When I was young, from Ramanthapur village, one lady called Lalithamma, used to bring milk and curd to sell in a basket woven with a vine. She was always seen munching some nuts or sacks. My mother used to say she had badishey teeth, i.e., the teeth projected forward in the shape of a chisel hammer used by carpenters. When she arrives in the morning, one of us should lift down her basket from her head. Collect the milk and curd in the utensils and lift back the basket onto her head. For laundry works, another woman called Satyamma used to come frequently and collect the clothes.

For selling vegetables, another lady used to come every day in the evenings with a basket over her head. After lots of bargaining, my mother used to buy from her. Her husband died young, he had a health problem and was taken to a Hospital which is near the main road. He was given an injection and later he died. Similarly, there are many people in Ramanthapur who blame the hospital for the death of their near and dear. It was the only hospital nearby which is open all the time and had the facility to admit the patients for treatment. So people approached it frequently. They always gave by default an injection to any patient. Many people traditionally also believed that the injection medicine does more good. When patients died because of any other complications, they finally blamed the injection as the cause for the death.

A person by name Mr Tupakula Veeraiah was our neighbour. He used to repair the guns, so in his name has the prefix ‘Tupakula’ in Telugu it means guns. Many people used to visit him for getting their arms repaired. Sometimes to test the repaired guns he used to shoot the water birds in the tank. Whenever he was going to the tank with his gun, we children followed him to see. The gun which he often used was double barrel guns. The ammunition used was gun powder and steel balls (reused steel balls collected from a cycle repair shop) or Cherre-wala gun. By pressing the trigger used to generate a spark and fire the gun. The steel balls disperse in the direction of shooting as precision was more important to kill the water birds moving in groups. At least one or two birds used to get injured, and a person swims to catch them. The tamarind tree along the banks of the tank and lots of grass in the water was his favourite place. His wife died in late 40 years of age. After one year, he married a young woman and soon he died.