Thursday, September 30, 2010

Karanam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karanam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1978, I read an internationally popular book titled "Roots" by Alex Hailey. It delves deep into the black population of USA and their origins. According to the author, who himself a black, he probed for twelve generations to know the history. These were the people from African jungles, caught and taken to USA as slaves. The book is very interesting to know the transformation of this tribe for centuries. And what we witness today in USA is that the White House is occupied by an Afro-American - Mr. Barack Obama as its President.

At least our generation of Karanams (also called Telugu/Rao Patnaiks) belong to cross border areas of Andhra-Orissa-West Bengal. My home town is Kotabommali in Srikakulam Dist, the last / northern most adjoining Orissa State. I have this fact recorded in all my certificates, passport, etc. My birth place again is Salur in the same district. My mother grew up in Kharagpur, in West Bengal State. When my father joined the State Government (then Madras Province), he worked in Madras (now Chennai) in early fifties. Later, when the new AP state was formed in 1956, he came to Kurnool-Hyderabad to work for long years in the Medical & Health Department. I remember well that he was Secretary of the AP Sistakaranam Association in Hyderabad for long years.

I grew up in Hyderabad, since 1959 when I joined 4th standard (at the age of 7 years) in Govt High School, Malakpet. I also joined my first job in Andhra Bank, Central Office, Hyderabad in April 1971 (at eighteen and half years) and later moved all over in the State, Mumbai, Bangalore, Manipal and so on. The present generation of our community are not fully aware of our roots. They also do not seem to be interested with the kind of exposure to modern world, technology, society, life, etc. Wikipedia page (above) gives a glimpse of Karanams.

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