I am not sure whether it was December of '80 or January of '81.
Our house was forcefully kept under darkness for quite some time. Not only ours, for all the houses in my village and nearby villages, the power line has been disconnected. Because all Farmers involved in the " vivasayikal porattam"/ Farmers protest.
APPA was one among those who lead the protests aggressively. As the leader of the Farmer's party Mr. Narayanasamy Naidu was in prison, he ordered other leaders to try to stay out in order to Carry over the protests seriously.They insisted various requests and fought. The important one was about the electricity. Those times this Uzhavar katchi/ Farmers party became a big headache for the government.Police were in continuous search for APPA and many other farmers.
The BSF / Border security force, has been deployed in my village "The Lakshmipuram" (it deserves the "the" ). I don't know why the government made that situation very serious.
I remembered the "Satti police" (because of their cup like metal helmet) standing in Lines at almost all important street corners of the village. A dozen of them were standing in front of my house and very serious about arresting my father. BUT none of the villagers were afraid about the police force
I didn't remember whether they were exactly military people or state government police. But they were called as the BSF. Many of them were holding a bamboo shield in one hand and a long bamboo stick in another. I even remember the metal cap at the edge of bamboo stick. It was strong enough to break the bones.
In one of those hot afternoons, I was standing over the steps of my house and holding the closed grill gate. One of the police personnel stopped a village person and asked for drinking water. He went to the nearby house (which was diagonally opposite to our house) and requested the lady to bring some water.
She was Natchiar akka, she and her husband was taking care of our farm. She brought water in a small vessel and gave it to the village man. He handed over it to the BSF person. She angrily snatched the vessel and pour the water in a nearby drainage. The next moment I just saw a quick swing of the police man " lathi".
It went up and came down in a fraction of the second. I saw Natchiar akka was holding her nose and sat down by folding her knees. The blood was oozing out in-between her fingers. She yelled at them and cursed them with all bad words.
Otherwise they were such a kind hearted people, but kept so much anger inside them in those hard times. Because they feared that their life was not going to be normal again.
(Thank God, those times the government didn't name them as VillageNaxals).
The police had warrant to enter into the houses and search anytime.
As I was 7 years old I remember most of the things. Those were the very insecure days without my father around. Leela athai came to stay with us as my mother was alone with three of us. She was 23 years old. Very young to handle all the hardness of life. My baby brother. He was only a few months old. Evenings and nights were the most scariest times. I used to hug my brother whenever he cried. I thought he cried because my father was not at home. I didn't Know he was too small to realise that. Amma was a strong lady. She used to cry sometimes when no one is around. Other times, she was very busy with her chores round the clock.
On one of those days, around the middle of the night all the windows and doors of front and back of the house were tapped at the same time arrogantly. We all started crying and elders jumped from the bed. Athai went and opened the door.
A dozen of policemen entered inside by nearly pushing her. Already many villagers gathered outside of the house. The police entered inside the house from veranda to start searching for my father. My mother shouted at one of the police who looks like a chief. She said, "First get out and remove your shoes before entering into my house". He was in disbelief about what he just heard from a young village lady . The other one said, " sir, we should not make it an as issue here sir. The people standing outside were very sensitive. So Please remove your shoes". He quietly removed his shoes and look at my mother for permission and entered with her nod of a head. (Later we knew that he was district head of police.)
They couldn't find my father anyway.
Our house was forcefully kept under darkness for quite some time. Not only ours, for all the houses in my village and nearby villages, the power line has been disconnected. Because all Farmers involved in the " vivasayikal porattam"/ Farmers protest.
APPA was one among those who lead the protests aggressively. As the leader of the Farmer's party Mr. Narayanasamy Naidu was in prison, he ordered other leaders to try to stay out in order to Carry over the protests seriously.They insisted various requests and fought. The important one was about the electricity. Those times this Uzhavar katchi/ Farmers party became a big headache for the government.Police were in continuous search for APPA and many other farmers.
The BSF / Border security force, has been deployed in my village "The Lakshmipuram" (it deserves the "the" ). I don't know why the government made that situation very serious.
I remembered the "Satti police" (because of their cup like metal helmet) standing in Lines at almost all important street corners of the village. A dozen of them were standing in front of my house and very serious about arresting my father. BUT none of the villagers were afraid about the police force
I didn't remember whether they were exactly military people or state government police. But they were called as the BSF. Many of them were holding a bamboo shield in one hand and a long bamboo stick in another. I even remember the metal cap at the edge of bamboo stick. It was strong enough to break the bones.
In one of those hot afternoons, I was standing over the steps of my house and holding the closed grill gate. One of the police personnel stopped a village person and asked for drinking water. He went to the nearby house (which was diagonally opposite to our house) and requested the lady to bring some water.
She was Natchiar akka, she and her husband was taking care of our farm. She brought water in a small vessel and gave it to the village man. He handed over it to the BSF person. She angrily snatched the vessel and pour the water in a nearby drainage. The next moment I just saw a quick swing of the police man " lathi".
It went up and came down in a fraction of the second. I saw Natchiar akka was holding her nose and sat down by folding her knees. The blood was oozing out in-between her fingers. She yelled at them and cursed them with all bad words.
Otherwise they were such a kind hearted people, but kept so much anger inside them in those hard times. Because they feared that their life was not going to be normal again.
(Thank God, those times the government didn't name them as VillageNaxals).
The police had warrant to enter into the houses and search anytime.
As I was 7 years old I remember most of the things. Those were the very insecure days without my father around. Leela athai came to stay with us as my mother was alone with three of us. She was 23 years old. Very young to handle all the hardness of life. My baby brother. He was only a few months old. Evenings and nights were the most scariest times. I used to hug my brother whenever he cried. I thought he cried because my father was not at home. I didn't Know he was too small to realise that. Amma was a strong lady. She used to cry sometimes when no one is around. Other times, she was very busy with her chores round the clock.
On one of those days, around the middle of the night all the windows and doors of front and back of the house were tapped at the same time arrogantly. We all started crying and elders jumped from the bed. Athai went and opened the door.
A dozen of policemen entered inside by nearly pushing her. Already many villagers gathered outside of the house. The police entered inside the house from veranda to start searching for my father. My mother shouted at one of the police who looks like a chief. She said, "First get out and remove your shoes before entering into my house". He was in disbelief about what he just heard from a young village lady . The other one said, " sir, we should not make it an as issue here sir. The people standing outside were very sensitive. So Please remove your shoes". He quietly removed his shoes and look at my mother for permission and entered with her nod of a head. (Later we knew that he was district head of police.)
They couldn't find my father anyway.
i.e. * after completing the protests within the next few days Appa and all Farmers surrendered and we're in prison. Few of their request got sanctioned.
* Natchiar akka was showing her nose scar as her bravery award for a long time.
