the present state of prosperity?

Was he selfish or Kiranmayi? Kiranmayi was not able to bear the village culture consisting of cattle in the house, dung, hens, dirt etc. If this kind of agriculture did not flourish, how could the country grow crops and cattle wealth? What did Kiranmayi say, having known all this?

“Tatayya! Villages look good in photographs. But villages are not congenial for living. I will live in cities and write stories and essays that village life is glorious. Those living in towns enjoying all comforts and luxuries, living in posh apartments and in beautiful colonies, having knocked off all the benefits first, say that villages are good. Such people should be shot dead”. Gangarajam trembled at the thought process of the youth like Kiranmayi. Kiranmayi was of the confirmed opinion that those who complain bitterly of sultriness if the power supply was off for five minutes and curse village life and the government as being worthless were the people who say that village life is good.

“Tatayya! Village mentality today reflects the cruel feudal mentalities. Democratic culture will not grow unless democracy strikes roots in villages. Till then villages suffer from small mindedness and jealousy. If there was a distant relationship, men begin to address women without respect as ‘eme’, ‘osai’. There are no water closets in homes. People bathe near tanks, use the tanks as dhobi ghats and effacate at the tanks. In the villages people look at me limiting me to a caste or a house and say so and so belongs to so and so caste, she is the daughter-in-law of so and so house. But they never treat me as an individual and give no importance to my individuality, my intelligence and my knowledge. I hate being regarded as somebody’s grand daughter, daughter, daughter-in-law, wife etc. They should give me respect for what I am. This is not possible in villages.” She made many such comments.

Gangarajam fell into thinking listening to Kiranmayi. He woke up from his dreamy sleep when Rajaiah greeted him.

“Are you all well. Rajanna! Are the sons taking care of you? You faced difficulties with the death of your wife,” consoled Gangarajam.

“What shall I tell you! My sons got separated and distributed among themselves what I earned. Now they are not feeding me. You should talk to them” said Rajaiah and explained the position. Gangarajam sighed listening to Rajaiah.

“I have no patience now. Each one’s life has been as voluminous as epics. My grandsons and grand-daughters themselves do not heed my words. They say that I did every thing for myself.”

Rajaiah left as some people came to meet Gangarajam. Sangamma was busy making arrangements for the food of the relatives who were visiting along with her daughter-in-law. Ajay brought two pots of toddy. The aroma of the boiling chicken soup created the necessary festival atmosphere.

By the time bridegroom Vijay returned going round towns inviting people for the engagement, the house was full of relatives. He was crestfallen when he learnt that the marriage was cancelled along with the engagement programme of distributing flowers and fruits. But the guests were not bothered about it. The guests finished their meal and were discussing incidents that took place fifty years ago. They expressed their opinion that it was wrong to finalise an alliance in a village with a girl who had studied in the English medium and imagine that she would live there. They all appreciated Kiranmayi for not telling her opinion after the wedding invitations were printed and posted.

Rajesham who reached the place that night, stayed away at home as he lost face with the decision of his daughter. He was awaiting the arrival of the old couple early in the morning. Kiranmayi went away to school as usual to make herself scarce.

“Vijay says he would never marry”, said Gangarajam.

His daughter-in-law Lakshmi Bai supported her daughter instead of sympathising him.

“Men can cancel the marriage of a girl in the marriage pandal! How ashamed the brides feel if every man that comes to see them points out some defect or other?

If once a girl says ‘no’ to a boy what arrogant indignation! Let them feel it” said Lakshmi Bai vehemently.

Original in Telugu, published in Rachana, Telugu Monthly Magazine, 1999.