04. PRAMODA

                           
Year 1943


CONTENTS

Introduction (message from me).........................................................Page 1
Table of Contents..........................................................................................Page 2

Location 32-33 Jeera Compound.................................................... Page 3
Marriage Preparations..........................................................................Page 4,5
Arrival of Important Relatives...............................................................Page 6

Other Events..........................................................................................Page 6,7

Location 32-33 Jeera Compound

Karbala Maidan an open large ground at Raniganj on James street road (now M G Road) was the place for all activities.

(This does not exist now being fully constructed with commercial buildings). During winter/summer  months touring circus or a touring cinema used to come for few months  after rainy season.  In this Karbala Maidan. good number of pictures mostly Tamil were screened which extended up to 2 am. Circus mostly from Travancore Cochin State with their  artists mostly Malayalis used to run the show with a variety of animals with trained skills. As small boys we were eager to see the animals stationed there. The elephants, camels, Horses, Tigers, Lions, Chimpanzee, monkeys etc were there. In the evenings we used to go there and see them. Later in our houses we were pestering our parents to take us to the shows. Sometimes our school used to provide bonafide certificate to get concessions in the entry fee for the shows. The items of the shows used to change from fortnight to fortnight for visiting the shows often. During summers when we were sleeping on our open terrace we could hear the dialogues of the films projected.

Karbala Maidan was used by the children and even grown up from all nearby localities for playing cricket, foot ball games etc as a regular play ground.

These were some of the entertainments we had nearby to our home.

Marriage Preparations

My second sister SHARADA was coming of age and my grandmother  (GM) was eagerly started searching for a groom for her. She was anxious to get her married before puberty as was the customs prevailing at that time. After a hectic search with various contacts at her disposal could identify a groom working in British Government at Secunderabad, He was from our community was residing in Imam Bowdi near Mahboob College. The horoscopes were matched and my GM was trying to fix up the bride seeing ceremony. But the groom had referred the matter to living Grandfather (GF)  as he was brought by him after death of his mother when he was born. He was working in a watch company Gani & sons near flower bazaar in Madras (now Chennai) The groom Named Beeragutti Krishna Rao was very disciplined person will not go against the wishes of his GF.  My GM almost visited his house continuously almost daily to know the approval from his GF. His GF finally sent a letter (the only communication available at that time)  giving the approval for the marriage. A day was fixed for the bride seeing  and both  my sister and her would be husband selected each other and agreed for the marriage. Next the date for marriage was to be fixed.

The religious pundits were consulted for an auspicious suitable date for marriage. Our Family Purohit was Kolivi Hanumantha Char an authority in religious norms, rituals, procedures, functions and ceremonies was consulted. He had his own house adjacent to our house no 30 Jeera Compound. He was our Family Purohit who daily our home visits home informs my GM being the head of the family  the day's high lights the ruling star, thithi, importance of the day and forthcoming important events in our house as a reminder. He after going through the prescribed documents gave an auspicious  date in October 1943. Though it was extended period of monsoon it was agreed to as usually the monsoon period end in Hyderabad by end of September.

Preparations for marriage started in full swing. Many important provisions started coming  home. They were cleaned and stored at appropriate placed. The first thing was the purchase of Rice the main ingredient. My father  usually bring Warangal rice no 1 quality every month for us. So he preferred the same rice for marriage also. He purchased old seasoned rice 3 bags. Each bag was 120 sears . ( Sear was the unit of measurement for weight) Each sear was slightly less than a kilo. Thus there was nearly 360 kg of rice. The bags were stored after cleaning in the cellar of our house.

It is interesting to know that the cost for each bag of 120 sears was Rs 3 Osmania Sikka. Thus for Rs 9 the rice purchase was over. The present generation knows it costs Rs 50 for a kg now in 2014 (The cost of 3 bags of rice would have been Rs 18000).

Daily when I come home from school brisk activity in house was noticed some of the close relatives had arrived and were preparing many items required for the 16 day marriage celebrations( This was the custom to celebrate the marriage for 16 long days).

Many items were prepared for the marriage ceremony in advance. In the summer months  mango pickles of various types were made in adequate quantities required for the marriage. The house  was white/color washed room by room for a whole period of a fortnight. Painters were doing the job of oil painting  to the door,  windows and wooden rafters in the ceiling, whole house smelling with paint. The D day was ahead and many close relatives had started arriving. My father's cousin brother Govind Rao Patwari from Armoor near Nizamabad had arrived. He was village head Patwari for Armoor village. He commanded a great respect. The whole village respected him. He was an important man in our family, He commanded a good vocabulary with his loud and clear voice heard from  a distance. His presence in the house was a great asset. All of us loved his presence in the house.  My GMs own sister  Krishna Veni Bai who lived at Gowliguda Chaman was next to come with her children. A widow did not shaved her head as per customs prevailing was looked down by our relatives for violation of customs. She had a good command in our house next to GM. We were all  afraid of her as we were small boys me and my younger brothers.

Arrival of Important Relatives

Next in the line was my Aunt named  Ambakka arrives. She was an adopted daughter of my GM.  My GM did not have daughters. she had only two sons my uncle and my father. So she adopted Ambakka as her daughter . She had great affection towards her  adopted daughter. She was an  young widow as her husband died early . She was  clean shaven widow  her hair on head shaved off as per tradition. She was very fair and also beautiful. She had a great say in the house being a  affectionate lady to my GM. My mother had a tough time to look after these respectable and honored guests .

Other Events

The main cook had already arrived a week before there was no problem for cooking. The cooks were from Sonni village at  Nirmal adjacent to Nizamabad town. This  whole village Sonni had expert cooks mainly our type  of food  pure vegetarian. Few of these experts cooks, all males,  had come and settled down in Hyderabad for a living. We had a family cook by name RajaChar who attend all functions for cooking. Even for death anniversaries, festivals, functions etc he only comes to our house and none else. A kind hearted person expert in cooking for large gatherings. He had a single assistant who always comes with him. He commanded a great respect in all our families. We never hired no other cooks.

In our house there were large number of cooking brass vessels adequate to prepare food for 200 persons. These brass vessels Handas, Bogonas,Kadays large size plates ,serving vessels large size spoons etc were inherited from ancestors. we used to give these vessels to other relatives for functions in their houses for any large functions. A bullock cart was hired to take these vessels from our house and to bring them back.

A few days before the wedding a religious ceremony takes place to please our family Deity with a Pooja to invoke  .All our relatives attend a large scale lunch  arranged for the purpose. This commences the Marriage ceremonies. The erection of Pendals in front of the house on the existing road occupying half width of road commences. The length of the Pendal will be front width of our house. The other half width of the road was left for traffic. In those days hardly any cars were seen.

 Only very rich people had cars. Mostly people used to walk, Few cycles or some tongas ( a horse drawn cart) moving round. However the 4 wheeled hand pushed carts for hawkers were played. Cinema advertisement carts with band come only when new pictures were released. Thus occupying the half road did not result in any inconvenience to other general public. The roof of the Pendal is v shaped. it is erected with Bullies and bamboos forming a truss for the roof supported by vertical  wooden bullies.  The roof is covered with bamboo mats. The ceiling of the Pendal was lined with pure white cloth with lining of red cloth frills running all along the sides.  The vertical wooden bullies are covered with alternate color cloth mostly red and white cloth to give festive look . This Pendal was traditional for any marriage. The three sides of the Pendal were covered with bamboo mats. The sides are also lines with different color cloth. In the ends sufficient opening is left for people to enter and exit. This formed the place for the seats for  guests. It was decorated with mango leaves, flowers, electric light with different color bulbs with decorative shades giving  real festive look.

In the rear side of our house we had a road. This was used for dining. The whole road width was covered with a Shamiana (a tent) with sides covered with kanats for privacy. The traffic was diverted through the front road as rear road was used by a few people.

The tent was also decorated with mango leaves flowers and electric lights. The main cooking was done in our back yard which was open to sky. For cooking purposes it was covered with bamboo mats to protect from  the sun.

NOTE

A suggestion has been made to call these pages as CHAPTERS. I thank  the suggestion. After thinking about in depth, I thought to name them after our Hindu Calendar year names which are 60.  Hence this page 4 is named PRAMODA after naming first three pages as PRABHAVA, VIBHAVA and SHUKLA

Concept: KRISHNA RAO KHANAPUR

Graphics Support: MANU KONNUR