( already published in an in-house magazine)
This is a real life event narrated in
the form of a story.
Padma, as you all know, was born into a middle class
family. She grew up listening to stories of how Rajah Rammohun Roy braved the
society of his time to bring in the Sati Abolition Legislation, how
Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu
conducted widow remarriage, braving ostracism
from his fellow castemen, how Sir Raghupati Venkataratnam Naidu brought about a transformation in the
Devadasi community, so on and so forth.
It was her grandpa, Sitaram, and her
aunt, Lakshmi, who were her story-tellers. After relating the anecdote, they
would add, ‘See, how courageous he was?’, or ‘One should stick to ideals like
that’.
‘What are these ideals, grandpa?’ Padma would ask. Sitaram’s definition was
‘Ideals are beliefs in situations which are desirable, but not easily
attainable’.
