Venkat Kumar 1

Prasheeth Venkat Kumar

Prof. Raymond

UWRT 1104

November 19, 2019

Siblings Fight

At the start of the semester, I interviewed my grandfather (mother’s side) to gather more

information on my mother and himself. During the interview, my grandfather (Babu Naidu)

described his journey through the ups and downs of his middle-age life and keyed in details of

my mother’s childhood. I was deeply mesmerized into the stories of his middle-age journey that I

was blind to investigate information about his childhood and his siblings.

Throughout UWRT 1104, Ms. Raymond has been prompting the students to ask the same

questions to different family members to gather more accurate information. I took on this

suggestion when I interviewed my grandmother, Shyam Balaji. I wanted to gather a different

perspective on my grandfather’s journey so I asked my grandmother a few questions. She first

exposed the childhood journey of my grandfather. She revealed that my grandfather had it tough

throughout his childhood as he was denied the opportunity of education (due to low income)

while his older brothers went to private British schools. She also mentioned that my

grandfather’s family didn’t always surround him with a positive environment. She revealed that

my grandfather’s siblings and my grandfather are still not on good terms today due to a civil

dispute of their parent’s property-inheritance, this information was shocking.

Thanks to my parents, I had a great childhood. Due to my experience with my parents, I

was completely ignorant of the fact that my grandfather might have had difficulties growing up.
 Venkat Kumar 2

When I thought back to my ancestors and their families, I only chose to see the positives and I

was blind to any negative thoughts about them. I reinterviewed my grandfather and asked him

questions about his childhood. He opened up a can of worms as he discussed the journey of his

troubled childhood. He talked about not attending college, moving out of his house at sixteen

years old, and living with a family of ten. When my grandfather talked about his family, it made

me think about what kind of people/parents my great-grandparents were. The interview with my

grandfather steered my inquiry to discover more details about my great-grandparents and their

impact on me.

Research and interviews had led to various new surprises and discoveries. Critical

reading came naturally throughout this semester. I had to comprehend and piece together various

information from different sources to form a story. I can truly see the development in my

researching skills. I am able to organize information and implement them into a writing format

which helps me further understand the lives of my ancestors, therefore, more about myself.