Early Life 2

Nagam as young Nageswara Rao was called had started a magazine when he was still in school. It was a hand-written affair, for there was no support from the school to print it. Undaunted, he would take it out regularly and made sure his fellow students turned in their piece. He would ask them to write on specific topics which they obliged, having some regard in his acumen in oratorical and writing skills.
He was an avid reader of books and spent a great deal of his free time in public libraries. He was also taking at this time a keen interest in the political developments in the Hyderabad state. He would join groups that discussed politics and attended rallies organized by the political parties. He disappeared from the family home for days to attend public meetings or join private meetings among friends and like-minded people. He was known to have been quite drawn by the daily meetups organized by one Dr. Upender Rao, who invited and moderated informal debates on the political fortune of the Nizam and the future of the princely state of Hyderabad.
It was not all work, though; he was also inclined towards laughter and play. One day he went to a playground near his home as usual with his younger brother Sarma. There was a steel pole from which steel chains hung from different levels. Children would take a chain and revolve round the pole's center which would rotate and fling the chain and its holder high in the air in a circular motion. Because the chains were at different heights there was no chance of two people running into each other, for they would be set apart by some distance. However, when one of the swingers left the chain and dropped off before the pole stopped, it was likely hit the one behind due its uncontrolled motion. Nagam did just that and the chain which he let abruptly go hit the boy behind him. The boy was hurt badly on the nose; it had started to bleed. Nagam was terrified and fled from the scene for fear of a backlash from the injured boy's relatives. He never went to that playground again. Sarma Uncle recalled this incident after 70 years and laughed as he reminisced over it.