An honourable way of living

This photograph of my grandmother Seethamma with my father and my elder half-brothers, H.N. Ramakrishna (left) and H.N Srinivas Anand (right) and was taken around the same time. In this photograph my father is holding an image of his Guru, Bhagawan Anandagiri (Tanjore Swamigal).

The school teachers who went on a twelve-day satyagraha

This is a photograph taken in 1977 of my mother, K Jagadammal (right) with her peer and friend Jayshree Sawant (left) in Bombay. They were on a strike, outside a school compound, protesting the injustices served by the school they both taught in. My mother, K Jagadammal was born in 1949 in Kalanjoor, Pathanamthitta District, Kerala. Her parents were farmers, and she was one of five sisters and a brother. Her father later ran his own grocery shop, exactly opposite Kalanjoor Government School, that all of his children attended. My mother and her siblings all grew up to have careers as school-teachers.