family photo

family photo

Friday, December 31, 2010

happy new year

Friends...
I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. Hope this new year all your dreams come true. And I am looking forward to see many happy news about  our families on this blog.
Talk to you next year.. I mean tomorrow. Have a happy celebration.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

'kolli' connection!

Yes. This Yalamanchili and Kolli family connection continued. You all know famous cine director late Kolli Pratyagatma, and his son K. Vasu (also a director). They are very much related to Yalamanchili family.  Let me explain. Remember the elderly lady in the family photo... Kolli Bhushamma garu daughter of Kolli Venkatadri garu and Seethamma garu.
She had two brothers Sri Kolli Kotayya Varma garu(1890-1959) and Sri Kolli Venkatappayya garu.
Kotayya Varma was blessed with five sons and three daughters (one son-Paramatma & one daughter-Rajahamsa died at very early age).
Pratyagatma was one among them. The other sons are :  Sri Guruprasada Rao (father of Sri Bhanu koteswara rao), Sri Chaitanyatma (father of Koteswara Varma and smt Yalamanchili Geeta), Sri Hemambaradhara Rao(also a cine director). Since I am not good at movies, I request inputs from the blog readers about the pictures directed by these brothers.
Their two sisters : Late Paramahamsa and Smt. Sugnana prabodhini. All four brothers and Paramahamsa reached the abode of the lord.
Smt. Sugnana Prabodhini lives in Chennai with her youngest son Sri Kosaraju Sateesh Chandra Babu.
........
       Wed Lock  between these two families known from the past century .....
1. Kolli Bhushamma                  ~  Yalamanchili Nagayya
2. Yalamanchili Mallikarjuna rao  ~ Kolli Paramahamsa
3. Kolli Bhanu Koteswara Rao  ~  Yalamanchili Annapurna Devi
4. Kolli Geetha Kumari              ~  Yalamanchili Sivaramakrishna Prasad

Friday, December 17, 2010

My school!

As I told you Singampally was a small camp there was no school. To go to a High school, we had to walk more than three kilometres. On the way we had to cross two canals also. Only a few grown up boys and girls used to go. When it was my time to go..luckily  there were four or five girls. I joined in the school directly in fifth class. Till then I studied at home only.  Seshu's mother(my aunt)  used to teach me.
There was no school bus, no autos...We had to walk. All of us together we used to go. Then only it was possible to cross the canal.  We have to walk through the water no.. so we used to hold our hands together and cross the canal. It was a real problem those days. The floor of the canal was too slipperry. But we people were very clever. Whenever we felt like taking a leave we will get ourselves wet in the water and tell the teachers the canal is flowing high... and there is always a chance that the water level may increase by evening. Fearing this the Headmaster would give special permission for us to go home. And what next? take the bags... run to the forest... or collect lotuses in the tank. Fishing in the canal also was one of our favourite pastime. Play till evening and go home as usual like good children. All the elderly people were working in their fields. Nobody knows our whereabouts. Ofcourse we were careful enough about our safety as well as our education.

Sometimes if we were lucky we will get to travel in bullock carts. If anybody has work in the big village like buying fertilizers etc. they go by carts. We used to join them. Can you imagine what we used to get to eat on the way? I bet you can't. Jama pandlu, Sugarcane, Senagalu... sugarcane farmers would cook jaggery with sugar cane juice. One should taste freshly cooked jaggery.  No sweet is equal to it's taste. Mouth watering flavour.  On our way back from school we would help the farmers in that job. And in return they gave us jaggery. Sometimes we take it for our teachers also. Custurd apples, Maize, vegetables grown in our compounds... all these we used to give to our teachers.
Coming to studies.. we had very good teachers those days. It was a government school. Every class has fifty to sixty students. Even then also teachers paid personal attention to each child. I used to be the class leader and share half of the responsibility of the teacher. I studied from 5th to 8th in that village. And all those four years I was chosen for merit scholarship. But I never took the money. Raja mamayya said... we don'd need it, let them give it to the poor people.
My grand father was not that rich. But when it comes to studies and buying books he will say... first educational needs, then only any other expenditure. I admire his personality. I am sure it influenced mine.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Then and Now

Friends..from the family photo now I can show you the latest photographs of only three people. Here is Amaleswari the girl sitting in the front. This photograph I have taken in last August. The young couple are Seshu and Keerthi i.e. son and daughter in law of Bhujata (also called Ammaji).
Suseela and myself are friends more than cousins. We started communicating through letters when we were in primary school itself. We can continue writing forever  without getting bored... We want all of you to participate. Please share your sweet memories.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Beautiful childhood

Suseela's post made me think of my childhood. Yes, we are the blessed ones.Out of four brothers our grandfather Kutumba rao garu was the only person who was a farmer. And unfortunately he was the last person too. Now I dont think anybody owns a farmland. So in our generation may be we are the only people who had literally walked in a farm. We went to the fields where my grandfather worked. All my cousins... Suseela and her brother Ramana from Tanuku, Suneeta and Subhashini from Hyderabad... all used to come in summers. Peddammma"s (Amaleswari) daughters were there in Nizamabad. Since I was brought up by my grandparents,  I was the only kid in the block to spend more time in the village.
Singampally is a small camp of fifteen families who came from Andhra districts. Almost all of them are related in one way or the other. To reach the nearby village we had to walk two miles. It was situated like that. A big Nizam sagar canal, a forest ... all in walkable distance! Houses were built with thatched roof, and between the houses there used to be a pandal(pandiri). Big compounds were cleaned daily and filling them with Muggu was my favourite job. Cattle, Chiks... we used to have all these in the compound. Evenings all the children used to sit in the pandal. Stories, Games, Dreams, Stitching, Embroidery.. what not. There was no Electricity, no Television. Folks, Can  you imagine life without these two, these days? Because these two were absent, we had lot of time. And our imagination knew no bounds. We created stories. We even made stories. We had adventures. We used to run into the forest.. Not only Indian dates(eeta kayalu), there were Morri pandlu, Regu pandlu, Custard apples, Mangoes, wood apples, Tamarind... Oh God... What a lovely feast we used to have. Sometimes we used to come across wild animals also. But we were never afraid. Now in these cities we are afraid of mosquitoes and flies! What a pity!
About my adventures while going to school ... read in the  next post... bye
Padmasri

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Singampally kaburlu

Hi,
This is Suseela, grand daughter of Kutumba Rao and Padmavathi, daughter of Chakradhara rao(the little kid in the lap of Padmavathi in the top row) and Seetha.
My father retired as The Head of Civil Engineering department at S.M.V.M. polytechnic , Tanuku and my mother is a house wife.
I want to share my childhood beautiful memories at my grandparents house(singampally).
ma tata garidhi chala pedda family. They got four daughters and four sons.
Here they are... Amaleswari, Suseela bai,Chakradhara rao, Raja rao, Nagabhushana rao,
Bhujatha, Subhash chandra bose and vara lakshmi.
Unfortunately one of my aunt Suseela bai and one of my uncle Raja rao passed away
at young age. I was born after my aunt passed away, so I got my name after her.
I got one brother Venkata Ramana.

Vesavi selavulalo Singapally velthe aa maja ye veru. Andaru cousins almost oke age 4-5 years difference lo. enta allari chesevallamo roju. pakkane chittadavi(jungle) undedi..
akkadaki eetha kayalu(wild berries) kosam vellevallam.. tata vaddu ane varu..
inasare tata ki kanapadakunda paripoyevallam..
wow.. aa eetha kayalu entha taste ga undevo.. ippatiki naku gurthu..
andaram panchukunevallam eetha kayalu.. (jungle loki vellodhu anna attalu, amma vallu malli ma daggara eetha kayalu tinese vallu)..
eetha kayala chettu ki okkkosari pot kattevallu kallu(kind of wine) kosam..
avi kuda rallu vesi pagala kotte vallam..
abbo inka chala unnai kaburlu, malli rasta..
ee sari ma cousins and brother gurinchi...

bye,bye,
Susi

Friday, December 3, 2010

please write

Hi
Friends... I am waiting to receive inputs from all of you. please feel free to write. You can write about your attachment with your grand parents, parents, your feelings as a NRI, your family celebrations etc.  I need information about surnames of  aunts Usha and Kusuma. Sisters Padmasri,  Uma and Rama and many other things. please write in the comments. I want to use this blog to connect with all  our families.