Hyderabad: Ninety-eight year old G. Ram Reddy, better known as Telangana Ram Reddy, is the oldest living Osmanian. The seventh oldest varsity in India, which has recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, has been scouting for its “oldest” alumnus for the last few months.
Mr Ram Reddy’s eldest son Srinivas Reddy, who himself retired from a private job few years ago reached out to the university administration with details about his father’s association with the institution.
Officials have decided to shoot his visuals and capture his old photographs, which they want to include in special video being prepared for Global Alumni meet in December.
Mr Ram Reddy, who was a former MLC, lives with son Srinivas Reddy in Mansoorabad on the outskirts of the city. He is currently suffering from hearing and listening problems due to old age.
He was born in 1919 in Huzurnagar of Nalgonda district, just two years after Nizam VII Osman Ali Khan issued a firman for establishing Osmania University. He studied Int-ermediate from Warangal in 1938 and former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao was his classmate.
During the Vande Mata-ram movement of 1938, education institutions in Hyderabad state did not function properly and both Mr Reddy and the former prime minister went to Nagpur and stayed in the same building.
“We recited Vande Mataram twice every day. After normalcy was restored, I returned to Hyderabad. I was from a modest background and hence could not bear expenses at Nagpur like Mr Rao,” he said.
He then enrolled for graduation in B.Sc in Osmania University. A noted Ghazal singer at his time, P. Narayana Rao, was his senior in the university. During the Nizam rule, Mr Reddy got a government job as District Supply Officer. In 1958, however, he quit his job in protest against injustice meted out to Telangana youth in government jobs in united Andhra Pradesh. He was addressed as Telangana Ram Reddy from that time onwards. Mr Ram Reddy later contested for MLC as an independent from Nalgonda and won the election.
