I am considering what it means
To have a last name of a village,
I am even thinking what that name means
And how it is related with that name
Ages back my forefathers moved to this place
And spread over around that place in all the local regions
I come from the family of Pochampally,
A village in the district Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh
The moment I think of the place I came from,
The state of Andhra Pradesh, I realize
How great the History of AP has been
It was formed as a state based on Linguistic basis
of a common language of Telugu from all the erstwhile
southern regions of India, after the sacrifice of
The great soul who starved till he reached heavens
Who was, Potti Sreeramulu, from AP.
I also think of the great civilizations
that ruled the area and the great culture
my language held, and still holds as a seat of culture
Great poets of country lore and literature
Held high positions in palaces and kingdoms
Come to my mind and appear so strong
Coming to the name Pochampally,
which I rewrote as Pochampalli,
Could mean, in my view, Pochamma +Palli
And Pochamma is Pochi plus amma
Pochi may have been a young girl or village damsel
Who may have been in love with the Lord Shiva himself
For husband, for a Hindu woman is like Lord Shiva
So they call Pati Parameshwar
I am not sure why villagers pray to the Goddess Pochamma
The lady called Pochi or Pocha
Was she a girl, taken away by force in marriage with a king?
Was she someone who gave up their life so as not to fall in the hands of another man?
Did Pochamma fight for the village against tyranny and save the people?
Did she vanish all of a sudden in a wild forest and they call the place
By her name? Was that why the place was surrounded by forests all around?
I know one person who brought credit to the village,
His name is Ramachandra Reddy,
Who donated his property to the cause of the saint
Vinoba Bhave, from Maharashtra, and earned a new name
For the village, since then: it was called Bhoodaan Pochampally
Which means Pochampally, that donated land, for the poor and downtrodden.
So I am from that place and call myself Uma Pochampalli.... Sounds different,
But the change of y to i in the end is to say I am Pochampally,
Pochampalli I am!
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