Both my father and mother hail from the old Karimnagar district of the then Hyderabad-Deccan, Andhra Pradesh, and Present Telangana. Both were born in the kingdom of Hyderabad-Deccan of the Nizam. A part of this kingdom later became AP. My mother was born at a small temple town called VEMULAWADA. It is about 35 km away from Karimnagar. My father was born in a town called JAGTIAL. It is about 45 km away from Karimnagar. Karimnagar used to be the district HQ.
Their entire primary education – up to High school was at their respective places. My mother completed class X of those days. She was a great patriot. She had participated, as a child and as a teen-ager in many political and patriotic demonstrations. She shouted in her small voice slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’. Though I doubt if she had really understood the meaning of those slogans – but her raw nationalism and enthusiasm were unstoppable. She has learnt how to ride a bicycle, cycled the streets of Vemula Wada with patriotic slogans on her lips. Her beauty is so intoxicating that I fell in love with her at my birth itself. As soon as I was born, I told in her ears ‘I love You’. This made her face turn crimson red. If you do not believe facts, then it is your problem! Even today I adore her beauty.
On the other hand my father was born as the fourth child to my grandparents in a very poor agricultural family. My grandparents are kolagani Balayya and Kolagani Laxminarsamma. Milking the buffalos & cows, ploughing the fields, playing with his cousins, climbing trees and observing the nature till age 8 made him mature more than his age. My grandfather was a great lover of education. He wanted my father to become either a ‘Police-Patel’ (equivalent to head –constable) or a ‘Peshkar’ (clerk) at the local Tehsil office. While all my father’s friends stopped studying after their Bachelor’s degree and many much earlier, my grandfather encouraged him to study further and funded my father’s education from his merger agricultural resources. Thus, my father was educated till M.A & LLB.
My parent’s attachment is with the erstwhile Karimnagar district. I do not know how many times they may have travelled from Hyderabad to Jagtial & Vemula Wada. They had travelled there by bullock cart, bus, lorry, scooter, auto and even on bicycles. Such was their love to their birth place.
I am their eldest son. I am the fruit of their love. I was the pupil of their eyes. I am their future. I am merely a shape of their hopes and values. In every way I am them. They prolonged their life span beyond their lives through me. With their cessation the physical difference between them and I ceased. They became me.
My mother died 28 years ago and father less than a year ago. One of the best ways to enjoy their company will be to travel the same physical path they had travelled between Hyderabad & Jagtial. No sirs, this travelling is not by car or bus. This travel is no travel. I would like to walk the 230 km stretch between Hyderabad & Jagtial in the memory of parents. Walking on the path they had travelled countless times would give me an emotional fulfillment. In my walk, if I am lucky enough, I may breathe the same air my parents breathed; I may in all probability walk in the same space; and I may see the same mountains they may have seen! Finally, if I am blessed, I may find a foot print of Muthiam Reddy and / or of Shanta Devi intact discarded carelessly by the eternity. Let me try my luck!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
