My mother, Sharada Bhushan, daughter and eldest child of Muniswamy Naidu and Hymavathy Naidu of Chennai, traveled from south India, to Mumbai upon her marriage to Balapila Naga Bhushan. At the time of her first journey to Mumbai, she had never been to the great megapolis, did not know Hindi or Marathi, and had a smattering knowledge of English. She had studied M.A. in Telugu at the University of Madras, at Queen Marys College, and was later teaching Telugu at Stella Maris College.
She arrived at Mumbai, learnt the art of cooking food on a kerosene stove, and later using gas cylinders, did her house management for more than 15 years without a refrigerator, and for more than 20 years without a washing machine. She would wake up at 05.00 - 06.00 am everyday, take care of her needs, cook food for everyone - breakfast, lunch and dinner in one go - and leave home by 07.30 - 08.00 am to go to the Andhra Education Society High School and would return only around 7.00 pm.
She studied and learnt and mastered English, Hindi, Marathi, History and HR while at Mumbai. I studied Marathi along with her, getting the Pravin, Pravesh and Prabodh certificates in Marathi. She also completed her B.Ed and M.Ed degrees.
[To be continued...]
My mother would sometimes speak of her early days in Mumbai... of her fear in traveling alone around and about in the big big city. She said that the fear lasted about a couple of months. Later, I remember, she would take me and my sister, even as kids in KG and primary school, and we would travel through suburban trains, buses, change over at different stations and bus stands, or sometimes we would travel by train, bus, train bus etc if we would go to Borivili to meet Rosy Aunty (Nagendra Babu's elder sister).
She arrived at Mumbai, learnt the art of cooking food on a kerosene stove, and later using gas cylinders, did her house management for more than 15 years without a refrigerator, and for more than 20 years without a washing machine. She would wake up at 05.00 - 06.00 am everyday, take care of her needs, cook food for everyone - breakfast, lunch and dinner in one go - and leave home by 07.30 - 08.00 am to go to the Andhra Education Society High School and would return only around 7.00 pm.
She studied and learnt and mastered English, Hindi, Marathi, History and HR while at Mumbai. I studied Marathi along with her, getting the Pravin, Pravesh and Prabodh certificates in Marathi. She also completed her B.Ed and M.Ed degrees.
[To be continued...]
With my mother, Sharada Bhushan, sometime in 1963
My mother would sometimes speak of her early days in Mumbai... of her fear in traveling alone around and about in the big big city. She said that the fear lasted about a couple of months. Later, I remember, she would take me and my sister, even as kids in KG and primary school, and we would travel through suburban trains, buses, change over at different stations and bus stands, or sometimes we would travel by train, bus, train bus etc if we would go to Borivili to meet Rosy Aunty (Nagendra Babu's elder sister).
My parents, B. N. Bhushan and Sharada (Indumati) Bhushan, sometime in 1962
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