Mom's Village - Padmanabhuni Cheruvu

 If I put Padmanabhuni Cheruvu on Google maps it does not recognise it - its that small. We headed from Polamuru towards Maruteru which is a town close by, some 15-20 kms. We headed straight up and hit the road that connects Maruteru with TadepalliGudem and turned right to Maruteru. Its a cute town and we wound our way around it and headed out. 3 kms from there was where Padmanabhuni Cheruvu is - but we had to ask so many people about it because it is off the road. Very few people could recognise it.

Padmanabhuni cheruvu

Achanta Panchayat

The name Padmanabhuni Cheruvu

I remembered that there was a little canal called Nakkala Kalava which had a rope and wooden bridge to cross over to Padmanabhuni Cheruvu. We had nightmares of crossing that bridge which would sway and shake like crazy but somehow we made it alive to the other side every time. On the other side was a small hamlet built around this little pond called Padmanabhuni Cheruvu. the high caste people lived on one side and the lower castes on the other. i wonder what the water arrangements were. Anyway my mom's mother, my grandmother Sastrulamma lived there with her daughter Veremma and her son Raju. My grandfather had passed away before I saw him (I never asked my Mom if she missed her Dad). My grandmother had this ethereal quality to her and that's what i remember most about her. Soft, gentle and royal in her demeanour. Mom's sister Veremma was not easy to talk to.

The village school

In those houses on the left was my grandparents hut

Anyway, with some difficulty we turned off the road and got into a narrow single road, passed a small bridge and hit the little village. the pond was distinctive and we stopped and asked if there was anyone belonging to Mom's family there. They asked the family name and I said Kalabathula and they said there were a few families there with that name. My cousin Raju had apparently sold off that plot and moved out many years ago.

The bridge that Dad built across Nakkala Kauluva

Just as we were about to head back one older gentleman came and asked Mom's name. I told him. 'Ah, Savitramma, she was in Hyderabad wasn't she? Your father was the one who laid that bridge to our village, else we were all crossing it on a wooden bridge,' he said, fondly remembering Dad.

Wow, Mom and Dad. You really left a legacy - that you are remembered after so many years. Anjali was soaking all this in quietly and took pictures of the bridge, the pond, the little community hall of the village. We sat on the benches provided by the village panchayat and enjoyed the peace and quiet of village life.

Road to village - the pond to the left

The bucolic life

Once again, we left, this time with a heavy heart, remembering my parents who left us long ago. dad left in 1984 and Mom in 2002. i wondered how nice it would have been if we had made the trip with them. But surely they must have been there with us.