Woman, 70, spreads fragrances of AP in TS

Nalgonda: An old woman has set an example of strong bonds between the people of AP and Telangana despite the statehood movement creating ruptures in the past.

Maccha Venkateswaramma, 70, a native of Bapatla, became lonely after the demise of her husband ten years ago. Her children are married off and no longer nearby to take care of her. Unable to carry on the hard work of farm labour, she switched to be a flower vendor and soon joined others to sell flowers in Nalgonda. She travels 220 km for 4 hours to earn Rs 500 per day.

Even though fellow vendors stopped journeying to Nalgonda after the Telangana formation, Venkateswaramma has been continuing her journey to Nalgonda on alternate days for the past ten years to sell flowers for her livelihood. She boards Narayanadri train at Bapatla in the night and gets down at Nalgonda railway station at 4 am. Owing to special bonds with her regular customers, within a few hours, she completes her sale in a radius of 2 km from the station. She returns home by Janmabhoomi train which departs Nalgonda at 9 am and reaches Bapatla by 2 pm. She brings along a food carrier.

She said though she was hesitant to visit Nalgonda after the formation of Telangana after a violent movement, she soon felt people were affectionate as before and political and geographical separation failed to stain the relationship between the people of two Telugu speaking States. For the past two years, she could not come to Nalgonda due to the pandemic and felt she lost something in life. But she is happy, coming to Telangana every other day to spread fragrances of flowers from AP. She observes that both States are progressing well and both CMs doing their job, meeting expectations. She informed that she is getting a pension of Rs 2,500 per month under the old age category from AP government and added that CM Jagan's administration is good and is similar to that of his father YSR.