Lifestyle - Yellamrajus’

 BLOGS OF THE YEAR _______2026__________

05 - 07 JANUARY 2026 : BLOG ONE: 

F A M I L Y. L I F E  S T Y L E S - PART ONE - PATERNAL YELLAMRAJUS’ :________________

I have had the opportunity to witness the evolution and progress of FIVE GENERATIONS of the YELLAMRAJUS’. 

The first generation I could see and be a part of it is that of my grandfather and grandmother. My grandfather, Yellamraju Venkata Subbarao (YVS) garu was a Pleader [a lawyer, with BA degree and a qualifying attorney diploma]. He hails from TAMIRASA, a village near Gudivada Town of Krishna District, in Andhra Pradesh. He took his BA bachelor degree from the Madras Christian College, and later lawyers diploma. He settled for lawyers practice in the Town of Tenali  when the Munisif Court was established for the first time. He picked up good practice at the Tenali Bar. Was considered as a leader of the bar with tight and encouraging work. 

My first acquaintance with my grandparents was from childhood, when I was on my visits to Tenali during summer vacation, traveling from Madras along with my parents. Generally such visits lasted a month or so, and some times up to six weeks. Such visits gave the chance to know to some extent about the way they lived and managed their livelihood. 

Y. V. Subbarao garu was a very upright, successful Pleader of Tenali, with roaring practice and was considered as busy man, quite earnest as a lawyer and was popular with tight schedules. His services were sought by his clientele for court matters to the neighboring towns of Guntur, Bezawada, and Repalle, as well as when necessary. He was habituated to morning walk and used to take me along with him to his private garden that had a good number flower plants, big and small; besides fruit trees like mangoes, gooseberry, lime, citrus like naarinza, sitaful or clustered apple; and the elevated sections of the ground had kanda and turmeric. He was used to collect the pogada poolu by scaling a big and strong tree and mandaralu and other varieties for the prayers of the day. He was regularly offering prayers to Gayatri Mata, Shiva, Vishnu and Lakshmi. In the morning hours used to be in his legal office meeting the clients handling existing cases and taking up new ones, before the prayers. Invariably, keeping time, used to have lunch and leave to attend the Court. He used to have his own Single Bullock Cart with a person handling the cart and the bullock and traveling by it reach the Court on time. Physically, he was about five feet tall, somewhat lean and puny. He always wore a spotless white Dhoti, white shirt, white legal neck collar and bands; white socks and black shoes. He was used to making his own turban using a long and soft cloth to adorn the head. He had two clerks to assist him and carry the legal papers. He would carry his drinking water and some fruit for lunch recess, and wouldn’t have any drinks or food outside the house. At home also, was restricted to some food items. Was a very strict vegetarian. Was not touching onions, garlic, tomatoes, beetroot, mushrooms, white mooli. He was having only one meal, and at night he ate only one pancake made of wheat along with a smear of ghee; and share the same with the grandchildren when they are at home, ordering for a second pancake. He was taking a Naarinja citrus at night before bed time. 

The house where he was staying was palatial, accommodating the joint family. I can still recollect. The house extended from one street in the front and another at the back, with three independent houses, one cow shed with two cows and two buffalos yielding sufficient milk for the large family, and the haystack was stored above the shed. The main house faced west, the front part with a big hall. The lawyers office and juniors sat was to the left and the right extreme had the Clerks and a large storage full of cases records. Behind this office another room filled with legal books, and on either side there were rooms, the right one being his personal day bed room, and the left used to be a storage section. The legal books room was his anti room for privacy and discussion. Going further east was an open to the sky area from which on the left the staircase to the first floor led to a large terrace, and it had one big room, that used to be the night bed room, and it had sleeping swing and a double bed and storage; while the second bedroom was for guests, including sons with families on visits.

Still going east was a huge hall with a big swing (big enough to sit and sleep); and it was the family room cum congregations room, where in the afternoons a person going by the name Deekshitulu garu used to give discourses in Telugu for the benefit of the family and friends. Right extreme of this hall was another big bedroom having its own cubicle for storage. Further going east, a large kitchen was to the left, a central hall big enough to accommodate for dining about 30 to 40 at a time squatting, besides another room to the right for breakfast and coffee. There used to be another covered veranda for summertime cooking, with adjunct rooms for storage of pickles and another for milk boiling and curd and butter preparation. One could go further to an open tiled sitting area, beside which a drinking water well existed and open bath section. There is another closed family bathroom.

A second house with two floors and a very large terrace with entry to the rear street existed. Its rooms two of them at ground level used to be paddy storage, and the central was let out, while the first floor three large rooms were used as bedrooms. The third building was let out.

My grandfather had Sastrulu, Vekateswarlu, Harinarayana, and Umamaheswarlu as the four brothers and one sister, as siblings. The first brother was also a lawyer at Bezawada. I do not know much about the second, since I have not met him and passed away, and his son is Kutumbam babai, whose mother was Venkammagaru. Harinarayana garu took his BE in Civil Engineering from Guindy Engineering College, and the Mettur Dam on Kaveri was built with him as its Chief Engineer, and myself and my wife visited the Dam and were thrilled seeing his name. The youngest also went to Guindy and became Civil Overseer. Their only sister became a member of the Vuppaluri family after marriage and she was also at Bezawada and StarHome was the residence.

It

YVS had 5 sons (Subrahmanyam, Suryanarayana, Gopala KrishnaMurthy, SriRamamurthy, and BalaramaMurthy). YVS had 5 daughters (Varalakshamma, Durgamba, Bharatamma, Sundaramma and Savitramma. Of these, the second, third and fourth sons were Advocates with BA BL. So also, the first, second and third sons in law were Advocates at Bapatla, Repalle and Eluru. Thus, it was a family of lawyers.

My grandmother had her living style. Well dressed. Doing her daily pooja and prayers. Used to perform Savitri Gauri poojalu, Dasara poojalu, and Nomulu with her daughters. Whole heartedly help in performing the marriages of kith and kin of both sides. She was very regular in doing Krishna / Goda Devi poojalu. She inspired me to take it up in my middle age.

Some things I observed in the grandparents as common to both. Both of them welcomed visitors. Both were with a helpful attitude. Both go without breakfast or coffee. Both used to have lunch and immediately consumed any sweet dish and savory, if they are only made at home. Grandma used cook as necessary. However, they used to have one or two cooks, since their joint family was large.

I am happy to say that myself and my wife imbibed some of the grandparents and parent’s qualities. Both of us inherited some of those traits and habits, at least to some degree. As for instance, it is her interest, cooperation, and amicable nature that helped her adjustment with the joint family, when she joined. The said qualities allowed our knitting in the joint household. I should say we could not have accepted and continued the annual Lalitha Ammavari poojalu and prayers; maintaining the family traditions while confining to our abilities and limitations. Personally, both of us are of the view that the Goddess has been taking care of the family interests, since our grandparents and our parents kept the tradition and passed on to us to continue. All HER GRACE. Hopefully, all the members of the Yellamraju clan benefited.

To exemplify the life style of YVS, suffice it to say that he left each of his sons at least one house each, one garden land and twenty acres of wet and dry land, besides educating and settling them in life.

SUBBARAO garu is also a founder of Tenali Taluq High School. He lived a noble life full of prayers, religious beliefs, philanthropy accommodating the needy with food and education, besides feeding at the times of natural and man made disasters.

His life style excelled participating in the freedom struggle, and Vuppu satyagraha, giving the Summer Resort Land at Vadarevu on the sea coast of Bay of Bengal near Chirala.

My grandfather YVS and grandmother Sitamma garu used to take pride in meeting the requirements of the larger YELLAMRAJU family members, besides performing the marriages of all the kith and kin without any hesitation. They together passed on the tradition teaching me the rudiments and asking me to shoulder the marriage of one cousin sister and two of my own sisters, and putting me in charge of finances, loans, stores and distribution and also groceries for such occasions, and which were of immense health.

My generation, incidentally is the 3rd, and our children form the 4th, and our grandchildren are the 5th generation influencing us. Wish to stop leaving the impression gained by me stating, successive generations are better evolved and better off in all respects; although our predecessors were with lifestyles of their own in keeping with their times, and more contended and satisfied. Incidentally , ours is the third and our children form the fourth and our grandchildren are the fifth generation influencing us, leaving the impression gained by me stating that the successive generations are better rewarded and better off in all respects,  although predecessors were with lifestyles of their own in keeping with their times, more contented and satisfied. 

————————————————————————