BHAGIRATH OF BAPATLA

BHAGIRATH OF BAPATLA

At the crack of dawn, gongs of the temples in Bapatla chimed in unison, heralding Ugadi. The grim drought conditions prevalent in most of the Madras Presidency did not deter people from celebrating the festival with traditional gaiety. They did not find anything incongruous.

For the Valluri family it was an exceptional moment. The celebration per-se of course and the momentous announcement about Mahatma Gandhi’s proposed visit to Bapatla was to have been made at a public gathering in the precincts of a rice mill they owned.

Ganga Devi cleared up the floor once Venkataramaiah had finished his brunch. She prepared all the delicacies of Guntur district. He remarked,”Karam takkuva undi (the food was not spicy enough).” She realized it was not the remonstration of an affectionate husband but the heat speaking.

Ganga Devi enquired as to when Gandhiji would arrive in Bapatla. Her husband’s face lit up. “Everyone is to assemble on Ugadi day for further directions and I have in my possession Gandhiji’s itinerary”, said he.

For several years, Ganga  Devi and her solicitous son Bhagirath used to travel by the family buggy to the beaches of Bapatla where they played with gay abandon. His favourite divertissement was to collect sea shells and then throw them into the sea. Mother and son also made efforts to remain afloat in the choppy waves of the Bay of Bengal.

Bhagirath was an exceptionally gifted child. He learnt the scriptures from Pandit Bharadwaj, the chief priest of the medieval Bhavanarayana Swami temple which was established during the Chola dynasty. Ganga Devi unfailingly accompanied her son to the temple and attentively heard the incantation by the youngster.

After school, the youngster used to work in the clinic of the amiable Dr Sarma and was soon trained to become a ‘mid-wife’. He relished this job and assisted the doctor perform surgeries, deliveries among others. He nurtured a dream to become a medico; a secret shared only with his mother. However the mother realised that Venkataramaiah was keen that the second son too joined the legal profession. Satya overwhelmingly supported the proposition more to spite his younger brother. He realised that Bhagirath was a child prodigy who could engage his mother even regarding an alien game called cricket and Ganga Devi became familiar with names   like   Bradman and Jardine.

The lady of the house, Ganga Devi once again impregnated felt extremely sapped and enervated. This was the 20th occasion. Years of pregnancies and miscarriages mutilated her body and soul. Over the years she had become emaciated and could barely carry her bones. It was a skeletal frame virtually without any flesh. But she did not possess the pluck to say an emphatic NO, when her husband desired to copulate and procreate. The pregnancies resulted in nine offspring and tragically only three survived. The couple raised Satya, Subbalakshmi, Vijayalakshmi, and Bhagirath.

It was a calamitous sight watching children perish. The smallest coffin in the world is the heaviest one was her refrain, which she shared unexpectedly with Bhagirath. Mother and son, now merely fifteen shared a preternatural bonding. She could share family secrets, whenever confronted with muddled up issues with the apple of her eye. To her Bhagirath was more of a female in the body of a male.

Bhagirath and Ganga Devi would shed copious tears and hugged each other seeking comfort and refuge in each other. They were more like friends than mother and son.

The family was once engulfed in bad times. Destiny snuffed out the joy in their lives.  A few children perished, some were still born, their daughters and daughter-in-law too suffered miscarriages. The atmosphere of the household became funereal with innumerable processions to the cremation grounds.

 Valluri Venkataramiah and his son Satya were practicing lawyers and found that their former clients were approaching competing solicitors and their income levels were fast depleting. Satya diversified by opening a coffee works, named after his wife Bhanu also known as Vadine, which was more of a misadventure.

Ganga Devi reasoned out with her husband and later on with Bhagirath too that it was the baleful eye of a soothsayer whose services were turned down by the family which were responsible for the prevailing misfortune. The Swami had once proffered to mediate between Venkataramaiah and a client.  But her husband resolutely turned down the offer. Pandit Bharadwaj concurred with Ganga Devi’s observation on careful scrutiny of Venkataramaiah’s horoscope.

Meanwhile, Bhagirath’s older sisters arrived at SATYANILAYAM for their respective confinements. They had by now procreated two sons and a daughter each. Subbalakshmi also suffered the tragedy of bearing a still born child. The mother, Bhanu and the sisters were all pregnant. This was quite common place in those times. The household appeared more like a maternity ward. And Bhagirath with his newly acquired skills acted as the ward boy and male nurse.

More than fifteen years back in those demanding times they sought the help of Pandit Bharadwaj as Venkataramaiah a man of exemplary scruples and principles would never permit the ill-gotten wealth of the Mafiosi nor any charlatan Swami enter SATYANILAYAM. On the advice of the chief priest the munificence of the Gods were invoked and innumerable Pujas were performed.

This was more of a ritualistic exercise performed by the Valluri family to bridle over misfortunes plaguing them. The ritualistic Pujas did not perform miracles thus Ramdass Pantulu Garu, the brother of Ganga  Devi suggested that the family seek the spiritual guidance of Swami Shivananda of Rishikesh  to overcome the unwelcome situation prevalent in the household. Life at SATYANILAYAM was not hunky dory and the synodic curves of peaks and valleys always seem to follow them.

Ramdas Pantulu Garu and Venkataramaiah were comrades in arms, having studied law together and shared the same political pedigree in supporting the Congress Party. Though spiritually inclined and a believer in a higher power that ruled their fates, Venkataramaiah was chary of Swamis and their ilk, following the escapade with the ‘soothsayer’.

On seeing Ganga Devi, Swamiji predicted that a boy would be born to the couple and would provide the necessary spark and incandescence in their lives. The boy was called Bhagirath as the prediction was made on the banks of the holy Ganges. Swamiji also prognosticated that the lives of Ganga Devi and her son would be coiled for inexplicable reasons…….. 

The buzzword in Bapatla was that not only did Bhagirath bring fortune to the Valluri household but had a cascading effect on some of the denizens of the town. Soon Bhagirath Rice Mills dotted the landscape of Bapatla, which provided employment to the impoverished farmers whose children were hitherto running around naked with distended stomachs. Fifteen years had now passed since the Valluri clan visited Swami Shivananda in Rishikesh.

Satyanarayana was tasked to assemble all the leading Congressmen of the district. Activists of Hindu Mahasabha and the commies were also permitted to hand over their petitions to the Mahatma. Venkataramaiah was extremely catholic in nature and realized that the British were financially bleeding after Second World War. This was the time collaboration, not confrontation and would pave the way to India’s freedom.

 Bhagirath multi-tasked from assembling Petromax lamps, running legal errands, distributing pamphlets for Congress meetings apart from pursuing his passion of medicine and acquiring knowledge of the Shastras. He was an atomic reactor with boundless energy and effortlessly executed the tasks assigned. This quality ingratiated him to his parents in particular his mother; a fact that never failed to strike a discordant note with the older siblings. They were envious   of the singular bonding between Ganga Devi and Bhagirath.

 On the day of Ugadi the flags of the Indian National Congress were fluttering atop Bhagirath Rice Mills. Bhagirath had realized, even at his young age, while he hailed from a privileged background, he had however several social responsibilities to perform. He assisted Satya to put up the festoons and the Congress flags across the rice mill. Petromax lamps provided adequate lighting for the few hundred who gathered. Bhagirath had always wished that everyone should remain together and hence were naturally secular.

 Bhagirath   served Ugadi Pachchadi (synonymous with the festival) to the gathered assembly. It had all the six tastes- sweet, sour, spice, salt, tanginess and bitter which symbolized happiness, disgust, anger, fear, surprise and sadness.

The Ugadi celebrations were an astounding success, and the efforts of Satyanarayana and Bhagirath were acknowledged by those present.

The celebratory mood dramatically turned sombre as twin tragedies struck the Valluri household. Bhagirath succumbed to multiple head injuries as the stage collapsed. And Vadine the daughter-in-law of Valluri Venkataramaiah suffered a miscarriage as she slipped in the bathroom.  

A distraught GangaDevi was inconsolable. She bemoaned her fate. A life that was blossoming forth to fullness had been cruelly crushed by the hands of destiny. The world was his oyster, but destiny had something else in store for Bhagirath.

 Why were the Gods so brutal? The smallest coffin in the world is the heaviest…..The mother wailed. This untimely loss of a youngster who was known for his zest and sparkle, sagacity and patriotism was a cruel blow, unbearable for a mother. With remarkable fortitude and indomitable courage she had borne vicissitudes earlier…… But this one she could not. Their lives were intertwined in a strange manner. He represented the spring of eternal hope to the people of Bapatla as well.

Ganga Devi wailed, ‘How could the Gods do this to me and him’. Bhagirath was my only son. Satya was the son of Mahalakshmi Devi, the first wife of Valluri Venkataramiah , who passed away after giving birth to the child .Only Bhagirath was aware about these facts and carried this secret with him……

It was late in the night, and multitudes from Guntur District were pouring in to bid adieu to Bhagirath .Ganga Devi walked to where the body lay. She seemed to have noticed the shroud covering the foot had gone slightly askew. She murmured that Bhagirath’s foot may feel the cold of the night.

It was the first thought that came to her as she woke up. He was gone. And soon, this bedroom, the house in whose eastern corner it sat, and the tiny garden outside with its gnarled old red hibiscus and the half-grown mango tree they had planted together, all those would be gone as well. It was the strangest feeling ever.

  The following morning unable to bear the grief which subsumed her   devastated Ganga Devi and she suffered a cardiac arrest and left planet earth.

 Satyanarayana , remarked,’ In  life as in  death they were inseparable,  while  my sisters and I  were mere appendages in the Valluri family.’  ‘We remained in the periphery.   Amma shared all the secrets of the family only with Bhagirath . After all I was the step son and she considered me as one. And I was no more than a pariah. She did not confide the truth of my birth with her own daughters.What was so special about Bhagirath ? Was he the same Bhagirath and was she the same Ganga the characters of Hindu mythology? They revived the hundred souls of King Sagar, have this mother and duo been reborn to resuscitate the dead children of Bapatla and VenkataramiahGaru’, he bewailed sardonically.

Venkataramaiah cleared his throat and conveyed his Ugadi greetings to those present and the ones not there too. The communists and Hindu Mahasabha activists did not participate in the event and held their meetings independently.

For the communists, Venkataramaiah was a kulak, while Hindu Mahasabha did not wish to share the dais with the muezzin of the Masjid. Bhagirath and Ganga Devi felt the cause of Swaraj was betrayed and enthusiastically proclaimed ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Inquilab Zindabad’.

Mother and son Bhagirath likened the Congress Party to the Ugadi Pachchadi, which had all the flavours of life. They virtually operated from the same mental space, their bonding cemented over the years. Ganga Devi and Bhagirath could differentiate chaff from the grain, men from conmen and materialists from mendicants with amazing alacrity.

Local leaders and the invited guests spoke and exhorted people to be present in large numbers when the Mahatma would visit Baptla after Ugadi and be prepared for sacrifices. The patriotic sloganeering drowned the sound of the dais giving way.

A stoic Venkataramaih was not given to lamenting. He accepted the triple tragedies on the day of Ugadi and merely mentioned that the Yagna will go on- the freedom struggle will proceed. Meanwhile, the Mahatma boarded the third class compartment of Bombay Mail at Madras Central station and was informed by Ramdass Pantulu about the shattering news of the events which transpired at Satyanilayam.

The bodies were yet to be consigned to flames   as Venkataramaiah was awaiting the arrival of the Mahatma. Mother and son adorned serene and beatific smiles as though they were   being canonised by some Devata.

The clairvoyant Swami Shivananda had predicted that their lives would be interwoven. And this Karma was their fate. Bhagiratha survived in their thoughts as the mills that fed others was what he wanted to happen.

 Gandhiji led the cortege to the cremation grounds along with the entire township of Bapatla . Amidst the chanting of the hymns, Valluri Venkataramiah lit the funeral pyres. The skies gave way and it began to pour. The Gods wept and gave a standing ovation to the duo.

  The meeting was held as scheduled and as a mark of respect Gandhiji unveiled the hurriedly erected statues of Bhagirath and Ganga Devi in Bhagirath Rice Mills and gave the clarion call of ‘Purna Swaraj’.

In a remote corner of the building Satya looked forlorn and was stunned at the inexplicable turn of events. He always thought that he was the eldest son, followed by the other siblings. Today he felt cheated that such an important reality of his life was never revealed to him by his parents. Once an enthusiastic participant of the freedom struggle became covetous of Bhagirath and his personal liberty overshadowed that of the country.

“Purna Swaraj?? Satya!, Amma,  Bhaghiratha” he stuttered. The irony of having lived a lie his entire lifetime in SATYANILAYAM had wrenched him away from his home and  family .He set off to confront the Mahatma………  and screamed’ Should I take to alcohol and become an apostate like your son Harilal’.  Denizens of Bapatla held him back!

Call it patriotism, dharma, a Karmic bond or anything we may wish. Bhagirath and Ganga Devi remained eternally relevant in their land.