II. Portraits (Then and Now)
B. Venkatesam and niece, Chinthala, 2003
In 1999, when I was doing my research, Venkatesham’s main identity was that of Malliah’s younger brother. Always laughing and good-natured, he would occasionally come with us to the field. Four years later, he was a doting uncle.
Malleswari, Chinthala, 2003
Malleswari is the oldest child of Malliah. As the first child of her generation, she was adored not only by the adults but even more so by the kids in the extended family. The other girl in the picture, wearing the blue bangles, died of an unknown illness, possibly typhoid, for which vaccines are readily available.
Boys outside my room, Thummalabailu (1999)
The space in front of my room was free of weeds and served as a sort of playground. While curious, they wouldn't enter unless I asked them to. While the daylight was still there, I would show them S.H.Prater’s “Book of Indian Mammals,” with its color illustrations of the ratel, sambar, civet, or our animal photos from the camera trap. Their presence reminded me of my early childhood years in India, fragments barely within reach of my memory, and I was struck by a sense that any one of these boys could be me, and I them.
B. Venkatesam and daughter, Thummalabailu, 2017
Venkatesham was the first to recognize me when I returned to Thummalabailu. He ran up to me enthusiastically at the bus stop, remembered my name, and told me I had taken a picture of him once. At the moment, I struggled to register all this. Later looking at the photo, he said, “I remember you taking this, but I would not have recognized the boy.” His family lives in the concrete room that was my home once and is now condemned as uninhabitable - plants had taken root in the walls and were cracking the building from within. But the man inside retained his youthful spirit, and is now an affectionate dad to his own children.
Malleswari, Chinthala, 2017
Malleswari is now the eldest of 5, and almost a second mother to her siblings while home. Mature for her age and on the quiet side, she is a 9th grade student in the Ekalavya boarding school for tribals in the nearby city of Dornala. The legend of Ekalavya is among the most compelling in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata (See "Stories")
Dasari Bayanna, son of Veeranna, Thummalabailu, 2017
(2nd from right in adjacent photo)
Chenchu men’s names are written as such to distinguish people from each other because both clan names and individual names are so common. Nicknames serve the same purpose informally. But the fortunes of Bayanna’s family are more clearly forged by the matriarch, his mother Manthamma. Having secured a relatively well-paying job in the school cooking for the youngest children, she ensured that all her children received an education. Bayanna now works as a teacher himself in Marripalem but came to Thummalabailu to accompany his mother and me to the local eye hospital.
Baby, Thummalabailu, 1999 (now deceased)