1 Pasala Daaveedu and Solomon

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1

Family Background

Brief about Pasala Daaveedu and Solomon

(Grandfather and Father of Dayaratnam)

Pasala Daaveedu

Daaveedu is a Telugu version of biblical name David. The family name is Pasala,

and most probably it was derived from a village known as Pasala. This village may be non-

not be existenceing at moment but must have existed few decades ago. This family name was

noticed at different towns and also from different castes. There are two versions of the origin

of the Pasala family, one from a village called Yamavaram or Yamaram in Nellore district

and another from town Kakinada. It is also possible that both the families originated from the

same village. A family in even Aatmakur town of Kurnool district has this family name, but

is of different caste whose house I rented for office cum residence while I was Junior

Engineer in PWD, Kurnool Division.

The original name of my grandfather Mr.Pasala Daaveedu before he accepted the

Christian faith was Pasala Venkataswamy. He was the eldest son of Mr. Pasala Venkaiah and

Mrs. Gowri. Gowri was from Jonnakuti family of Bandarupally, a village situated about

twenty kilometers from Guntur. Venkaiah was second son of Mysonna who had two other

sons named as Periah and Naagaih.

Venkaiah and Gowri had seven children and they are: 1. (Venkataswamy) alias Daaveedu, 2.

Akkamma, 3. Ramaswami, 4. Ramulamma, 5. Nagamma, 6. Veeraswami and 7. Kotaiah.

It was believed that Venkaiah moved to Sattenapalli some time in 1850s. Some

extrapolations based on the age of Daaveedu and birth dates of his children, Daaveedu

probably was born in 1874. He worked as gardener of at the Lutheran missionary bungalow

at Sattenapalli. The missionary bungalow foundation stone was laid in 1903 during that year,

his second son Solomon was born. Most extrapolation of the dates is based on the factual

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situation of the foundation date of the bungalow at Sattenapalli. John Christian Frederic

Heyer, the father of Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church started the Church during 1846 at

Guntur and toured most of the district. Large number of communities in many villages

accepted Christianity during his missionary work. Sattenapalli is one of the towns in where

the early Lutheran Congregation was initiated probably during 1880s. Venkataswamy

accepted the Christianity and baptized as Daaveedu and, later on became a foundation in the

development of the missionary compound. Daaveedu married Vasimalla Akkamma,

Daughter of Kotilingam of Kondrupadu that is situated near Prattipadu of Guntur District.

Akkamma accepted Christ about the time of marriage and named as Sarah. She had a younger

brother who also accepted the Christ and came to known as Gnananadam. Gnananadam was

much younger to his sister and received elementary school education, in fact practiced

ayurvedic medicine in his village Kondrupadu.

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Grand Parents and Parents’ family

Fig. 1.1Grandpa’s House Original home

Dayaratnam grand father Pasala David probably was born in 1872 and was married to

Vasimalla Sarah (maiden name) sometime in 1894. David’s mother Gouri and father

Chinnaswamy were the earliest Christians. David had three sons and one daughter.

Bhushanam, born in 1896 was the eldest of the four, joined the reserve police force of

Madras presidency. Bhushanam, Solomaon and Satyanandam waere the three sons.

Bhushnam had three daughters and one son from his firs wife and after first wife’s death;

he married again and had one daughter. Bhushanam passed away in 1942 while in service.

The second was a daughter and the third, son, Solomon (father of Dayaratnam) was born

in 1903, and the year the bungalow of the Lutheran missionary was built. David worked as

a gardener to the Lutheran missionary at Sattenapalli and credited with the blessed task of

planting many trees in the missionary compound. He tended the young samplings for years

and retired sometime in 1936. The number of trees planted is probably more than fifty and

Daaveedu didn’t go school but became a devoted intelligent gardener of the

missionary compound. He planted many Neem and Tamarind tree in the compound. These

type of trees not so common in north America but the missionaries realized that this variety

grows to reasonable size and lives for about one hundred years if properly attended to.

Education in agriculture or even either wise was almost unknown during that period and most

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of the cultivation or plant care was from the local experience. The Neem tree is not eaten by

most cattle except in a strange situation, however it is likely to be subjected to cutting of the

tender branches for cleaning of the teeth. Therefore He planted the Neem trees on the

periphery of the compound and the Tamarind trees in the inner ring. These trees don’t need

too much water and in fact survive with very little or no water for few days. The branches of

the Tamarind are very flexible and bend without breaking unlike Neem tree branches. The

fruit of the Neem is useful in making neem oil which is supposed to have some medical use.

The tender leafs of the Tamarind tree are a delicacy in Indian leafy curry. Further its fruit is

used in many ways in the Indian culinary. The dried fruit that is the tamarind is the main

source to add the sour taste and flavour to all curries. Tamarind pickles are also a specialty. It

is a source of preservative.

A large well dug at the missionary compound served as the source of water for

drinking and gardening. The water was in big demand for drinking as it is very clean and

tastes really great. The well yielded a large quantity of water that was used for gardening and

watering the trees. The missionaries maintained a exclusive vegetable garden and many

flower beds around the bungalow. The plant planted and nourished by Daaveedu grew health

and large and provided most desirable shade in the compound. It used to be a place of large

habitation of variety of birds. The children and the adults thronged into the compound for

coolness and for some outdoor local games. His contribution towards developing the garden

compound was appreciated by one and all. It was a source of pride to his children and grand

children to see such a wealth of trees were developed by this man. People of the community

paid loving tributes to this man who worked very hard to create such an environment which

lasted till about 1995 in reasonable state.

The tree that was planted during the first decade of the 20 th century (1903-10) lasted

reasonable well till about 1950s. The missionaries left the town in early 1960 from then

onwards there was no adequate care or even protection to the graceful trees. Indiscriminate

cutting of the branches and felling of the trees took place by the locals. Consequently most of

the trees vanished by 2003 by which time the bungalow completed a centenary. The tree

probably would have lasted even longer if wilful destruction didn’t take place. Today the

bungalow is in dilapidated state but more damaging is the elimination of the gracious trees.

One can build more modern building in its location (the chances are very small as of now as

the property is plundered by those who are protect.) but it would take several decades to grow

the trees to the level. With lack of will on the part of the people and the scarcity of water and

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compounded by the destructive exploitation, the chances of bringing back the old glory is

remote. The grand and the great grand children of Daaveedu feel very miserable to such a

labor were lost.

Daaveedu and Sarah who were married around 1895 had six children.

Nagabhushanam was born in about 1897 and died in 1945, Meenakhi (born about 1899),

Solomon born in 1903 during the laying the foundation of the missionary bungalow (died

very peacefully without suffering even for few second on 19th November 1983 at his daughter

Esther Lalitha place), Elisamma, Samuelu and Satyanandam (born 1910, died in 1987). Out

of the six children Elisamma and Samuelu died young before they were married and the rest

were married during his life and had children.

The construction of Zion Lutheran Church at Sattenapalli started in 1924 and

dedicated in 1925. A relatively large church planned well with stone masonry having a high

ceiling of about 18 feet. The walls were built of well dressed granite stone probably brought

from the hills near village Pericherla on the way to Guntur. The raised pointing with lime

mortar on the outside surface gave maintenance free walls. The quality of the construction

must be very high and it is a lime mortar which withstood the aggressive exposed weathering

of the region. The Church is built by the side of the main highway from Macherla to Guntur.

Very dusty weather exposed to heat and rain and yet the mortar has been intact for seventy

five years without repairs when the platinum jubilee was celebrated in the year 2000. Inside

was plastered with lime mortar and white washed. The roof system consists of relatively light

steel trusses and roofed with Mangalore tiles. The slope of the gable roof is steep, may be 1 in

2 which made the replacement of the damaged tiles rather difficult. The flooring was of

Kadapa stones with a beautiful stained glass mural depicting Jesus Christ as a shepherded.

Daaveedu after his retirement from the active service as a gardener (around 1920)

built a modest house of two rooms with mud walls and roof. He volunteered free labor in

carrying stones for the Church building. During that period most elders who work in the

fields or labour didn’t wear shirt. So he carried the stone for construction on his bare

shoulders. His children and the grand children have been proud of his little contribution in the

construction of the Church. He was a very hard working, lost his wife when his youngest son

was about eight years old and raised all the children with elementary school education. The

eldest son Nagabhushanam was considered to be a strong and daring person who joined the

reserve police service at young age and moved to Guntur. The second son Solomon, soft and

thoughtful took the responsibility of the family and his younger brother Satyanandam.

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Daaveedu lived independently till end, on his own in one of the rooms while all his

children got married lived on their own. Solomon who got married at young age like all

others lived in the second room that was built by his father. Daaveedu lived in fullness till

about 1945, at the age of about seventy he suffered mild illness and passed away peacefully

and was buried in the Sattenapalli Lutheran burial ground. Some of the interesting aspects of

this person are worth noting. He was small built of five feet and four inches height and

weighed slightly on the higher side. Married early and had six children at very regular

intervals of three years, boy and girl, boy and a girl, boy and boy in the order of birth during

fifteen period of marriage. There was no concept of family planning during those days and

yet either by accident or by God’s design of natural reproduction system, the children were

born at a most desired frequency almost with scientific precision. Almost a similar situation

was repeated in the reproduction system of his children. His second son Solomon had almost

the same situation of five children born in a period of eleven years at frequency close to three

years, and alternate child being of opposite sex except the last two children.

He lived about ten years beyond his retirement without pension or retirement

benefits. He neither saved any money for the retirement nor he planned any such thing; and

yet he lived on his own, not depending on his children. He worked till his last breath for his

living, and in fact he was fond of showing hospitality to others.

Pasala Solomon

Solomon was the third child and second son of Daaveedu and Sarah. One more sister

and another two brothers followed him. He went to Harries higher elementary school at

Sattenapalli up to sixth class. His mother Sarah passed away about that time, as he had three

younger to me at that time he had to discontinue his studies. Elisamma, his sister and

Samuelu, his younger brother also passed away leaving three sons and one daughter of

Daaveedu. Nagabhushanam was about six years older and in his teens. He joined reserve

constabulary in Guntur and so he moved out of Sattenapalli. Solomon has left the sixth class

at the young age and took the responsibility of the family at the age of about thirteen years

and started working. This was about 1916 and he encouraged his younger brother

Satyanandam. Sixth class was good enough to become a teacher in a village nearby. During

that period, people were given teachers’ training after sixth class, after eighth class which was

called as primary grade teachers training and those who have appeared for the eleventh class

board exam were allowed to enter into secondary grade training for teachers. Even if one

didn’t pass the board exam but have acquired some minimum marks were allowed to enter in

Fig. 1.1Grandpa’s House Original home1947

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to the training. However one has to pass the board exam to become eligible to enter in to the

college.

Solomon had to go to a nearby village to teach the rural people and he had students

of different ages and some were even older than him. This was the time of the First World

War, and there was a recruitment of young people in to defense service. He joined the army

at about the age of fifteen and served about one year in the army. Daaveedu, even though

responsible person and working but couldn’t monitor and look after his three children who

were motherless. By this time his elder brother Nagabhushanam got married to Gnanamma,

daughter of padamutham Prakasam, from Panedam, a village near Sattenapalli.

Nagabhushanam probably had his first daughter by about 1919 or even earlier.

Dayaratnam grand father Pasala David probably was born in 1872 and was married to

Vasimalla Sarah (maiden name) sometime in 1894. David’s mother Gouri and father

Chinnaswamy were the earliest Christians. David had three sons and one daughter.

Bhushanam, born in 1896 was the eldest of the four, joined the reserve police force of

Madras presidency. Bhushanam, Solomaon and Satyanandam waere the three sons.

Bhushnam had three daughters and one son from his firs wife and after first wife’s death;

he married again and had one daughter. Bhushanam passed away in 1942 while in service.

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The second was a daughter and the third, son, Solomon (father of Dayaratnam) was born in

1903, and the year the bungalow of the Lutheran missionary was built. David worked as a

gardener to the Lutheran missionary at Sattenapalli and credited with the blessed task of

planting many trees in the missionary compound. He tended the young samplings for years

and retired sometime in 1936. The number of trees planted is probably more than fifty and

most of them were Neem and Tamarind. Even today the tree is great inspiration to many in

the town. He also volunteered as a helper in the building of the Zion Lutheran Church at

Sattenapalli. The church was built and dedicated in 1925 during which year my eldest

sister was born, a two months premature. As a volunteer he carried many granite stones

with which the church was built, further he supplied water for construction. He is much

remembered for his helpful services.

He built one large room mud house. The walls were made of mud of about 350 mm thick pati

matti, (a blackish grey soil that sticks together), plastered both sides with cattle dung to

protect from erosion. The wall was about 3 m high and roofed with one main beam and split

bamboos spaced closely and then topped with mud. The originally built by him personally

with the help of friends is shown in Fig.1.1. Mud walls and Mud roof

Father: Pasala Solomon was born in 1903 at Sattenapalli during the construction of the

bungalow of the Lutheran missionary. He married at a very young age of nineteen (1923). His

wife, Kamalakshi was only about fifteen at the time of marriage. Two first children were born

premature and did not survive even for few days. Obviously for lack of any medical facilities.

Five children were born, Ludiamma (1925), John Sundararao (1927), Ester Lalitha (1930),

Dayaratnam (1932) and Samuel (1935), all five at about two and half years interval. The

interval was very natural without any family planning.

Satynandam married Sundaramma from Pillitla, Guntur district during 1930 and had four

daughters and two sons. Daaveedu, Sarah Hemalatha, Amruthavalli, Bhushanam, Rajamani

and Gouri.

 Mother’s side: Nagelli Kamalakshi (maiden name) was born in 1907 to Nagelli family from

munagodu, Guntur district, on banks of Krishna River. She was the eldest of the family of

four, two brothers and two sisters. Kamalakshi, Kotaiah, Neelamberam and Manikyam.

 Solomon got discharged from the army at the end of the Second World War in 1918 and has

to take the responsibility to look after his brother and elder sister. He got married at the age of

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nineteen in 1922 with Kamalakshi, daughter of Naagella Kotaiah and Somamma of

Munagodu village, Sattenapalli Taluk. Kamalakshi was only fifteen years at the time of

marriage and had a seven month premature baby in 1923 that unfortunately died immediately

after birth. Once again another baby girl was born prematurely in 1924 that also died at birth.

Kamalakshi even though used to work in their fields and considered to be in good health but

couldn’t contain the child birth at such young age. Even the third child (Lydia) Ludiamma

was also born premature on 25th May 1925 but survived because of the medical attention. The

Lutheran missionaries during 1920s established hospitals at Guntur, Rentachintala, Cheerala,

and Rajehmandry with qualified doctors and nurses. The hospitals with very devoted staff and

reasonable in house facilities have minimized the infantile mortality. Solomon and

Kamalakshi had four more children, John Sundara Rao (1927), Esther Lalitha (1930),

Dayaratnam (1932) and Samuel (1935).

Solomon loved working with Bicycles, cars and other minor mechanical equipment

that were available with the missionary. He more or less joined as a helper or an informal

apprentice with the driver of the missionary. The missionary at Sattenapalli used to go on

camps to villages, pitch tents, and preach the word of God and also establish or look after the

primary schools. Missionary always travelled with couple of extra hands including evangelist

or helpers, so Solomon became a member of the party paid or unpaid. He was left at the cam

while the missionary and the evangelist went in to the village to do the service. During this

course of the camps, Solomon learned the driving of the car and some car mechanism on his

own through shear observations without formal training.

The motor cars were rather rare during the period, early 20 th century. Sattenapalli

had only one car, owned by the Lutheran missionary. Bicycles were becoming popular with

Teachers, pastors and evangelists. The bicycles were imported mostly from Europe and sold

in big cities such as Guntur, the district head quarters. Some of the popular bicycle brands

are: BSA, Phillips, Armstrong, and Raleigh etc. The talus headquarters such as Sattenapalli

have also had one or two cycle selling and repair shops. The motor cycles were available in

the country but were not used by any one in Sattenapalli till around 1940. Trucks to transport

goods and Buses for travel were available at Sattenapalli. The town was also an important

railway station on Guntur-Macherla meter gauge line run by MSM railways. Later on after

independence, the route was broad gauged and connected to Hyderabad and Madras which is

now called Chennai. The railways provide reasonable employment to the unskilled men as

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gang men, and labour force. Along with also came with some amount of technology of

smithy, construction and fabrication.

Solomon loved the mechanism and became an expert in bicycle repair &

maintenance, and to some extent car or truck repair works. The story goes that one day when

the missionary was away in Madras; his daughter became sick and had to be taken to Guntur

missionary hospital. There was no trained car driver available at Sattenapalli but Solomon

volunteered to drive to Guntur to take the child to the hospital, convinced the missionary’s

wife and drove to Guntur without driving license. The lady was thankful and immediately

arranged to get the car driving license from Guntur and that is how he became as a regular

driver to the missionary till his retirement. He was considered to be intelligent driver and

gave training to many young people. His students were treated as family members, almost ate

at his house on many occasions, especially during festival days. He joined the army during

the later part of First World War and also in the Second World War. He tried to become a

truck driver in the army but couldn’t qualify as he had only small car driving license.

His favoured and long lasting successful student was Jonnakuti Yeseibu (Joseph). As

a young fellow, Joseph joined as a free helping hand to the missionary during the travels and

slowly learned the driving. Whenever the missionary was dropped at Guntur either for

meetings or for further travels to Madras, Joseph was at hand to get the driving lesions from

Guntur to Sattenapalli. Joseph after the training got the driving license and settled down as a

driver in Guntur and later he purchased a used car and run a taxi service in that city. Joseph

probably distantly related, became a close family member and participated in most of the

family celebrations. He was very grateful and helpful till the death of Solomon. Another

student, a very excited one was Pallapati Manikyam from Bandaarupalli, near Guntur.

Manikyam was the youngest brothers of Pallapati family related to the grand mother of

Solomon. Gowrie, the mother of Daaveedu and grand mother of Manikyam were sisters.

Pallapati Premaiah, Lukanandam and Manikyam were three brothers and maintained a close

relationship with Solomon and his children for three or four generations.

Solomon used to go on camps along with the missionary and return home may be

after eight or nine in the night along with his trainee. Or sometimes the trainee stopped by at

his residence in the night. It was his habit to offer the night meal to his trainee on such

occasions. Food at home was prepared just enough for the family as any leftover can’t be

saved to the next morning as there was no refrigerator at home, and in fact the refrigerator

was not available in the entire town except at the missionary bungalow. That was an imported

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one and used to work on kerosene oil and not on electricity. Even the electric power supply

was not available to the town. All the children ate food rather early by between seven and

seven thirty. The amount of food that was left after the children has eaten was just enough for

the wife and husband only. Kamalakshi ate after her husband and the guest have eaten; and

most of such occasions of the unexpected guests at night, the wife had to go to bed with a

glass of water and no food. Obviously the food was cooked for the day without any extra to

be left out for the next day so wife of the house graciously fed the guests with the food that is

available in the house rather than restarting the fire place and cook again. Fireplace for

cooking with firewood needs time to get started for cooking even a small quantity.

Solomon had an excellent record of driving car for over forty years without accident,

not even the minor scratch to the vehicle. The road traffic was of mixed type with few motor

vehicles on the streets and even on the highway but there were plenty of bullock carts, cattle,

bicycles and lot of pedestrians, most of them being rural people even on the highways.

Further the roads were only of macadam, very dusty and irregular. AS usual there was no

control on the cattle and the bullock carts but the pedestrians were more road conscience and

careful. Accident free forty years of driving on the rough highway should be considered an

excellent record.

One of the hobbies of Solomon was to help Pastors and teachers with the

maintenance of the bicycles. Most pastors of the region travelled on bicycles, used to visit the

missionary often. Most of the pastors needed help in the repair and maintenance of the

bicycles and established good rapport with Solomon. The connecting roads in and around of

Sattenapalli were more of footpaths, some were one lane cart tracks, mostly muddy and

dusty. Therefore the bicycles usually got dirty and damaged easily. Tube punctures were

common place so most people carried repair kits and air pump to pump air into the tube.

Solomon enjoyed overhauling, oiling and greasing of the bicycles of the pastors and even

teachers freely. There were some pastors who came to his house directly and left the bicycle

for overhaul during that day of stay. His wife welcomed the pastors to the home and provided

lunch to some. Simple lunch of rice and dhal was considered to be reasonable considering the

actual food cooked at home was only of Bajra or small corn; and white rice was considered

to be a luxury at Sattenapalli. There was no irrigation facility to few Taluks of Guntur district.

Sattenapalli, Palnadu, Vinakonda, Ongole and Guntur Taluks were growing dry crops only

for lack of irrigation facility during those days. Nagarjuna Sagar project brought considerable

relief to these places during late sixties by bringing Krishna river water for irrigation.

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Solomon was one of the well respected and loved elders of the community. Teachers

and other members of the town sought his company and council on variety of things. His hard

work with helping nature earned him goodwill among the professionals and elders of the

town. Even though his earnings were low but he ensured that the family is well taken care

and the friends are entertained well. He had good sense of geography of the region and good

in understanding of the mathematics at that level. An example of his sense of logic can be

seen in a simple case of numbering the birthdays. Often, parents celebrate the first birthday

after completion of first year of the birth as first birthday, but he would always suggests that

it should be called the second birthday and not first as the first one is the day of the birth.

Movement of food grains before and immediately after Second World War was

restricted to small zones, and each zone may consist of a taluk or even smaller than taluk.

Rice was either purchased from the ration shop or smuggled from the rice growing taluk. The

ration shop rice was of bad quality and even that was limited to a small quantity. People who

can afford could buy the smuggled rice at much higher price. The coarse grain that was

grown in the dry cultivation was certainly more healthy and tasty in a way when compared

with the white polished rice. The grain has outer membrane is fibrous and contains vitamin B

and some minerals that are considered to be good for health. But yet most people prefer the

white rice as it is much easier to cook and cook in different ways compared with that of any

coarse grain grown in the dry land. Jonnalu (a Telugu name, may be referred as Bajra) is

most extensively grown and eaten by most people in the dry cultivated land zone till about

1950. Similar to corn but small in size and requires special effort to remove the hard outer

skin of the grain before it can be cooked. Mechanical mills or grinders were not available to

remove the outer skin of the corn. Coarse grain was considered to be a poor man’s staple

food.

Solomon’s Family Solomon’s Family

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Solomon’s family consisted of him, his wife Kamalakshi and five children.

Ludiamma was the eldest of the family who lost one of her eye while she was still a baby.

John Sundara Rao the next in the line was about two and half years younger. Both being the

older of the children had more responsibility in sharing the household work. Both of them

worked harder in cleaning the house, bringing water and doing other chorus in the house. The

first child is a great experience for all parents; it all starts with some amount of pampering,

over protection and great expectations. As more and more children added to the family, the

love for the children increases but not distributed. Loving a child is a special abstract and real

function that can only increase but doesn’t decrease as the number increases. It is not a

quantity that has limitations of size and character but is always unbounded and will tend to

increase irrespective of sharing. Further any increase in the family stretches the boundaries

beyond the mathematical comprehension. The concept of infinity in mathematics is better

explained by the love a father or mother has towards the children. It appears a normal thing in

most homes where the eldest carries responsibility more than his or her share. They to some

extent developed more independence and made their own decisions.

All seven lived in a one room with a verandah and small open air enclosure to take

bath. A two room house was built by Daaveedu and one of the rooms was occupied by him

and the other room was taken by his son Solomon. AS the family grew, the verandah was

added to accommodate the five children. As mentioned earlier the room had mud walls and

roof while the verandah was covered with dried wild grass with bamboo mat walls on two

sides and the lower edge of the verandah had a mud wall of about a meter high. People that

lived in the neighbourhood didn’t have toilet facilities. The nearby fields or open areas were

used as open air toilets either early in the morning or in the night. Men managed even during

the day time but ladies had to settle for the darkness as a security against the public eye.

There were couple of public toilets which were rarely cleaned and maintained; rather in most

horrible stinking state which were used in emergency.

The family got used to a way of living sharing the responsibilities without being

assigned by any one. An interesting pattern got evolved in their lives based on the conditions

of living, facilities available and the surroundings. Each one developed his or her friends and

company mostly based on the age or school in which one is placed. The girl education was

free up to high school while the boys have to pay nominal tuition fee. Ludiamma and Lalitha

were admitted into the Sarabhaiah Hindu high school from class six onwards while the three

boys were allowed to complete the eighth class in the Harries Higher Elementary school

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where there was no tuition fee. Both schools were considered to be having committed

teachers and good infrastructure and in fact they were the only schools that have classes up to

eighth. All other schools in the town at that time were only up to fifth class and aided schools.

An interesting life style was developed in most houses during that period because

there was no electric power supply to the town. It was sensible to complete the cooking of the

food before dark and some people ate in the open front yard in the moon or star light. There

was one kerosene oil lamp in the house that was hung at the door frame connecting the room

and the Verandah, and provided light to the verandah and also to a part of the room.

Solomon’s ritual unassigned duty was to see that the lamp at home was cleaned; wick was

trimmed and kerosene oil filled into the lamp tank, just before the dark of everyday. He

ensured that there was light in the home on time. The children were back into the home after

the evening the play just before the darkness set in. Kamalakshi got the food ready by about

seven in the evening and all the children had their food and are ready to study.

Kamalakshi was not educated but conscious of the value of the education so she

made it a point that all the kids sit for study in the night by around seven to seven thirty

depending on the season. Assemble all of kids in the room with the lamp and she would sit at

the door and made sure none of them sneak out of the door. Usually she takes light naps as

she sits at the door as a warden to ensure no noise and no movements. She didn’t know what

the mathematics is neither she understands the English or any other subject but her control

was in keeping order and avoid arguments or fighting among the children. It was a

fascinating situation and an amazing understanding of the family. Some of the kids,

especially John Sundara Rao who has lots of friends to play has watched his mother’s

slumbering situation and sneak out of the room but was often caught by his mother even in

that semi-sleeping state. He was one who couldn’t concentrate on studies and needed some

extra coaching as he was falling behind his studies. One of the teacher’s, Miriamma came

forward to tame him and give him extra coaching in the evening. Instead of reading, he loved

to help the teacher in errands of getting milk or vegetables etc to avoid the reading. Even

though the teacher didn’t misuse his volunteered services but couldn’t succeed in getting him

interested in learning. In general the evening study was generally a good discipline and

helped the kids to study under the supervision of the illiterate mother. The kids themselves

tried hard to teach the mother some alphabets but with much success. However they

succeeded in teaching the mother to sign her name. She was kind of proud to sign when a

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money order or something that calls for signature. To start with she had to do left-hand thumb

impression for registered receipt but now she was happy to get out of such situation.

Solomon’s Children

Ludiamma

Ludiamma, the eldest daughter even though born premature but grew healthy except

for a handicap of losing one of the eyes as a baby. She was born with good eyes but during

her second year, she developed some boil in the spinal card and lost one of the eyes when the

boil erupted. Loss of one eye or going blind in one is not considered to be a handicap in the

preset times. However, it was not so during 1950s. She was very hard working, helping at

home and reasonably good in her studies. There were unkindly boys in the school who make

fun of the one eyed girl for which she got used to without complain. After the completing the

high school studies, that is 11th class, she tried to apply for secondary teacher training course

to become a teacher. It must have been the British imported rule that disqualifies a candidate

to go through the training in case of such a disability of having only one eye. According to

the law at that time people with such inherent disadvantage were disqualified to enter into

any professional courses such as engineering and medicine etc. Even a flat foot was

considered to be disqualification to enter into professional courses. The rule was very

unfriendly and hard on such youngsters during those times. Today there is a reservation for

physically or mentally challenged children at various levels of studies and also in

employment.

A Lutheran church missionary doctor at Kuglar hospital, Guntur was sympathetic

and admitted her to the nursing training even though it was not legal. Further, she wouldn’t

be eligible to get into the Government service with such handicap even after successful

completion of the training. If one with such a disability is disqualified to become a school

teacher, the question of her employment into the medical services was totally ruled out. The

missionary spirit went above the so called unfriendly law and did a natural justice. Some

private hospitals and doctors were willing to go extra mile and help such persons in hiring as

nurses.

Ludiamma successfully completed the nursing training and worked for a brief period

in the same hospital. She had to stay in the nurse’s hostel which had strict code of conduct

and limited career opportunities. So she left the hospital to work in a private nursing home.

May be it wasn’t a wise decision but she made her own choice. Her parents and even other

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members of the family were not happy about the decision but then she was bold to stand on

her own and face the wide world. There were not good and compatible arranged marriage

proposals because of her handicap and partly because of her profession. Nursing profession

was looked down when compared with the teacher or even a clerk in an office. That may be

because many were not educated to appreciate the services rendered by the nurses. Nurses

have to deal with the sick, and the sickness in most cases was looked as a not so clean

environment. She had her ups and downs which she took in sportive spirit and did reasonably

well. At a later date she got married to Kanda Swami, of her choice and lived happily. She

had three children, one boy, Sudhakar, and two girls, Vijaya and Ramana. Late when the

Government waved away the rule of discrimination against the employment, she entered into

the Government service at much lower level than she deserves and retired with small

pensioner benefits. The three children have done reasonably well got married and brought up

their own families. After her retirement, her youngest daughter was very helpful in providing

her shelter and care in the old age. She had her own health problems of the old age but her

children especially Ramana and her family were very thoughtful and loving in taking care of

her.

John Sundara Rao

John Sundara Rao, normally referred as Sundara Rao is the second child but eldest boy

in the family. Elder children as a practice are pampered to some extent but given the

responsibility of carrying some of the duties at home and the younger ones as the family

grows. Sundara Rao has grown strong and bold with the responsibilities.

Fig. 4 Solomon’s family, in 1953 wedding of John

Sundara Rao.

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An interesting life style was developed in most

houses during that period because there was no electric

power supply to the town. It was sensible to complete the

cooking of the food before dark and some people ate in the open front yard in the moon or

star light. There was one kerosene oil lamp in the house that was hung at the door frame

connecting the room and the Verandah; and provided light to the verandah and also to a part

of the room. Solomon’s ritual was to see that the lamp at home was cleaned; wick trimmed

and kerosene oil filled into the lamp tank just before the dark of everyday. He ensured that

there was light in the home on time. The children were back at home after the evening play

just before the dark. Kamalakshi got the food ready by about seven in the evening and all the

children eat and were ready to study before seven thirty in the night.

Kamalakshi had no education but conscious of its value so she made it a point that

all the kids sit for study in the night by around seven thirty depending on the season.

Assemble all of kids in the room with the lamp and she would sit at the door and made sure

none of them sneak out of the door. Usually she takes light naps as she sat at the door to

ensure no noise and no movements. She didn’t know what the mathematics is neither she

understands the English or any other subject but her control was in keeping the order and

avoid arguments or fighting among the children. It was a fascinating situation and an amazing

understanding of the family. Some of the kids, especially John Sundara Rao who had lots of

friends to play watched mother’s slumbering situation and tried to sneak out of the room but

was often caught by his mother even in that semi-sleeping state. He was one who couldn’t

concentrate on studies and needed some extra coaching as he was falling behind his studies.

One of the teacher’s, Miriamma came forward to tame him and give him extra coaching in

the evening. Instead of reading, he loved to help the teacher in errands of getting milk or

vegetables etc to avoid the reading. Even though the teacher didn’t misuse his volunteered

services but couldn’t succeed in getting him interested in learning. In general, the evening

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study had good discipline and helped the kids to study under the supervision of the illiterate

mother. The kids themselves tried hard to teach the mother some alphabets but with little

success. However they succeeded in teaching the mother to write her name. She was kind of

proud to sign when a money order or something that calls for signature. To start with she had

to do thumb impression for registered receipt but now she was happy to get out of such

situation.

Six teenagers gathered around a ferocious wild goat with long sharp horns and

challenged among themselves whether any one is capable of catching it by horns. There this

fair complexioned fellow in half pants took the risky bet for nothing and tried to catch it. It is

almost like bull fighting. The fellow went to just face it, even before he was ready, the wild

goat rammed into him piercing one of the leg calf muscle of the fellow with its sharp horn.

All the boldness of the guy smashed into agony of pain. That teen ager was John Sundara Rao

normally referred as Sundara Rao, the eldest son of Solomon. He was very sportive; dare

devil, challenging in risk from his very young age; sometimes even taking pride in such risky

habits.

He was the one who carried water from the nearby well to home from the age of

about thirteen years. The domestic water requirement of the house was about five hundred

litres per day, brought from the one well which was situated about hundred meters away from

home, and the drinking water requirement was about hundred litres. All the water supply to

the home was handled or supplied by the two eldest children, namely Ludiamma and Sundara

Rao. Sundara Rao in his exuberant style carried three pots simultaneously, one with each

hand the third one gripping with his teeth and partly supporting the pot on his chest. Each

brass pot weighs about four kilograms, and holds about twenty five liters of water. In all, he

must have carried more than eighty kilograms at a time. Often he was a show offer and leader

of the teenagers in the community.

Elder children are pampered to some extent but given the responsibility of carrying

some of the duties at home and even taking care of the younger ones as the family. Sundara

Rao has grown strong and bold with the responsibilities but neglected studies. This might

have resulted in his lack of interest in studies. Slow in studying and taking all possible

excuses such as doing odd works to avoid study. In the community Sundara Rao’s sisters and

brothers can’t hackled by any one; as he grow up he became the protector of even the parents.

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Sundara Rao discontinued his studies at eighth class and joined the army in Second

World War at very young age of about sixteen declaring higher age. He served the Army in

war and peace time, for less than ten years before he got demobilization with a meagre

pension. While he was in the army, may be about three years he used to send Rupees thirty

for month to home in his mother’s name. It was lot of He learned driving heavy vehicles in

the army so it became very helpful as he entered civil profession. He became a long distance

truck driver, driving up to Madras at the age of twenty three. He was the bread winner

supplementing the earnings of the father.

One fine morning Sundara Rao went to maternal grandmother’s home in Munagodu,

a village about forty km from Sattenapalli. Grandmother Sovamma passed away by that time

and Kotaiah, the younger brother of Rao mother was in charge of things. There Rao noticed

an active a young and pretty girl the daughter of Kotaiah. Even though the girl is about eight

years younger than him, he conveyed his desire to marry her. It was love at first sight. The

elders got together and arranged the wedding that took place during summer of 1953 at

Sattenapalli. Mariyamma was the eldest daughter of Kotaiah and Gangamma, niece of

Kamalakshi. The couple was closely related and the parents were happy about the union. By

that time Lalitha was married (1951), Dayaratnam was in 2nd year engineering and Samuel

was in high school.

Sundara Rao was selected as a driver in APSRTC, as he has wide experience, he

become the driver of long distance travel buses. The roads at that time were not only narrow

and were more mettle Macadam, so the distance between Guntur and Hyderabad was coved

in about ten hours with two shift duty drivers. He was well respected among staff of RTC and

the community members, had many close friends. Bhaskar, the first child was born in 1958,

Ravi the next one was born in 1959, Padma born in 1962, Kamalakshi born in 1964 and last

child Lalitha was born in 1966. The last girl died while she was a baby.

Even though he was feared by some for his rash decisions and anger, he was most

loving person, very helpful and who was willing to risk anything for the sake of the family

members and friends. That way he earned good name and loving kindness from one and all.

By unfortunate accident he left for the heaven abode in August 1974, leaving young wife and

small children in grief. His wife Mariyamma even though young, took the enter responsibility

of the family, got a job in APSRTC on compassionate grounds and brought up all the

children. She was diabetic and yet worked hard, saw that her four elder children were married

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and settled. The youngest daughter Kamalakshi was not married when she passed away after

retirement in 2001.

John Sundara Rao has lots strength to his credit, before listing out his strengths, an

illustrative incidence will speak of him.

As it was getting dark on one day, Solomon at the age of fifty two was walking

across the Church compound play ground and noticed a teacher who is known to be a bad

element in the community. The cheated a colleague, brother in law of Solomon; that lead to

the death. Solomon was angry with that person, but couldn’t do anything. As this fellow was

crossing his path in the open ground, Solomon made a comment that ‘they are friends who

are also cheaters and become responsible for calamities’. The teacher was much younger and

manhandled Solomon, who in turn shouted for help. Dayaratnam, the second son on vacation

from the engineering college, heard his father calling for help ran to the spot, but by that time

Solomon left the scene fearing shame before his own son, had sought shelter in one of the

nearby houses. When Dayaratnam enquired the teacher whom he used to call elder brother,

asked ‘what really happened, why my father called for, you must have done something

harmful’. The teacher flatly said nothing happened.

John Sundara Rao returned home the next from his overnight duty and came to know

of the incidence through a neighbor. He couldn’t stand the humiliation of his father and so

decided to teach a lesson to the teacher whom he also called elder brother. He got hold of two

scavengers of the public toilets, asked them to collect two mud pots of the raw sewage from

the public toilets. He took the two scavengers along with the raw sewage, and went to the

house the teacher in the night and got the raw sewage dumped on the fellow in the house

without directly hurting him, and warned not to repeat any such insults on his father or any

one. He got it done in few minutes time and taught a good lesson to the bullying fellow; who

never bothered others from this wise lesson.

There many strengths of Sundara Rao, some the notable ones are: sacrificing love

towards family and friends. He was courageous and willing to risk for the sake of justice to

the poor and needy. He counts friendship above all, everyone in around him were his friends.

He commanded great respect and love from his colleague and other staff. He was willing to

work harder than his capacity for the sake of helping others. In midlist of his various

activities and care for others, somehow he didn’t pay adequate attention to the family. His

wife was also his strength.

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Esther Lalitha

Esther Lalitha is the third child born in 1930. She is one of the prettiest girls around.

After studying up to class five at Harries Higher Elementary School, Sattenapalli, She joined

Sarabhaiah Hindu High School, completed 8th class and joined higher grade teacher’s training

school at Phirangipuram near Guntur. She couldn’t continue further education for financial

reasons and also parents wanted her to start a career at early unlike her elder sister. She

completed the teacher’s training successfully and worked for few months as a teacher, then

joined Bible training school at Mangalamandiram, next to Kuglar’s hospital in Guntur at a

meager stipend of few Rupees. As a school girl, she was good in sports and had many friends

all around her. Afterwards she has worked as a teacher in by places only couple years.

One fine morning, of May 1951, four people of a family of from nearby town

Narasaraopeta walked into Solomon’s residence and introduced themselves. They were” Mr.

Borugadda John and his wife Mrs. Manikyamma, and two elder sons Mr. Raja Rao and Mr.

Sundara Rao. It was pleasant surprise visit and they proposed the wedding proposal, my sister

Lalitha with their son named Sundara Rao. They inquired if there is another girl available

who is suitable to the elder son, Mr. Raja Rao. MY sister had a classmate in the training

school, Miss Pumba Kanthamma, whose mother works in Kuglar hospital. After the

consultation with Kanthamma in Guntur, they finalized the wedding in July of the same year.

Both weddings of Esther Lalitha and Kanthamma took place on 8th of July 1951 at

Lutheran Church at Narasaraopeta. Sundara Rao and Lalitha started as teachers in a nearby

village after the wedding. My father wanted that Mr. Sundara Rao should go into Christian

Seminary, so apparently he himself filled up the application to Lthergiri AELC seminary in

Rajahmundry. He was selected for pastor’s training and the family happily settled for the

training. She had give up teacher’s job as the pastor’s wife is available to serve the

congregation. Rev Sundara Rao served for years in various congregations including large

ones like Hyderabad parish, Sattenapalli, and Vijayawada with diligently and earned the love

and respect of the congregations. He is considered one of the blessed speakers with

thoughtful messages. He was selected for training in the USA for about six months, where he

earned love and respect from the ones where he stayed.

The couple had four daughters and two sons, namely: Mary Vijayalakshmi,

Geetanjeli, Soraja, Shekeela, Ravi and Solomon Raju. Everyone was married at the right age

and had their families. Unfortunately, Mary Vijayalakshmi passed away at promising age.

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They were blessed to see and bring up all the grand children and even great grandchild. Rev

Sundara Rao is not merely a son-in-law to Solomon and Kamalakshi but a son in care. The

couple cared for both the parents after retirement of Solomon. They lived happily with their

daughter who took care of them till their demise.

Lalitha has much strength in taking care of the large family, and nursing all the

children and grandchildren, and her parents for more than twenty five years. She has always

has tender love towards all the family members. Lalitha and Sundara Rao were considered as

guide support to all the family members of Solomon. Any problem in any one of the family

of Solomon and hers, the couple were at hand to solve and strengthen the bonds.

Rev. Sundara Rao was much sought after many congregations, and parents whose

children have grown to marriageable age. He has help to arrange and perform hundreds

weddings. In some case he had performed the wedding of three successive generations. He

ministered for more than fifty five years and continues to do. Rev. Sundara Rao had great

regard and love to Solomon and treated with loving care. God blessed him with the holy spirit

to preach the word of God at thousands of congregation, prayer meetings; and many more

house prayers.

Dayaratnam

Dayaratnam is the fourth child of Solomon and a number of chapters are devoted to

his career and experiences; so only reference is made here completes.

Samuel

Samuel is the youngest of the five children of Solomon, may be pampered as he is

youngest in the family. He also studied in the Harries Higher Elementary School and then the

Sarabhaiah Hindu High School at Sattenapalli. He studied up to eleventh class and joined

technical training Institute. He was very active in sports and extracurricular activities, so he

became the school peoples’ leader when he was at eleventh class. It shows his leadership

qualities. After the training, he joined as a mechanic at Department of Geophysics, Andhra

University Waltair. He is an excellent mechanic and had a host of friends at home town. He

married Mariyamma, who was a nurse and worked in Warangal general hospital. After few

years of work at Andhra University, he joined Regional Engineering College Warangal.

He had three children, namely Suneel, Sridhar and Sailija. The couple worked hard

in their profession and somehow seemed to have neglected the children. Both son sons joined

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some odd jabs and Sailija became a teacher. Samuel is an excellent mechanic and earned

good name among his colleagues and the College authorities.

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