Mother Seshayamma…

Mother Dharanipragada Seshayamma

(1 June 1924 – 7 May 2011)

When I first met her in their home in Patel Nagar, Bapatla… Mother Seshayamma… appeared to me as a symbol of kindness and dignity …her second son Prof. Varada Raju happens to be one of my most intimate friends…and we belong to different engineering streams…used to discuss literature and music whenever we met on our Bapatla Engineering College campus…in addition to our academic trivia...

I used to call on their Patel Nagar home several times in late 1980s and early 1990s. She used to sit in the open verandah of their big home in a cane chair going through the pages of the English newspaper The Hindu—reading through her spectacles. She looked frail but sprightly at her advanced age. She smiled at me when I entered the drawing hall and asked me to be seated. She told me that my friend went out on an errand and would be back in fifteen minutes. “You may get bored, why don’t you read today’s paper”, she said and offered a portion of The Hindu to keep me occupied. I found her to be a lady of great tenacity, sharp wit, and boundless wisdom… I was in my early forties, and until then I never saw a woman of her age reading The Hindu with such keen interest.

Later when my friend Varada Raju returned home, I could not hide my curiosity. He told me that he did not attend elementary school…he received that part of his education from Mother Seshayamma herself! I asked him an awkward question! Whether she could read English? … Oh yes ...my friend told me enthusiastically… She can speak English quite well too... Mother Seshayamma never went to any school…did not have any formal education… she learned everything from her husband…among several other things…at home…

I can clearly recall another evening during Dhanurmasam…As usual I called on their home to spend time with my friend Varada Raju… He went out and would not return home that evening…I was disappointed… Mother Seshayamma could read my mind, and asked me to be seated and made me feel at home…we discussed Thiruppaavai…the ancient Tamil hymn…she spent several years in Chennai…she could understand and speak Tamil but Thiruppaavai was written in very ancient Tamil…not within her reach…I told her that I listened to some of the discourses on Thiruppaavai by Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji…our conversation was rather desultory! I recalled the way our children spent their summer vacation that year under the leadership of a senior girl-child Sundari from Chennai…She is the daughter of Prof. Varada Raju’s elder sister… a very lively girl…my younger son Sasikanth is fond of Sundari akka!...who made their summer vacation memorable to this day…I tried to talk of Sundari to Mother Seshayamma… I could not recall the girl’s name at that instant…I was in a mess…She is a nephew of my friend; I told her…Obviously my words did not make any sense to her… “She? Nephew? Did you mean the niece of Varada Raju: Sundari?” she exclaimed! Mother Seshayamma was so perspicacious…I used the wrong gender… “Yes! …the niece of Varada Raju! Is her name Sundari?”, I corrected my English.. “Yes. Her name is Sundari, you are right!” she smiled charmingly like a little child! Later we discussed all and sundry and that was the last time I saw her in her mortal frame! The stamp of Mother Seshayamma’s smile is unique! I could find it only on the face of my dear friend Varada Raju! God does not completely erase valuable things all at once from His creation!