Freedom fighter, social reformer and noted atheist leader Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, popular as Gora, was a stickler for time, said B. Sundara Rao, a former principal and convenor of Gora Nasthika Mitra Mandali, Inkollu, in Prakasam district.
Addressing a meeting organised to mark the 114th birth anniversary of the social reformer, he recalled an incident wherein Gora visited Inkollu to address a meeting. The meeting was to begin sharp at 6 p.m. but people who came first went to a counter serving snacks and tea before finding their seats.
Gora called Rao at 6 p.m. sharp and asked him to start the meeting. Pointing to the empty chairs, the latter pleaded helplessness but Gora insisted: “You start the meeting. I am here to listen. Isn’t that enough?”
“Punctuality was his second name,” Mr. Rao recalled narrating a few other incidents to explain how the founder of Atheist Centre practised what he preached to the world.
Presiding over the meeting, former national president of Indian Medical Association G. Samaram said Gora promoted atheism as a way of life. “Gora showed the light of science and prudence to many who were steeped in superstition, leading their lives like slaves to theism,” he said.
G. Vijayam, Director of Atheist Centre, Vijayawada, recalled how Gora started his activism against superstition in 1920s. He and his wife Saraswathi Gora publicly viewed solar eclipses, as there was a superstitious belief that pregnant women should not do so. “They stayed in haunted houses to dispel the myths about such places.
Gora insisted on staying in a Dalit locality whenever he was invited to address a village. He also conducted several inter-caste and inter-religious marriages.
Viplava Kumari, who has done her doctoral thesis on Saraswathi Gora from Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, spoke at length about Gora as a freedom fighter, a social reformer and his active role in eradication of untouchability and superstition. G. Niyanta, Dr. Maru and several others were present at the meeting.
