A Much Awaited Trip - Dad's Village Polamuru

I have vague recollections of both villages - Polamuru (Dad' village) and Padmanabhuni Cheruvu (Mom's village) - from my childhood. On vacations (and occasions), Dad would take us there on a whirlwind trip by car - to these two villages and all other towns and villages nearby where other relatives lived. Bhimavaram, Undi, Attili were places where his siblings lived so we would drop by. Polamuru was where my father's mother and father lived so we had a definite stop there. And since we were that close to Mom's village which is about 20 kms form there, a visit to Padmanabhuni Cheruvu to meet Mom's angelic mother Sastrulamma was mandatory. All these places are in the West Godavari district which is full of interesting places I realised.

Fish ponds

My early childhood impressions of Polamuru (when everything seems huge) were that of a mud hut where my grandmother Nagamma, a beedi smoking, feisty old lady, who once asked me if the heroes and heroines really hugged each other on screen, lived. I was ten years old perhaps when she sprung this delicate question on me and I did not know, but I did not want to offend her sensibilities and told her it was all make believe. Hopefully she believed me and slept well, knowing that morality in society was still intact and strange men and women did not hug one another! 

On the beach

She kept her house spotlessly clean, my grandma, and would bring down stuff from her attic - ariselu and stuff like that - for us to eat! Her officer/engineer son coming in a car to her village was a big thing. And there would be a mandatory chicken curry and rice feast. Boys would be sent to get soft drinks or goli sodas and stuff like that. I do not remember much of my Dad's father Paruvu Ramayya who was a tall, reticent man, and who passed away pretty early. Both grandparents of mine worked as farm labourers I heard, and my grandpa would also engage in some cattle trading or so. 

I love Polamuru - Koni pushed us to take a pic

A church

Polamuru

For someone coming from such humble backgrounds they were pretty ambitious and realised that the equaliser was education. My father Paruvu Venkanna, the eldest of the children, was identified as the one to educate and he was sent away to another town, Narsapur to study. He did well, went to Guindy Engineering College in Madras and his career took off as an engineer in the state government's Roads and Buildings department. Dad also seemed to have had a hand in inspiring his younger brother Ramaswamy who became a doctor, and the youngest brother Ramakrishna, who was a fine gentleman and huge hit with us youngsters because he broke all rules and laughed (and made us laugh) all the time. The sister Sampathi was after my father and she, of all four, is still alive and healthy. 

Dad and I

Me, Ramakrishna garu, Anjali and Koni

Polamuru's little colony where grandfather lived was also the place where grandpa's two brothers Bheemudu and Narsimlu lived. They had their children - Dharamaraju (who was another favorite uncle of ours) and Samuel Prabhakar (who was not so much of a favorite). They have their houses next to this one.

A moment with Dad

Father was the one who reached a high office (he retired as  as Chief Engineer, NH) from that village and he was instrumental in getting several of the local boys jobs that set them up for life. Samuel Prabhakar was one such person, who, after his retirement, had political aspirations. He installed Dad's bust on the road side many decades ago. After a few years the badly made bust fell off, Samuel passed away and all was forgotten. A few years ago, me and Ram went to those parts for some work and checked in on these spots. 

Dad's cousin's house

My aunt's part of the Trust

Then last year, one Ramakrishna garu (no relation of ours), who benefited from a job that Dad got him, took it upon himself to get a new bust installed on Dad's 100th birth anniversary (April 1, 2024), got Panchayat approval, organised a grand function and got the bust installed in the presence of some 20 engineers. I heard about it after the function was over and mentally decided to visit sometime. I spoke to Ramakrishna garu over phone and thanked him for the good job.

...

So when Choudary said he had some work in Bhimavaram last week I asked if we could take Anjali and Shobhs along because Anjali had never been to these parts. I wanted her to see where her grandparents came from - she never saw either of them because they passed away before she was born. 

We took off at five am on Sunday morning. 

This was where grandparents hut stood - now just an empty land

We reached Bhimavaram by 2 pm, passing by several fish and prawn ponds. Bhimavaram was where my uncle lived but now no one lives there. My cousin Ravi used to live there but he passed away a few years ago. I asked my pal Ramaraju who is from Bhimavaram where to stay and he suggested Ananda Inn which has a fine restaurant called Adurs. We checked in, ate a fine lunch with prawn and fish and that stuff (they have huge servings) and headed out to the beach to check out the property Choudary wanted to see. They made an offer for fifty lakh and his counter offer was 18 lakh so I don't think it will go anywhere.

The beach was empty, very few people. It's also kind of left to itself with no place to buy anything or rest. Its brown and not the most pleasing to the eye. We spent a bit of time there and headed back to the hotel and watched IPL. Punjab beat Mumbai - a match I watched towards the end. 

...

Next morning was Polamuru day and we headed there after breakfast. We drove past Veeravasaram and Attili and reached Polamuru in 45 minutes. Ramakrishna garu was waiting at the Ambedkar statue but before that we saw a 'I love Polamuru' board and me and Anjali got a pic with it. 

Dad's pic that he kept at his house

Then we saw Dad's bust right across the road. We parked, got down and paid respects to Dad's bust, got pictures. Ramakrishna garu showed us Samuel's house, nicely done up, our grandfathers plot which is empty and has some vegetative growth, Dhramaraju Chinnanna's house on the other side. 

Ramakrishna garu, me, and Vedamani garu with Dad's pic at their place

He took us to his house which is in the next lane and we met his wife Vedamani who was very sweet and immediately likeable. She got us coffee, told us how they owed so much to Dad for that job he gave her husband, how well Dad treated him when he went to seek help and not like some random person (when Dad saw Ramakrishna garu was being seated on the floor by the peon, he chided him, got him inside and made him sit at the table and share his meal). 

Anyway,they said they get a pension of 47k a month which is a luxury in Polamuru - you cannot spend more than 10k there even if you want to. (But you could spend a lot if you went to Bhimavaram which they say is Las Vegas of India.)

It was nice to see Anjali soak in the information, take pictures of where her grandfather came from. I tried to fill her in on the story as much as I could - even I was discovering new stuff about him. Ramkarishna garu showed us all the paperwork, made  me talk to one of the engineers who came as Chief Guest to unveil Dad's bust and said he would accompany us to Padmanabhuni Cheruvu which is mom's village. We walked about, taking pictures and then left Polamuru. 

I hope to come back again, perhaps with my siblings later. The thought in my head - this hardy bunch of farm labourers who had the gall to educate their children and make them engineers and doctors and even went as far as buying one acre of land from their landlords! They were something.

And Dad, that you are remembered after forty years of moving on, speaks something of you.          

Now, to Padmanabhuni Cheruvu!