|| om tat sat ||

"September 1 - Semya Paramaannamu (2018) !!

We are back to September 1st.

And our thoughts return to Semya Paramaannamu, a Kheer made of Semya.

There were certainly days when our main focus was Semya Paramannamu. But now all of us moved onto seeking the other meanings of the Semya Paramannamu, More specifically wondering about what makes for this year's Semyaparamaannamu. Those thoughts get invariably wound up with childhood thoughts and hence this years story.

It starts with my father.

That he was very hardworking is known to us in our childhood, when we were living in the quarters annexed to the Head Post office itself. That was the case during our stay in Kurnool, Kakinada, Rajahmundry and Kakinada again all in AP,India. His dedication to his duty was such that he would not come home until the last piece of work like the closing the treasury is completed for the day, which could be as late as 10PM. House being almost an annexe, one of us would run in and see what is happening and report to mother. That would happen several times before he comes home himself. The very next morning he would be in the office at 7AM to lead the office team in opening the postal bags and help in sorting, so that postmen may leave for their rounds by 9AM. Though he was so busy with work , not once did we see him angry or frustrated about his job . We never saw him angry about work that is keeping him from home. The adage -"Work is worship" seemed to be most appropriate. It seemed like doing hard work, and doing it cheerfully is normal. He was drilling the work ethic in us, not by any overt lectures but purely by his demeanor and example. Result has been that all of us believed in that and none of us shirked that during that part of our life.

With all that busy schedule they also made us realize that it is the education that must have highest priority in all our thoughts. That It is a must to be able to rise and achieve greater responsibilities. And unbelievably we were all so focussed on education in our childhood. if we were look back and see, the only reason we were so focussed was the image of our parents working hard. The joy of our parents when we were ahead in our studies, or when brother Ramudu joined AIR in Jullandhar,or hearing that brother Peddababi joined Tariff commission ,or hearing that Krishna completed an audit of McKenzies and brought a cheque back, or hearing about Subbulakkayya getting seat in Medical college,or hearing the announcement of Lakshmi getting a Govt Merit scholarship, or Chanti joining for his MSc in Andhra University, or finalizing the marriage date for Vijaya etc is only to be seen. Those were memorable moments, and all were connected with education driving up the importance of education further in our minds.

This belief in education has been the thought behind the Athato Foundation's support for education. Starting from creating two awards in MGH School in Guntur, the Athato Foundation has reached a level of being able to support 12 Kasarabada Scholars. Soon the Athato Foundation hopes to reach a level to support 15 Kasarabada Scholars. The thought of Kasarabada Scholarships with focus on education in Athato Foundation is is certainly due to the spirit of support for education seeded by them.

Helping us make the foundations of the Athato foundation, the Kasarabada Trust, stronger, this year Mrs Lakshmi Vijayraghavrao gave one lakh Rupees to support the effort to provide benches to the children's school and also support two scholarships at Gayatri Vidya Parishad Engineering College ,Vizag . Like wise Dr & Mrs Chundi Satyanarayana garu gave Rupees thirty six thousand to support two scholarships at the Gayatri Vidya Parishad Engineering College ,Vizag. The foundation is stronger because of them.

The twelve Kasarabada Scholarships and awards of this year make the Semya Paramannamu of this year that much more sweet.

||om tat sat||