My Life Memoirs-19

My Life Memoirs-19

My Life, Full of Beautiful Memories

-Venigalla Komala  

36.Our Friends from several walks of life

It is going to be a longlist. It is not just ‘name dropping’ but I respect and sincerely feel that all these people are our good friends and well-wishers. They are all from different walks of life.

Narla Sulochana and  : Narla Venteshwara Rao  The famous editor of Andhra Jyothi news paper, and, author of several books. His editorials made many people buy that news paper. He liked Innaiah – his likes and dislikes were very strong  I heard. Smt. Sulochana was a great host.

Alapati Ravindranath : A handsome gentleman, lover of literature. He was the founding Editor of Misimi magazine. He was a regular tennis player, a wonderful host. Innaiah was a frequent guest at his place.

Suryadevara Sanjeevdev (Tummapudi) : He was a great thinker, writer, painter and above all, a fine person. Whenever he wrote us a letter, he used to send a small water color painting with it for our children. He was a friend of Nicholas Roerich,  – the famous painter.

Malladi Ramamurthy and Malladi Subbamma : He used to talk very interestingly. They were welcome guests at our place. Both dedicated their lives for social service. She helped many women in distress.

Justice Amancharla Gangadhara Rao was a good friend of Innaiah. He used to come and spend some time with us and we loved to listen to him.

From Osmania University : Prof. C. Lakshmanna and Dr. Mamatha, Prof. Seshadri (Public Ad), Prof. B.A.V. Sharma – Nagaratna (Political Science) Prof. N. Yadagiri Reddy (Psychology).

1. Narasimha Rao and his wife – Jyothi, he is a journalist and anallyst – of, politics, pshychology, and Social issues;  Mr. Aswini Kumar and his wife Jayanti he is an author, translator and now – editor ‘Misimi’.
2. Koteswara Rao, ACP.  K. Janardhana Rao (a businessman) Mr. D. Seshagiri Rao (a rich businessman) Dr. T.V.Krishna Rao (ENT doctor), – they are all friends of Innaiah over many years.

Dr. T. Subash Babu is our family doctor for a decade. He has taken care of our health. He studied our physical problems and treated us with special attention. Though we are his patients, he treats us like family. His careful treatment made Innaiah forget that once upon a time he suffered from asthma. His wife Dr. Aruna Sri was my student in multipupose school. My children call them – Subash uncle and Arunakka. Many a time, Dr. Subash hosted us dinners and loves to share his cooking and home with  his friends. Their daughter Usha Sri (Puppy) and grandson Rohit too are our dear ones. Even from America we seek medical advice from Dr.Subash. Such is our faith in his treatment. He affectionately calls Raju as – ‘Raja Sahib! He was one of the many people who predicted great future for Raju. I wish all of them a wonderful life and great success.

Dr. K. Ravindranath and his wife Adilakshmi (Global Hospitals) : They happened to be our neighbors in Jubilee Hills for a short period. They were very loving and treated us like family. Innaiah and myself were dinner guests at their table many a time. We love them and their children Shailaja and Dr. Prithvinath. I wish them success in all their endeavors.

Dr. K. Krishnaiah (Orthopedic Surgeon). He was my knee surgeon. He took special care of me. He was worried and felt sorry for me when I developed bone infection after surgery. He is a great friend of ours. He has two wonderful daughters,  Madhavi and Jahnavi  and– I wish them all well.

Our Rationalist friends : Mr. Ravipudi Venkatadri dedicated his life to spread Rationalism. He has over 25 books to his credit, runs ‘Hetuvadi’ magazine. Even at this ripe age he is still writing and giving speeches and is a mentor for the young generation. He lives in Chirala.

Muppalla Basavapunna Rao (Tenali). Siddharth Baksh – Dr. Vijaya Baksh (a famous writer), Ancha Bapa Rao. Mr. Chandrasekhar (Tenali) Gumma Veeranna are among our active Rationalist friends.

Prof. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad is a man of many talents, a Hindi professor, who had penned many books in Hindi and Telugu, and has been the member of Rajya Sabha. He runs a program introducing famous literary personalities of  Andhra Pradesh to  youth  as an inspiration to them. I wish him a great success.

Dukkipati Ratna Kishore and his wife – Annapurna,  A. Dileep Kumar – and his wife – Asha, Gullapalli Jayaram,and his wife, Jayaprada, Guttikonda Sivanageswara Rao and his wife – Jaya, Kosaraju Seetha Rama Rao are our young friends who are there for us for any advice and help. Bobba  Ranga Rao is also one such friend.

I have to mention specially with all my love and respect the following people who treat us like family and are ready to help us if we need anything. Tara Dutt Atluri  has become our friend through her son Ashok. She is a very clear thinking person, straight forward and has a rare business acumen. Her children kishore, Beena, Ashok, Satish are equally dear to us. They are all very loving persons and very simple in their life style though they are highly educated, very rich and successful in their lives. Like their mother,  they are always ready to extend a helping hand if need be. We are proud of their friendship. Tara does shopping for me. She is a wonderful person to make friendship with. I wish them all success in their pursuits.

Nimmagadda Subba Rao and his wife – Usha Kumari. They happened to be our next-door  neighbors and became very close to us within a short time. Usha used to send us food when we were sick, she accompanied me on my doctor visits, and do, shopping for me. Mr. Subba Rao used to drive  Usha and me, whenever we wanted to go. They cared about us as their family.

Our common interest was growing flower plants, taking immense pleasure looking at their bloom. We used to sit for a long time in the evenings talking about what we had read in books and magazines.

Even from America I request them to do certain things for us. Usha,  attends our work tirelessly. I wish best of every thing for Usha , Mr. Rao and their two successful sons,  Kiran and Sirish.

They also introduced us to their cousins in Chennai, Dr. Swarjya Lakhsmi,  Dr. Bharatha Lakshmi and her husband –  Kumar,  Suguna Bhushana Rao and his wife Leela and we have also become close friends.

My list will not be complete if I don’t mention the following.

Mr. Venigalla Venkata Ratnam is like an younger brother to me. He shouldered responsibility of getting our books printed, spending hours proof reading and getting them published in time and beautifully too. My thanks to him though the word – ‘thanks’ – doesn’t fully convey my appreciation and gratefulness.

Mr. C.Bhaskara Rao and  – Ramana are good people to know and be friends with.

Actor Manchu Mohanbabu and family, Thummala Gopala Rao and his wife  – Lalitha, Polu Satyanarayana (Satyam) are among our close friends. Satyam used to call Naveena as – Nans. And Veeramachineni Sarojini’s friendship to me is unforgettable.

Mr. K.B.K. Satyanarayana of Book Links happened to be our well- wisher and a close friend. He left us early. leaving many memories with us. We are in touch with his daughters and son Ramakrishna. Advocate N.K.Acharya is another family friend.

Our Humanist friends from Mumbai,  Justice V.M.Tarkunde, Prof. A.B.Shah, Dr. Indumati Parikh, Ms. Mani Benkara, V.B.Karnik. They attended many  of the seminars, meetings organized by Innaiah . They gave me an opportunity to get to know them closely and I appreciate their dedication to the cause of Humanism.

Our friends from politics in Andhra Pradesh state are many :-

Konijeti Rosaiah – Innaiah’s friend from his college days – served as Finance Minister and Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and is  the Governor of Tamil Nadu,and very close to us and our children.

Chanumolu Venkata Rao- had been the Agriculture Minister in A.P.government. Paladugu Venkata Rao had been a member of Legislature and Legislative Council and- served as Civil Supplies Minister in Andhra Pradesh Cabinet. My children grew up being very affectionately treated by them and that relationship continued for decades until both passed away.

Innaiah had many legislators as friends. If I start listing them all, it is going to be a chapter by itself. But I remember every one of them respectfully.

 Bhavanam Venkat Ram, who served as Education Minister and the Chief Minister of A.P., topped the list of our close friends. M. Venkaiah Naidu, now Central Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in the  B.J.P. government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is our good friend.

*****

(To be continued-)