Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

PCC chief goes down memory lane a la Chiranjeevi

D. Srinivas

HYDERABAD: Taking cue from actor Chiranjeevi, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president D. Srinivas too went down the memory lane on Wednesday and gave a vivid description of his tough childhood and the hardships he passed through, while studying in a missionary hostel in Hyderabad.

“When I was seven years old, I was admitted into Methodist School in Hyderabad and joined a hostel run by the missionaries. It was a tough life with the hostel inmates sweeping the 15 acres of open land everyday and cleaning the toilets also. Lights used to be switched off by 10 p.m. and I used to light an oil lamp to study,” he recalled at an interaction with reporters.

Commenting on the food served in the hostel, he said: “The wheat gruel served as breakfast was miserable. I used to skip the breakfast and make a dash for the lunch where two jowari rotis and dal were served.”

He credited his teachers – Luke and Christopher – for their guidance in moulding him as a responsible person. “The discipline and decency learnt in the school made me what I am today,” he said. His brilliant academic record landed him in a lucrative job in the Reserve Bank of India, which he subsequently quit to join politics.

He said all the struggle and hardships faced by him or the actor was to come up in life. He also took a dig at Chiranjeevi and said that the post of police constable was respectable.

He said his father was an assistant labour inspector in a textile company in Mumbai, before he shifted to Nizamabad and started a beedi factory. “My mother used to roll beedis to eke out livelihood,” he added.

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