About forty years ago, many villages in rural India did not have even a single landline phone connection. The only house that had that facility in my village of Vellanguli in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district, was of our panchayat president B Venkatachalapathy. He was a Congress leader who served the public with utmost dedication. He was untainted by corruption and was known as Mr Clean among the people.
Our village was bereft of most things that made life easier. No cars. No television. If somebody became seriously ill, they had to be taken to a hospital in a nearby town that was about 8 km away.
Venkatachalapathy’s house was like a heaven in critical times. We would run to his residence and the gentleman would make a call to one of his acquaintances in the town, who, in turn, would arrange for a taxi to come to our village and take the sick person to the hospital.In case one had to convey some important message to far-away relatives, they would get a trunk call booked through the telephone in Venkatachalapathy’s house and await call connection. Sometimes we had to wait for as long as two hours for the call to get connected.
Whenever someone went to his house to make a call, the gentleman would readily oblige them and showed no reluctance.If I am right, no pregnant woman had to meet a tragic end due to unavailability of timely treatment arising out of inability to make a phone call and get a taxi from town in time. Coming to child births, which are supposed to require the help of skilled healthcare professionals, I should speak about the yeowoman service rendered by an experienced traditional midwife. Fondly called Kuppu paati (grandma), she made almost all deliveries easy.
To drive home how much she was ‘blessed’ (with lucky hands), a factual disclosure. The same old birth attendant who had assisted my mother in giving birth to me, did a fantastic role of providing care to my wife during all her four deliveries. Our family felt safe in her presence during about 60 childbirths. In return for her assistance she only asked for a simple saree and 50 ml of gingelly oil. Today, we have all the comforts that were unthinkable during those days. However, everyone was content back then and none in my village complained about the absence of the luxuries of those days.
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