My Mother Went Away

My Mother Went Away

My mother was 85 and was quite healthy. Of course she was very frail and weak. She never had any of the major ailments like Hypertension or sugar or kidney problem.
And she breathed her last one Thursday evening at Khammam, without any major problem.

She had her lunch, in the kitchen by squatting on the floor in the traditional way, around 1’ O clock in the afternoon. She was talking till 5 P M in the evening, was on her feet till then. She slept on a wooden cot for about half an hour and in the sleep itself struggled for breathing for about half an hour. And suddenly one moment she stopped breathing. An hour later a doctor confirmed her death.

It was an expected event. We all knew that one day she would pass away. But when the End came, it was unbearable. It was a heart rending, squeezing sorrow from the inner depths of the soul. The body, which was vibrant with Life even a few seconds before the End, was lifeless, mute and motionless, the moment Life ebbed away.

And when the body was placed in the Ice Box for preserving for the next 24 hours, it was just unbearable. Yet that was the way, it was. Life had gone away. Only the Body remained and had to be disposed off as early as possible to avoid decomposing. Yet the body had to be kept for one son to come from Hyderabad and 3 sons to come from Delhi. Her only daughter was at her bed side when she breathed her last.

She was a great persona, amongst us. She was born in 1924, on July the 27th. At Bezwada, in Krishna District of the then Madras Presidency of British India. It was a Sunday it seems and her father, an Advocate, was at home as the Courts were closed because of Sunday. He was Kondapalli Sri Ramachandra Rao, a reputed Lawyer in the Bezwada Bar of the Sub-Ordinate Courts.

She was the second amongst 4 surviving daughters of her parents. Her father was a very progressive minded intellectual, far ahead in thinking , than his peers. He educated his daughters in the Dornakal Mission School at Bezwada, as long as he lived.

Unfortunately for my mother, her father died of a failed Appendix operation in Madras General Hospital, in July 1933.Inspite of being admitted in the Second Floor, European Ward, as a very special case, (Indians or Natives as they were called were never admitted in the upper Floors) due to a strong recommendation from a Railway Doctor, one Dr. Eapen, the then DMO (Divisional Medical Officer) of Bezwada. A careless surgeon did the operation 8 days after the appendix was infected and left the Operation Theatre without closing the Operation site. He asked the apprentice surgeons assisting him, to close the opening of the stomach. They did a shoddy job. As soon as he was wheeled into his room, the stitches gave way and he bled to death in an hour’s, time.




My mother was then 9 years old and was studying in 4th Standard. Her maternal grand father who became the Guardian and care taker of the family stopped her school going and insisted that girls need no further education than 3rd or 4th Standard studies.

In the traditional way she was married away into a rich Zamindari family of Landlords when she was 13 years of age. Her husband, later my father, was 19 and was in the First year of his Graduation, B. A.

It was her good luck that my father qualified in the Hyderabad Civil Service Examination, which was considered the Indian States’ equivalent of the I C S or Indian Civil Service Exam held in London for recruiting administrators in the British India. My father was then 23 and he had passed the LL.B exam of Allahabad University,by then. My mother was 17 and mother of a son. That was me.

My father’s career started as a Sub-Collector, or Duvvam Taluqdar, as it was called in the then Hyderabad State of the Nizam. This gave my mother ample opportunity to move around in the Elite Civil Services Circles. She quickly learnt to speak Urdu,the then Court Language. She was not only an accepted wife of a Sub-Collector but also a popular Lady amongst the wives of Civil Servants (as they were called, the H C S wallahs).

In 1952 when the First General Elections were held, she contested for the Hyderabad State Legislative Assembly as an Independent. But she lost the election by a thin margin of 1127 votes, to the winning Congress Candidate, a Marwari called Lakshmi Nivas Aggarwal.

In October 1953, a terrific Bullet accident took place in our house in Nalgonda, where my father was the District Collector. A distant cousin of mine fired a loaded Revolver of my father on me and my younger brother Venkateswar, then just 9 months old. I was holding my younger brother in my arms trying to put him to sleep. His head was towards my Right Lung. His legs were towards my Left lung. When the bullet left the Revolver it pierced through my brother’s left thigh and entered my left lung just a couple of centimetres below the Heart. As the bullet passed through my brother’s thigh muscle and entered my lung it did not come out from my back. It got lodged
Just below the skin, next to the spinal chord,but stopped short of falling out. This helped me immensely as I was bleeding only from one opening in front.

After initial life saving medicines and bandaging the thigh wounds of my younger brother, and my lung wound, we were rushed to Hyderabad, Osmania General Hospital, for X- Ray of the lung and my brother’s leg and further treatment.
It was October 26, 1953. District Hospitals in those days did not have X-Ray Machines. Nor did they have expert Surgeons are Chest Specialists.

It was considered a Medical Miracle that I survived. I was discharged after 19 days in Hospital.My brother’s Thigh bone was untouched by the bullet. It just passed through the muscle. He recovered fast and started walking and running like any other healthy child, in course of time.



That was the turning point for my mother’s life. She became extremely Religious because she firmly believed that her prayers to Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati were answered and her two sons lived happily and without ant deformity. In thanks giving she donated all her Jewellery, Gold, Diamonds and all silverware in the house to the Hundi of Lord Venkateswara.

The then Executive Officer of T T D Tirupathi, Sri Chelikani Anna Rao who later became a family friend to us, suggested that all her offerings of Gold Diamonds and Silver be converted to Silver and two Silver Gangalams Large ones at that be made on Order at Kumbakonam, for use in Tirumala Temple, on every Friday for the Abhishekam of the Mula Virat Idol. My mother agreed and the Siver Gangalams made at Kumbakonam were dedicated to the Lord on one Friday in 1954 May.
They were in the Sri Vari Temple at Tirumala till recently about 2007 or so. Now we hear they have been moved to one of the other TTD Temples at Tirupati. The Silver Gangalams bore the inscription ‘Donated by Parsa Venkateswar Rao, H C S, Hyderabad Deccan, Nizam ’s Dominion”.

My mother Parsa Sarada, lived at Tirumala, from April 1994 to 2009 July, in a part Cottage , A T C 77 A, all these years. Courtesy Sri P V R K Prasad I A S, the then Special Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office.


She passed away at the age of 85, on 5th of November, 2009, at Khammam, where she had come in July 2009. From 1953 October to 2009 November she withdrew from the world totally and fixed her mind on Lord Venkateswara, every moment of her waking life.

God Granted her a very Peaceful, Painless Death. Which reinforces my Faith, that God Exists. He Listens. He Grants your wishes, provided you ask with a Pure Heart and it is a harmless wish, which does not jeopardise any other living being’s existence.

May my Mother’s Soul Rest in Peace.



Parsa Venkata Ramachander Rao.
Hyderabad. Nov.13, 2009.