Mahalaya Amavasya - the Day Leads Many into myriad of lights.

 

This Dark Day Leads Many Into Myriad of Lights

B. Yerram Raju

‘Mahalaya Amavasya’ is a day we recall our ancestors and pay homage to them. There lies the culture, compassion, a colossus of learning that shaped lives for those who recall them. At least for me, scripting my autobiography at the dawn of eighty years – ‘Roots to Fruits: The Journey of a Development Banker’, is a partial justice to the ancestors as it covered only the upbringing by my beloved parents and shaping my career and life as a banker and beyond.

My grandfather, bearing the same name as mine, for, all the eldest sons in the family are so named if the first child was a male, was a courtier under a zamindar in Madugula in Visakhapatnam district. This is just a village now. He never gave the feeling of something wanting in his life.

Families were large in those days. If Varaha Venkata Giri, our former President had fourteen children in his family, my father gave birth to twelve. They believed that children well brought up would be true assets to the family and nation. At least my parents proved right in this thinking. Six sons and six daughters – family balance sheet is balanced.

Parents taught through the way they lived and the way they shared their beliefs. They taught us calling them ‘nanna’ (father) and ‘amma’ (mother) and not dad and mom. The four letters in Telugu – nanna and amma – are a symphony of nature, a bondage for life. The only earning member, nanna, was a poor cashier in a leading bank of those British days. Work discipline led him also to disciplining the family. My mother, daughter of a police sub-inspector was the third of the fourteen siblings of her family. Amma lost her father young while my father lost her Amma young similarly. Amma studied up to fifth standard. That did not deter her from reading Ramayana, Mahabharat, Bhagavadgita, Devi Bhagavatham etc., to teach her children all they should learn to lead a life of honesty and simplicity.

Austerity was the watchword for my dad although ostentation was the watch word for my grandfather since he was with a zamindar. The reason: he had no mother to teach and was borne under the munificence of his elder brother who used him as a servant in the house though educated him up to intermediate of the British days. Nanna taught us the austerity and some may say in hindsight, it was borne of necessity. This austerity among the twelve of us was reinforced by the economics taught by my Amma.

Atithi Devo Bhava – was scrupulously followed. When Nanna was posted to Tirupati as Head Cashier of SBI, he felt jubilant. Both Amma and Nanna felt that they would have the opportunity to visit temples everyday and visit Lord Venkateswara closely and play host to several friends and relatives who come to Tirupati on pilgrimage, irrespective of their capacity to entertain them at home. My father used to walk up Tirumala Hills as buses were few and far between the day those days, not once but sometimes twice, just to accompany the guests and help them have good Darshan.

Amma just asked for a cow and buffalo at home to take care of the nutritious requirements of her children and feed the guests. Her dairy economy gave us the freedom from want. My second brother, self-made, became a professor in Yoga at Chennai, post retirement. My teachers’ kindness and charity helped the brilliance of my third brother to pursue medical career. Nanna did not hesitate to borrow a few thousands to send him to write the qualifying examination that was being held in those days only in Singapore – ECFMG (Entrance Course for Medical Graduates). He is a gold medallist in Medicine. He settled as a leading gastroenterologist in Texas, US. The Eleventh among us, settled as a chartered professional accountant in Austin.

Integrity, honesty, austerity, simplicity, philanthropy  and courteousness, the cultural moorings of this great country are all there in this big family to which I have the honour to belong. Ancestors have much to teach and this darkest night of Amavasya has many lights twinkling in the minds of one hundred eight siblings of my parents. Life may be hard-earned but fully worth every penny and my ancestors are watching with joy and pride.  

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/fincop/this-dark-day-leads-many-into-myriad-of-lights/ - a couple of corrections carried out.