The journey of life
Life is challenging many a times. The most
disaster was my father's untimely death. I lost him in October 1967. He hanged
on the ninth day of mahanavami. It was midnight when he left for his field and
hanged himself from a tree. The other problem being mother's illness. She was a
TB patient. I was a high school boy. I was innocent student Studying in ninth
standard. One sister who married during father's life time was living at her in-laws’
home. My mother was too weak to work. My grandmother was now the head of our
ruined family. Uncle Nagappa, my father's younger brother and aunt Nagamma and
their children were other dependents of our common undivided family system. By
the time I joined to tenth standard, I was asked to get married. I was hardly
eighteen years old. It was mother's desire to support our family. Though I
refused this idea, they forced me to marry in the summer, after my SSLC
examination. Now my uncle and aunt were living separately with their children.
I was ambitious to join collage to study for my degree. Mother did not agree on
this issue as the financial situation was almost nil. I did so and dared to
join collage at district headquarter Bidar. I was penniless, yet desired to
continue my studies. It was planned that my wife be with her parents during
this four years’ period. She was from a well to do family. We remained married
bachelors until this four years’ period.
I
joined for science course at BVB college. I became roommate of my brother-in-law
Shri Gundappa, who was a B.A. final student. It was very difficult to make the
both ends meet. Financial problem was the immediate thing to be attended. However,
I sold a gold ring which was offered in my marriage in order to join the
science collage. There was no money to purchase books. The second term fee was
arranged by Mr. Gundappa. He was employed in a sugar factory as office
assistant on temporary basis. I am thankful to him.
The financial problem immediately erupted no sooner than my father
expired. All the cattle were sold. Nothing was available as a reserve. I had to
face many humiliations in order to arrange a small amount of money for my SSLC
examination fee. But I got first class grade in SSLC. My science teacher
advised me to join for a science course. Mathematics impressed me very much. In
seventh board examination, I could score 90% marks in mathematics. In my degree
also I was a maths student. I could not understand basic chemistry principles.
There was akaal[famine] in 1972. No rains for
continuous two years. Some-how, the life was going. I was given
freeship(scholarship) on my economic and family conditions and the fees that I
paid as tuition fee was refunded to me by the collage administration. I used
this money to join for first year of three years B Sc. Course. During the year
1971-72 a loan scholarship was awarded by Karnataka state government for my
B.Sc. Degree Course. Now the things were somewhat better, as I could purchase
some medicines for my mother apart from managing my financial needs. I emerged
as a science graduate in 1973. That changed the story for better life.
However, there were problems with in-laws. My mother tried to call my
wife to our village on some special occasions like festivals, but they
[in-laws] did not send her to our village. They insulted my grandmother and
others who went to get my wife to our village. Mother's illness was the reason
that they did not send my wife, fearing the communicable disease. This upset
the very purpose of my early marriage. Mothers expectations were upside down.
She was helpless widow suffering very badly. She was simply weeping in need of
support.
My father in law was a money lender and his
sole aim was to earn more money. He was hard worker too. He refused to assist
me for my college admission fee. He never supported me though he knew that I
was orphaned due my father's death. It was an open secret that he was a greedy
fellow. Expectation from his side was almost zero. When I was struggling for
minimum need like food and shelter, they[the in-laws] were planning to purchase
land property. They could have shone some mercy on their son-in-law. But I did
not appear to them. It was a kind of cheating. My mother in law was unhappy
over this marriage due to our poverty and ill health of my mother. She insulted
anybody who went to her home to take my wife to my village. My mother was upset
by this unfriendly treatment of in-laws.
However, the government scholarships helped
me to continue my study until I finished my degree. It was a peculiar case.
There was no money, I was penny less, yet I dared to take admission to science
collage. During akaal(famine), when there was midterm vacation, I had to travel
entirely by foot up to my village with my belongings on my head, all alone from
Bidar to Hochaknalli. I was penny-less student. I could not afford a travel on
a bus. It was about 40 kilometers’ journey. I started well in the morning and
reached my native by evening, crossing Karanja river near Aurad village.
Through all these four years I used to cook my food at rented house at Bidar.
Sometimes
I used to think, if my father lived, it would be different world for me! We
lost him, as someone from our village cheated him in a land purchase case. He
lost all his earned money in this land deal and the land was not registered in
his name. The story goes like this. Our family members decided to purchase a
piece of land. The relewent money was paid to the concerned person in
instalments over a period of two years. The document to this effect was written
by the land seller himself. There was no witness for the payment made. The land
seller and my father were of similar age group. They believed each other. The
party concerned gave the physical ownership of the land to my father. And we
started cultivating the new land. The registration work was pending for want of
additional money needed to be spent for registration. Because of the problems
of our house hold, the days passed for more than two years. By this time the
land rates escalated and increased considerably, almost to double the sale
value. Some of the vicious people guided the land seller to take this
opportunity to cheat my father. The seller Mr. Kallappa Koli deliberately
transferred the land in the name of his miner son secretly. My father was not
aware of these developments. Over the days, the matter leaked and my father
went to tahsildar's office to get confirmation of this illegal transfer of his
land to a third person that too a miner. Now he[father] was helpless. He could
not plead before anybody, as there was no witnessed document. The seller
deliberately transferred the rights in the name of his miner son. That way he
lost all the earned money in this effort to earn a piece of land. A poor potter
was heartbroken. Now he was speechless and worried and there was nobody to
solace him. He was weeping before his friends. He was not sleeping during night
hours. He started behaving like a mad person. And thus, he decided to end his
life making us orphans for none of our fault. The hard working and able, 40
years old person, my father sacrificed his life for none of his fault. He was
mentally humiliated. And we were orphaned. Cheating is very dangerous social
evil that exists in the society. These "black-fellows" the cheaters exist in all
areas. One must keep vigilant to escape of such cheaters. After we lost him[father],
the concerned land was transferred in my name through the collective efforts of
village elders.
My
village Hochaknalli is near Mannaekhelli. It is about ten kilometers away from
Mannaekhelli. Prior to 1964-65, there was no direct road link between Bidar and
Humnabad. Also, there was no link road between Mannaekhelli and Bidar. The only
way to Bidar was through Zahirabad. A bus used to run to Bidar from Humnabad
via Zahirabad. Once my father sent me to Bidar on this route to get medicines
to my mother. There was half ticket for my bus journey as I was miner at that
time. I was very comfortable when my father was alive. I was the only son to
him. I used to assist him in his day to day pottery work and marketing of pots
in neighboring villages. In summer days, we used to go for weekly market-place
at Hallikhed to sell our earthen pots. There was lot of demand for earthen pots
in summer season.
Paramma was my little sister. She was very lovely. We both used to ply
and quarrel. I used to tease her deliberately. But by the time she was nine
years old, we lost her due to jaundice. We took her to Zahirabad hospital, but
it was too late and she expired. She was buried at Zahirabad itself. My
mother's elder sister used to live at Zahirabad. Man, proposes, god disposes.
The freedom came to us in
september1948. Razakers looted our home. My mother was just newly married and
she was in our home alone when these local so called razakers entered our home
and one of them asked my mother to get out of the home. She went into backyard
weeping. The razakers looted two hundred silver coins from our residence. My grandmother
Narasamma returned in the evening from her farm work to see her home looted and
she was heartbroken. She lost all her legitimely earned wealth. My mother
informed me about this incident when I was a school boy.
See
the plight of a poor potter family being destroyed deliberately by the people
in power, the nizams of Hyderabad, and their atrocity against local Hindu
population. This part of Karnataka was at its best when the Basavanna of Kaylan
propagated the method of dharma. But alas! The looters destroyed the very
existence of Dharma. From 1300 to 1948 the local people were under the
suppression of these outsiders. The poor were the victims of these atrocities.
These outsiders became lords in almost all villages of this area, suppressing
the mejority population of their local culture. It is said "power corrupts
and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
human history has many illustrations of greed and lust and intolerance.
The people were deprived of their way of life. Foreign culture was imposed
deliberately. We were treated as slaves in our own land. Might is right was the
formula they used against innocent peasants. The rights of property were with
the local Kulkarni, and Patels. They manipulated them deliberately to
accumulate in their names. And that was anarchy.
