Otherwise, it would be quite troublesome. If we don’t support each other here, how will we survive? What do you say?” he asked with a gentle smile.

“Oh, certainly! I’ll keep an eye out for you. You go ahead,” said Raju. He stood up and said, “Well, let’s meet again. This Raju is from your region. He’s a very good fellow—he’ll help you with anything you need. I have some work to attend to, so I’ll be off now.” With that, he shook my hand and left. Raju then moved into the chair he had vacated and sat down.

“So, my friend! Where are you from? When did you arrive? Tell me all about yourself—your background, your circumstances,” he said, introducing himself as being from Bhimavaram, a Telugu man, and a Kshatriya. “Now, go on—tell me about yourself,” he urged.

Without skipping a single detail, I narrated everything that had happened to me up to that point. “And your luggage—where is it?” he asked.

“I left it at the station,” I replied.

“All right then, let’s go. We’ll fetch your things and come back to my place. You can stay with me until you find your own room—don’t worry, you won’t face any trouble. You’ll be quite comfortable,” he said.

So, I set out with him to the station, collected my luggage, paid the porters the usual fee, and then arrived at Raju’s room.

I rested there comfortably for a while. At four in the evening, without my even asking, the lady of the house brought me tea and some bread, setting it all neatly on the table. After I had eaten, I sat in the room flipping through some books. Not long after, Raju returned from college.

“Well, did you have a good rest? Did you have tea?” he asked.

“Oh yes, everything’s taken care of. I feel so at ease here,” I replied.

Raju tossed his books aside and went to the washroom to freshen up. By the time he came back, the lady of the house had brought tea and snacks for both of us again. “I don’t want anything,” I said.

That was when he taught me my very first lesson here: “In this country, whenever anyone...

Even if you don’t want it, you mustn’t refuse at least a cup of tea. In our country, just as you’re offered water to wash your feet and cool drinking water as soon as you enter a house, here in this country, at all times—whether in hardship or in comfort—they first offer you tea. You mustn’t refuse it,” said Raju.

After we had our tea, Raju asked me to narrate my story in detail. “So, where exactly are you from?” he asked. I replied, “Mogalturru.”

“What! Mogalturru! That’s quite close to where I’m from. We have many relatives in those villages. Our ancestral home is actually in Poduru,” he said.

After that, I explained my situation in detail, and he listened attentively. I requested him to help me find