SeetharaMusings

These are memories of Sri Bezawada Seetharama Reddy about his childhood, family, relatives, marriages compiled together to keep them alive 

Dr Vilasini:

In 1951-52 I was in the 1st year of B.Sc and I could not get accommodation in the college hostel and my parents left me in Reddy House under Yashodavvas care. Same time Hyma and Vilasini were studying in Evarts school and they were also under Yashodavvas care. They were the first twins in the family and Kistappa used to dress them up in identical dresses and they were very cute kids. 

Yashodavva who was our guardian angel and we were looked after like her own kids.

Very soon after Vilasini was married and within couple of years she became a Widow. She was still a teenager and Bezawada Gopala Reddy garu went out of the way and got her a seat in Medical college. After completing Medicine and serving the people of Chennai she went & joined the Ashram and did lot of service to the poor. My heartfelt condolences to the family.

Reddy house:

No comparison for Gudur house to Reddy house. Gudur house was confined to Varada tatas family whereas Reddy house was open house not only for our family members but also to many Nellore people. In fact many second hand car brokers used to crowd there in the morning's. Many taxi fellows at central stn knew Reddy house, the fixed fare was one rupee twenty five paisa. 

Dodla Varada Reddy:

Since Varada tatas name came up in our discussions I started recalling those days.

I was hardly 8 yrs old when he died. I didnot know that I was his grand son until many years later.

He was kept at a high pedestal by the family. He used to sit on Darwaja arugu in the evenings surrounded by many admirers and Tala manushulu use to stand at a distance for a call.

Kids used come out of the school and who had an eye contact with him was shown his index finger and the kid would run to Rukkinavvas room who would promptly hand over a cigarette to be given to Tata. I was one of the regulars and I used to feel that my day was made.

One day there was a buzz and the talk was abuot a photo session of Tata. MANY CURIOUS kids were there to watch the proccedings. Some photografers came from Madras and Tata was dressed for the occasion and he was seated with his right elbow on a bundle of books. later I found that photo in all his progenies houses. Another day there was a big commotion in the house and the people were talking about serious deterioration of his health and he was to be taken to Nellore. Many anxious family Members gathered at Talavakita lncluding some of us kids. Just as Tata was being seated in the car Bhasker, tatas eldest sons eldest son sneezed. Every body looked daggers at him as if he committed a big crime. At that time Penna river was in spate and vehicles could not cross the river and the only way was on the railway brige. later I learnt that my father spoke to the collector got permission to take the car on the rail way brige. 

Flying Officer Dodla Ranga Reddy:

Kotimreddy Sekhar mama was great storyteller in our family

Now I recall one of his stories.

Most of our people may be familiar with Reddy house in Madras. For every small medical needs and some special requirements our family members used to go to Madras and Reddy house used to be Full all the time and most of the men used to sleep on the terrace. One midnight when everyone was sleeping during war time suddenly they heard boots sound coming up the stairs. Since the doors closed nobody could enter the house and they were scared that it could be Ghost.

Suddenly there appeared pilot Rangamama who came to Madras airbase and he had few hours to himself and he didn't want miss the opportunity and visited the family in the dead of night. After couple of hours a jeep came and picked him up.

Tragically that was the last time any of our family members saw him.

Dodla Lakshmi Narayana (DLN):

Some reminisces of D.L.N.R.

IN 1941 MY MOTHER AND MY SIS SESHAPPA DELIVERED LEELA AND LAKHMINARANA FEW DAYS APART AT A.B.M HOSPITAL NELLORE.

AS A KID I USED TO SEE THEM LYING DOWN IN SIDE BY SIDE COTS IN BABEMAMAS ROOM IN OUR HOUSE.

Later peddabayya was sent to Bangalore for his schooling. When there was a group photo taken after the marriage of one of the brothers he was the only kid who was absent in thegroup photo of my father's progeny.

Much later in 1956 summer my brother Krishna and D.L.N came to Pilani to meet me when I just completed my post graduation in Birla scns college.

Later we all came back to New Delhi to my father's North Avenue MP's QUARTERS.

AFTER A FEW DAYS STAY THERE MY father SENT THE THREE OF us TO SRINAGAR FOR A HOLIDAY.

FROM DELHI WE WENT TO JAMMU BY TRAIN AND FROM THERE WE WENT TO SINAGAR BY A DAKOTA PLANE SINCE THERE WAS NO ROAD OR TRAIN CONNNECTION, MUCH LATER IN 60's BANNIHAL PASS CAME INTO USE.

THE RETURN FARE FOR EACH WAS 30 Rs. EACH PASSENGER ALONG WITH HIS LUUGAGE WAS WEIGHED BEFORE BOARDING.

IN SRINAgaR WE HAD VERY GOOD TIME GOING ROUND GULMARG, SONMARG,ANANTNAG, PEHALGAM ETC.

A FEW YEARS LATER WHEN I WAS WORKING IN VIzAG HE WAS MY GuEST FOR TWO YEARS WHEN HE DID HIS POST GRADUATION IN ANDHRA UNIVERSITY.

Dodla Janakappas:

Janakappas photo brought flood of memories of that time. Her marriage was a very big event and all the family members wanted to go to Penubally. All the jatkas and Onteddu bandlu were taken away for ladies and we many kids were left behind since going by open double bullock carts was infradig for reddygari pliiakayalu.Then Kodandamama who happened to be in Buchi got a brilliant idea. He enthused all the kids to take evening walk from Buchi to Penubally and all of us enthusiastically participated. 

Marriage was grandly celebrated and highlight of the evening was a dance performance by one budding actress fromMadras.

Waheeda Rehman:

Since dance came into the narrative I recollected Parvatammas marriage in Girija talkies a couple of years later.

Kesatata arranged a budding actress by NAME Waheeda Rehman ,who just became famous with her dance song Rojulumarai.

It so happened I went from Madras to attend the marriage and a bus was arranged from Santapeta for the dance troop and I could travel in the bus.

There was awe that a fabulous sum of three hundred rupees was paid to the troop and it included their travel expenses.

In pursuit of Ram Lalla & Kumbhmela

Visit to Ayodhya is a trip with mixed feelings of right after wrong and get a feel of Blessings from the divine.

As you land on the 19th January 2025 and are taxing you will be immersed in chants of Jai Shree Ram led by the pilot. Small airport, hired a Uber and reached our hotel within 30 minutes in spite of some typical Indian traffic.

Rameswar vatika the hotel where we stayed is a compact 10 room hotel and well managed. According to the owner he is adding 20 more rooms, hope they will continue to manage the hotel with the same standards.

Owner of our hotel helped us with mobility and the auto driver took us to the banks of Sarayu. As it got

dark the Aarthi started at 6.10 PM, after spending a while, we moved to the Ram mandir, walked from the spot where we were dropped (all autos are not allowed till the temple).

Quickly walked towards the mandir, on the way dropping our footwear & mobiles at the respective counters. Finally reached the steps which lead us to have the darshan of Ram lalla. As we climbed the steps we noticed 5/6 queue lines, we chose the one in the middle. If we had taken the extreme right line, we would have stood closest to the idol as we take a 90 degree left turn towards the exit. Idol is visible from a good distance as it is placed on a high pedestal, if we continue the entire distance looking at the idol, we will have a fulfilling darshan. 

After climbing down the exit stairs, we will be coming to a place where prasad is distributed. On the way out we collected the mobiles and footwear from the respective counters, there is no payment for these services. We were given the locker keys/Tokens on presenting the same we get our stuff, well managed, I felt.

From there, we went on to have a darshan at the Hanuman garhi, a climb without any support of railings and multiple Q lines. Fortunately crowd was not very heavy being a Sunday, also probably because it was almost closing time.

Got back into the auto and got dropped at our hotel. A buffet was laid out and had some hot vegetarian meal, prepared with love and served with care. With all the walking and travel fatigue went off to a good night sleep. My friend who lives in Dallas was worried about the size of the mosquitos in the room, saved by odomos, he too managed to get few winks.

After a 4 cuisine breakfast and some hot tea we boarded the cab booked on MakeMyTrip on our way to Prayagraj. Managed to do the distance in 4.30 hrs., with few stops for fuel, fruits etc. Picked up 3 kgs of peas for the family at Hyderabad.

Hotel Town House booked through Oyo (Hotel Santosh Palace) near the Prayagraj junction, room is big but service was poor, in spite of online booking, filling up a form, register takes its own time. Prices were high as the industry was making hay while sun shines (Maha Kumbh).

After a quick meal went towards the Sangam ghats to have a dip and interaction with the innumerable sadhus who were camping out there.

Like in Ayodhya restricted plying of autos in phases/zones was applicable here too. We could notice extensive availability of electric autos in addition to CNG autos. Fortunately crowds were not very thick and movement was smooth.

I would be failing if I don't mention the arrangements. Heavy visibility of the PM n CM on the hoardings present on both sides of the road. Number of food courts present throughout the long walk. There were enough information stalls put up by the PSUs n government bodies like RBI, LIC etc. Available stalls were selling food at reasonable prices, no fleecing from the bhakts. There were number of public toilets made available through the length of the distance. Near the bathing Ghats changing rooms were provided about 50 meters from the place where you take a dip. Plastic sheets were on sale for people to buy and use them as mats.

Bathing Ghats were well created, one can stand in the water and comfortably take a dip as the water is only waist deep, till you reach the water sand bags are laid for a firm footing, on the other three sides there is a protective barricade made up of plastic material which is floating and firmly placed. There is absolutely no risk of any kind of drowning.

Continuous announcement about non usage of soap and leaving flowers in the water was being made. Even the flower+ Diya sellers were being shooed away by the cops, the people were seen floating a diya and leaving some flowers in the water in memory of the departed. Best thing you notice is continuous cleaning of the area of all the rubbish left by the people and cleaning of the bathing Ghats was continuous of all the floating flowers, diyas & other stuff left by people. I understand there were 5000 people deployed for this purpose.

There was continuous movement of VIP vehicles, it is OK on a less crowded day, wonder what would

be the situation on a very crowded day. Steel sheets were spread near the river bank for easier movement of vehicles and walking public avoiding the sand beneath. Pontoons were built to cross the waterways, shaky but steady.

It is told AI cameras are deployed to count the number of persons visiting the Ghats, whatever maybe the accuracy of the cameras, sheer numbers do not match up to the bearing capacity of a city of the size of Prayagraj.

Prayagraj is a dusty city, with so many people walking their way to the bathing Ghats, you can see the haze created by the dust. It was more visible during our trip to the airport on our way to Hyderabad in the morning hours.

When my friend went in pursuit of the Naga Sadhus, I decided to rest my feet, which carried my bulky body, and waited for my friend to return. Meanwhile entertained myself with the peoples behaviour in front of me.

There was this group of 2 couples with 3 teenage boys, all 5 men managed to take a dip with just wetting only two under wears, Helps to have a common physique which facilitates such happenings. Interestingly one of the women, bent upon buying the plastic sheet, which was being sold for Rs.20 for Rs.10, unfortunately her husband didn't appreciate her bargaining skills and paid of the seller.

Some of the ladies didn't wish to go up to the changing rooms and were having all kinds of difficulty changing on the banks based on the dress they were wearing, either they were not aware of the possibility of a changing room being available or simply didn't wish to go that far.

Hot tea was on sale and vendors were using chulhas, hot flasks to keep it hot. The usual murmura mixture was on offer along with samosas.

There were plenty of unofficial bike taxis on offer, if they are parked and single, that means they are likely to be looking for a customer, only useful for single or max two people. Expensive considering the situation.

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