Sundaram's Anguish in Kodavaiganti Kutumbarao's 'Chaduvu'

 

In Kutumbarao’s Chaduvu , the character of Sundaram , his experiences in school, children’s pranks with teachers bring back the memories of one’s childhood. Sundaram is worried over his place in merit in his class, his interaction with Sivaiah , the child from the family of makers of mats , the difficulties in buying notes, comparison with  his classmate  Krishna Murty  . his mother’s admonishments regarding his demands for note books, his gradual understanding regarding their precarious economic statues and his sympathy for the other poor and unfortunate children show how a sensibility is moulded gradually in the background of 1930’s.  his teacher Sitappa was a a conservative and an admirer of Bal Gangadhar tilak and when the latter died, Sitappa was filled with sorrow and taught nothing in the class. Another teacher  Sambaiah infused in boys hatred towards the British rule. Sundaram’s  maternal uncle Seshagiri turned into a nationalist, his son Narusu into a singer in a drama troupe  and a counterpart to studious Sundaram. Sundaram worries over the sudden widowhood of Sakuntala but his sympathies stopped short of  love. Narusu married Sundaram’s sister Janaki and Sundaram himself married Lakshmi. His middle class  shyness makes him put up with rituals which he did not like much . he could not do much when Narusu asked him to arrange a drama performance for his troupe but resented when it was held due to initiative by Narusu through help from hostellers whom Narusu approached.   Later he comes across Sakuntala who has remarried . He writes a story the same night but tears it the next morning. We see Sundaram as a character more in reaction to changing conditions which impact him rather than as a dynamic personality.  He again writes a story of remarriage of  a widow which gets published . He attends a Congress meeting in Madras  and later  joins Benares Hindu  university , gets into touch with literature and with nationalist movement. His uncle Seshagiri who does a jail term n the movement does not want this son Narusu to undergo the same and Sundaram also finds  opportunism of some who evade arrest  Sundaram also observes the suppression of the  nationalist movement by the police. Sundaram fails to write exams and get his degrees due to economic difficulties.  The Great Depression finds Sundaram without job and money but spends his time in reading books from municipal library. When he sees his wife Lakshmi teaching alphabets to their child , he remembers his own experience twenty years back and feels happy.

In the novel the reader finds a fragment of life during 1920-35 in India when society has found itself changing under the impact of nationalist movement and ne found love for education.  It also shows the middle class destiny with the tryst and Sundaram represents the aspiring middle class whose ambitions have been thwarted by the whirlpool of changes in the period. It is a tribute to the ardent desire for education unmindful of its worldly prospects and  the social and psychological  anguish of the middle class boy  Sundaram .