This was a brief phenomenon , lasting , at the most , for just three or four generations in South India . Still , as a memory of a small vignette of long dead social mores , its worth a note .
Imparting education , before advent of European modes of schooling , was almost similar to adopting the pupils . The boys lived with the Guru in his home , not just learning from texts , but picking up life skills as well . Western system of education brought instituitions like High Schools and Colleges and these early temples of learning were situated in Cities only . Boys from small towns and rural areas , desirous of earning college degrees , had to migrate far from their homes and families and fend for themselves in strange big towns .
Choultries and hostels provided shelter , but food was a major problem . Hotels were few and expensive for poor students . It was in this atmosphere that a philanthropic notion found root .
"Anna-dana" has always been regarded as a great Virtue and people were ready to help these displaced Students out of a sense of Dharma .
Each community , through the tribal grapevine , reached out to migrating students of their own kind and took up the responsibility of feeding them .
For the wealthy , who lived in Manors populated with extended families and retainers , a couple of extra mouths to feed hardly mattered and they "adopted" two or three students , wholesale , to be fed everyday. But the ordinary folk did not lag behind in contributing their mite. A system was worked out whereby one student would be fed , by turns , by different families on different days of the week , so that no one family felt the strain on resources. This system came to be called " Vaara-Anna " ( ವಾರ ಅನ್ನ ) in Kannada; "Vaara -Sappadu "( வார சாப்பாடு ) in Tamil . It worked like " If its Tuesday , it must be Thimmappa's" .
One funny offshoot of this arrangement was the appellations the boys earned. Often their names were prefixed with the name of the weekday they came to dine ( eg : Budavara Somu ) . Sometimes , even the name was omitted and a boy could end up being known as just "Sukravaram " !
Many students from impoverished backgrounds owed the bright future their college education brought them to the kindness of unrelated people who fed them on the Vaara-anna routine . Strong , long lasting bonds were forged between the donor and donee , becoming the standard fixture of nostalgia for many achievers who came up the hard way .
The Vara Anna tradition continued right upto mid 20th century , dying out totally in the early sixties
when educational institutions , with affiliated hostes , started sprouting in smaller towns too and Hotels and Cafes proliferated everywhere .
The last batch of Vara Anna beneficiaries would now be very senior citizens and may remember with fondness the strange times when they ate as guests of seven families !
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