A DOT ON MEMORYMAP

Pedanandipadu is a center to many surrounding villages and enjoyed more reputation by virtue of its bus connection to Guntur. It created history when the people went on Satyagraha earlier than Bardoli Satyagraha. The then collector could do little to stop the movement which petered out slowly due to lack of support from the top leadership of the Congress. It has been well known for cotton and tobacco. I studied eighth and ninth classes here. Here the competition was more in high school. every day we used to walk two miles from my village to this school with a bag of books and lunch box. Every afternoon we took our lunch on the shore of a pond before the high school. on our way back we used to climb tamarind trees for its leaves and fruit. Here the teachers were more trained but less bothered about students in general with a few exceptions. One teacher taught us who knew next to nothing that he didn’t believe in god and he considered The Ramayana and The Mahabharata were excellent books of literature but not objects of worship. Our telugu teacher recited the literature of Srisri, Joshuva and others in a melodious voice and instilled rationalism. My maths teacher was sound but my shortsightedness made me a good copyist of sums solved by him on the board from my neighbor’s slate or notebook and awful student of mathematics. Though I took composite maths as a matter of prestige, algebra had rattled my heart. We often missed our classes and found ourselves swimming in a nearby canal. We play acted during annual day functions, got prizes, listened to famous scholars like Divakarla and Vutukuri Lakshmikantamma etc., at near by college and these waves of literature had moved us deeply and decisively. Emergency came , elocution competitions on twenty point formulae were held . We bagged prizes little knowing that democracy had been taking a beating in the country. Once or twice I did monoaction of the role of Duryodhana in Mayasabha and got a high praise.
The local library enticed us and expanded our mental range. I also used to visit the house of one of my friends whose father used to bring magazines like chandamama, bommarillu and booklets like Gulliver travels. Those were the pleasantest and most profitable afternoons in terms of real education. Two cinema halls- Sitarama theater and Srinivasa theatres came up. The song “Hari om” signaled the beginning of cinema from Sitsrama theatre and we learned lessons in time and stress management too often here. We also watched a few English films which increased our pleasure if not our vocabulary or grammar.
Once I saw a play Balanagamma here along with my uncle and the endless ragas of actors received the cries on “once more” upon which began the second round of the same stanza. The actresses received more ‘aesthetic’ attention and the spectators used to throw rupees as a mark of appreciation on the actors.
In spite of all this, my marks began falling and I was shifted to Brahmanakodur, a village to which my uncle had got transferred.