A memory called Ammachi a short story is written by Vaidehi, a Kannada writer. She was born and brought up in a traditional Brahmin big family. She grew up with many other family members and servants. She was from a well educated family from a small town. This story was originally published in Kannada (Ammacchi Yemba Nenapu) and then translated to other twelve Indian languages. The writer is not the narrator of this story. Narrator is a young girl who has spent the time with the main character Ammachi.

A memory called Ammachi is a story about a girl Ammachi. She is from a small town. She lost her father when she was six months old. Venkappayya was six years elder to her and  stayed with her and mother and started helping them. When he grows up he starts dominating over her all the time. Her mother is okay with him dominating her daughter. Mother thinks that if he wasn't there their situation would have been bad. She is proud of him. Once he rapes Ammachi but, her mother won’t say anything to him or the narrator doesn't know what happened after that as she was sent to her house just after that incident. Venkappayya has told that entire village that he is going to marry Ammachi. Ammachi has the feeling that she can even elope with a stranger but she doesn't want to marry Venkappayya. But one fine day Venkappayya marries her and take her with him to Tirupathi where he has his hotel business. Ammachi return back after some days. She tells her mother that Venkappayya hanged himself. She is happy that she died. There an expression from her that she has won in something.

The narrator is being partial while she is narrating the story. She puts Ammachi in the positive side. She likes her. She narrates Venkappayya as a bad person. Actually it depends on the narrator. If the narrator was a man and believes in patriarchy would have portrayed Ammachi as a bad woman. I think that narrator likes Ammachi because she spent more time with her and she is also interested in the way she is giving the importance for dressing up. She and Ammachi made fun of Venkappayya all the time.

After our literary circle discussion I went to the library to look for some Kannada books for Kathavana. I was checking other books also. I took a novel and started reading it. I started reading the book somewhere from the middle. It was so good to read. I didn't want to close that book. The words the author had used and the way of sentence formation was wonderful. I remember my high school days where I used to read Kannada novels entire night as we would not get time to read those books and we were not allowed to read extra books. It was very good books. I can never get those feelings for English books or translated books. It may be because Kannada is my mother tongue and I have not read as many frictions in English. When I was reading ‘a memory called Ammachi’, I didn’t get such feelings. But I liked the way the story has been narrated. The language was very simple. Some Kannada words are not translated into English. There is logic to it. If they translate it, it will lose the essence of the text, at the same time non-Kannada reader will not understand.

When I was reading this story I could relate to my life events. My brother is two years elder to me. We played together, went to school together. There was no difference between us. Everybody was calling us as twins because we used to be together always and do things together. Once he reached around 20 years, he started dominating me. He started becoming like a typical man. I could not take it. If he says something to me I would oppose him. My mother used to tell me that he is my elder brother and I should respect him. I hated it when she said so. In Ammachi’s case also whenever her mother says respect him she doesn't like to do so. I think she also might have felt the same thing. Both of the grown up together and started dominating Ammachi.

When we were discussing in our literary circle we felt that the narrator might have experienced this situation when she was a child. Ammachi may be their servant’s daughter. She might have spent more time with her. We don’t know what the age the narrator then is, but there will be at least 7-8 years of experience. It was the age where she liked getting dressed up. Throughout the story she is narrating about how Ammachi got dressed up, the blouse she got stitched etc.

Ammachi is a very bold girl. She dislikes Venkappayya. She likes to get dressed up even though others don’t like to her to be being dressed up like that. She likes to go to Shambathai’s house may be because she like her son who is studying in the city. It looks like she hanged Venkappayya up and killed him but she doesn’t feel guilty about what she has done. She is happy that he is dead. She gives importance to education and being cultured. She tells the narrator that she should go to school and get educated and cultured.

It’s a village setting. It’s a patriarchal society. Even to wear a dress which a girl likes has to approved by elders. It is a set up where children can play in their neighbors house and be with them. There was not much restriction. 

(Kamlesh: Completed. Please comment on this write. Thanks.)