Amma, 98, revisits Dharwad-2

Illustration/Uday Mohite

As some readers may know from my previous column: I took Amma, Indu Shedde, 98 years, on a memory trip to our hometown Dharwad, Karnataka, in July. It's where she grew up: After over 50 years, we visited her primary school, Kittur Chennamma Park, and Ice Factory/Ice Gate, her favourite ice cream parlour. Highlights included when I took her to Karnatak University Library, where she had worked as Assistant Librarian in the 1950s. I also arranged to have her interviewed on All India Radio (AIR), Dharwad.

Amma was interviewed twice on AIR, first in Kannada by the lovely Mala Sambrani, and again in Konkani, our mother tongue, by Chetan Naik. Amma's sister Kamala Divgi, whom we called Kanna Pachchi, had worked in AIR. "For the inauguration of the AIR Dharwad service, they had invited Bismillah Khan, Bhimsen Joshi and other artists: Joshi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Gangubai Hangal, among others, were based in and performed in Dharwad," Amma recalled. "When Bhimsen Joshi sang, he typically made faces while singing, and the children in the audience laughed so much at this, the radio transmission was suspended for two mins. Our grandmother, Aai, listening to the radio at home, wondered what happened. Having lived with kerosene lamps lifelong, electricity was a fancy new thing: they specially installed an electric pole nearby to get electricity to play the radio and hear Kanna Pachchi.

Once, Amma and Kanna Pachchi travelled to Mount Abu on holiday, and when they ran out of money, Amma coolly sold a link from her gold necklace at the jeweller's, to extend the trip, she recalled. This is extraordinary, considering that Amma grew up in a modest family with four widows, and worked in a ration shop and other jobs to support the family. Yet here she was, spending gold -- not for her marriage, or a university education to get a job--but to fund travel, that she believed was precious. Didn't your parents scold you, I asked. "I didn't tell them. It's from money I earned, so it was none of their business," she replied coolly. What a bindaas mom!

We were foodies all right: we went to Basappa Khanavali, with basic thali type food that Amma could afford as a student; had tuppada avalakki at L.E.A. Canteen; and I discovered Dharwad loves Girmit (!), a variation of bhel, with kurmura (puffed rice), chopped onions, coriander and sev, often paired with mirchi bajji, chilli fritters. I'm fascinated by the GPS trail of the word girmit, from the labourers of UP/Bihar to the snack menus of Dharwad, Karnataka. Girmit, a vernacular corruption of the English word ‘agreement,' refers to the usually exploitative contracts on which the British shipped Indian indentured labourers to work on colonial plantations like in the Caribbean, after the abolition of slavery in the 1830s. And of course, we ticked off Dharwad pedha, for which Babu Singh Thakur Pedha is famous.

I also took Amma to see the Marathi Mandal building on PB Road. Every year, Amma used to participate in plays during college, directed by Prof Dikshit Patwardhan, to raise funds for the Marathi Mandal building. She had also met Bal Gandharva during this time, and got his autograph.

Amma's life was fundamentally shaped by her boss, Prof KS Deshpande, Librarian of Karnatak University. Amma held four jobs in the 1950s before her marriage, at a time few women worked outside the home, at least in Dharwad. She was a clerk, but Prof KS Deshpande arranged for her admission to study for a Diploma in Library Science in Madras Presidency, and later gave her the job of Assistant Librarian. Equally amazingly, before she married my Papa, (the late) S Rammohan, in Bombay, at 31 years, she told Prof Deshpande to keep the job for her for one year without a salary, in case the marriage did not work out - and amazingly, he did, she says. Financial independence for women is everything. It fundamentally shaped who Amma became as a person -- and as a mother. And for that, I will always be grateful.

Meenakshi Shedde, film curator, has been working with the Toronto, Berlin and other festivals worldwide for 30 years. She has been a Cannes Film Festival Jury Member and Golden Globes International Voter, and is a journalist and critic. Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com