"Hello ...iam Madhu.. ,i shall be guiding you to the room..this way sir...you may hand that suitacase to me....Madhu was a probably in his early teens with tired but dreamy eyes .I was told that its not strange to find such young boys volunteering as helpers in this small village.It was a small but beautiful travel retreat called the Ashram...this one was named Navabharath Ashram. I had come to write an article on a local legislator who had come into news recently for making an entire coastal village self sufficient and alcohol free via micro financing and social awareness. Manjayya, that name struck a chord somewhere .What a strange name,i wondered but i was too tired that night and went to sleep quickly.
"Good morning Sir, hope you had a good sleep.I brought you breakfast.Please call out my name when you are ready and we can go out to visit the town".He sounded more enthusiastic and spirited and the night i met him.I finished my breakfast and we set out for a short stroll into the town to visit the man i had come to see.Madhu was an inquisitive lad with a lot of questions and i had all the time in world to answer them all .From what i do ,why i do and how i do the work and job i do .One question led to another and the discussion continued till we reached a modestly tiled roofed house ,typical of south Indian villages .Madhu asked me to wait and he went inside the house .In about 2 mins he emerged out with another man. It was a man probably in late 30s with short,lean,dark structure and clad in a white dhoti and a sleeved vest.
"Hello Mr.Sharma ,sorry i was not expecting you so early in the morning,how was your journey and hope you had a good sleep last night". This extremely polite and hospitable person was none other than the guy i had come to meet all the way from the US. Manjayya, was unlike anything i had imagined.I had pictured him to be a dress and behave like an Indian politician.But i did not find such thing from this guy.He asked me to wait for a while and went inside.He asked me if it was possible to talk while he would take a stroll into the town.The discussion i had with him that day left an indelible impression on me ....
Manjayya or Manjunatha Shastry , hailed from a small time country side of the Indian state of Andhra pradesh.Born into a family of a poor priest, Manjayya was the first of in a family of 3 children.It was difficult for the manjayya`s father to serve the family of 3 children and sick wife from the paltry sum he made as salary from the small temple in the village.To meet the ends manjayya`s father migrated to the city of Hyderabad.His father with no source of income to suport his family of 5 and a sick Wife ,took up a job at the local construction site as a daily wage labour.This was something very Demeaning for someone born in the high class Priest Caste. Unable to make the end meet his mother also joined the construction site earning a paltry sum.The hazardous working conditions and deplorable sanitation of the refugee camp like slum and added malnutrition had taken the toll on his already sick parents.His mother soon caught Tuberculosis and was mostly on bed for the entire time.This had made the things worse as medication was not in reach and even it were,was too costly to afford for such a poor family.His mother succumed to Tuberculosis and died soon .Manju was only 9.He left school to help his father at the construction site.His father had by now got addicted to arrack and would spend away all his money on it .Too ashamed to aks for alms as his brahmin upbringing would not let them, manju and his siblings went hungry for days.Manju continued to work at the construction site and was often not paid by the construction supervision Salim and his henchmen ,who warned him of dire consequences if he ever raised voice against them.Manju through his diligence at work soon earned a good name with the Site engineer Sandeep mukherjee.Sandeep would encourage him to take the night tutions at his make shift home near the construction site,where we used to teach to the other construction labourers.
