Hyderabad, Dec. 4: She was married the year Subhas Chandra Bose was born and was a grandmother when satyagraha swept the country.

She saw dashing young men leave for World War I and never return, and lost loved ones in the 1965 conflict with Pakistan.

But it was neither war nor revolution that Gundla Sathemma wanted to talk today as she turned 126 at her village, 340 km southeast of Hyderabad.

If a long life had taught her anything, she told the media, it was this: the key to happiness is a small family.

It was, of course, not a comment on her 312 direct descendants, nor the 160 relatives who were at Tallamudanur to wish her a happy birthday. But as she glowed in their attention, Sathemma was clear about one thing: times have changed.

“Large families do not suit today’s lifestyle, urban or rural,” she said. “There isn’t enough land or water to raise big families.”

When she gave birth to eight daughters and five sons at the turn of the previous century, no one in her village in West Godavari district had heard of family planning.

As she continued to defy the ravages of the passing decades, she not only witnessed the ebb and flow of Indian history but also the birth of 82 grandchildren and 120 great-grandchildren, who went on to produce 60 children and 37 grandchildren of their own.

Asked if she had proof of her date of birth, Sathemma said: “All I know is that I was born a few days after the terrible famine of November 1880 had struck.”

The secret of her long life? “Hard work. I worked at least eight hours in the fields where we grew vegetables, flowers, coconuts, paddy and sugarcane.”

Education was not the priority those days. The stress was on physical fitness in a district that sent its young men to the army and navy by the hundreds.

The government feels Sathemma still has a lot to offer her compatriots. “We want to make her a brand ambassador for family planning,” said K. Rosaiah, the state health minister who himself turned 76 last month.