I have finished re-re-re reading of అతడు -ఆమె,may be one of best in telugu.The narration is superb using pure Telugu( not interposed with English words).The genesis of the book is in preface. (SRM once told and showed me that preface in"Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes" is more interesting,than the book).My description may not do full justice to the book.
When the authorUppala Lakshmana Rao was in Germany ,he followed and liked a serial featuring a tiff between a couple.It was described through their diarys .He came back to India and wrote a similar story which was printed .When shown his mother and pinnis,they literally threw it on his face.The comment was "what sort of novel is in which the great freedom struggle going on is not reflected?"That set him thinking , novel was rewritten with freedom struggle as back ground and the result is fabulous.Imagine the character of those women!!
The hero is lovable Sastry ,bar-at-పచడి, with his Machiavellian ideas.He is a pucca,hard corerightist.Heroin is Santham,a lecturer,with kind heart and is a congress activist,representing"right of middle".The episodes of their newly married life are so beautifully described.Gouri vadina said same when we were discussing it(may be20 years back) and Durga felt the same later.
The novel continues into 2nd,3rd and 4th parts.The heroins are Subha their adopted daughter who is a socialist,Lakshmi own daughter representing communists and her lover representing naxalites.The characters of Janarhanam ,a honest and upright govt civil engineer, his poor mother who earned lively hood by cooking and pouring drinking water from wells and educated him are unforgettable.His pinni who was brought up by his mother is another lively person.I wanted to put these charecters as the top best when there was discussion about top 10 charecters intiated by Krups.
Making of avakaya as instructed by Sastry .
- for andhra people avakaya is as important as the gun powder to the army.
-the mamidi kayas must be brought from vayyapuri modaliars garden only.
-they should not fall on ground while being plucked.fruits like that must be rejected(this i am implementing in our garden)
-malgova 100 for own
- for servants, varala abbailu etc pullakaya(2nd variety)300
-mukkaavakaya with garlic, ditto without garlic
-thurpu avakaya with garlic,ditto with out garlic
-thokkuu pachadi
-menthi pachadi
-magaya( tenkalu ,vepa ginjalu must be put)
3 golden rules to be followed by govt officials as told by senior to janardhanam.
1.నువ్వు పుచ్చుకో -ఒకడికి పెట్టు (you eat- let others eat)
2 కాంట్రాక్టర్ కామధేనువు మేత వెయ్యి -పాలు పిండు (contractor is a kamadhenu feed it -get milk)3.engineering లో ఎప్పుడు పదేళ్ళు వెనుకే వుండు(always be behind in subject at least by 10 years)
5 comments:
His autobiography "Bratuku Pusthakam" is equally great. But unforunately (for me) I have lost my copy. You can see the evolution of thoughts on society in the order in which the characters appear.
1. The conservatives--who want to support the British and the Zamindars, 2. The congress activists "right of centre" who want Independence and want to help the poor while retaining Govt. controls, 3.The communists who are disgusted with the corrupt governments and 4. The Naxalite symapathisers who are angry and want to cleanse the society with a gun.
That was the age when books were written on the actual, existing society and social problems and the developing inequalities in life, yet retaining a sense of humour.
The human touch and emotionalism were of paramount importance. I am disappointed at the current literary efforts which appear to me to be too highbrow and discuss or describe the problems of the elite 10% only.
The description makes me want to read the book. In fact, you should make a reading list of Telugu books for beginners like us folks in the next gen, babai.
Some prefaces really sparkle. In an earlier post, I had talked about the preface by Anthony Parel to Gandhi's Hind Swaraj.
I also remember Stephen Fry's preface to the Wodehouse Omnibus was very good "Without Wodehouse I am not sure that I would be a tenth of what I am today - whatever that may be."
If you take into consideration the factors like the age of the author,the age of the main characters,the contemporary society,the circumstances ,he was way ahead of the times.You can describe this laudable effort as extraordinary because many things he discusses then,stand good even today like the Sri Sri song PADAVOYI BHARATHIYUDA. kavi leda rachaitha darsanikudu ayithe result idi. I see some of the traits of lakshmana rao writing in kodavatiganti ,who is one of my favourite writers.Somehow i feel our generations were fortunate to read authours who were clear,precise,sincere and had something to offer to the society. i don't mean demeanig the present lot.Life was not so fast and furious then.Even shepherds used to recite jenda pi kapiraju, bava eppudu.Recently i was ( if not equally) ,quite impressed with the book TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD.The character " ame ",can we ever forget.I remember long back when we were discussing literature,this book was voted as best by whole singampalli family.Sarada was the one who started the discussion about this book that day.I yearn for more of such discussions.
Ah, the nostalgia made me go back and reread Athadu-Aame. Now that my MBA is done, I need to update my Telugu library.
Gopal Babai, I disagree a bit about your general assessment. Every generation has their great authors, only they reflect the state of that current society. Books by Sripada, Kodavatiganti, Uppala Lakshmana Rao or Raavi Sasthry became classics in later times. Likewise, I am sure there are authors in the present generation who would become legends in future.
Unfortunately, I am having limited exposure to Telugu literature, being where I am, but I was still impressed by a few newer generation books. Vendi Megham by Salim was one of the touching books I read in recent times.
The pace of the modern life in dictating the pace of this generation's books. If tatagaru were alive today, I am sure he would have bemoaned the loss of literary values from his times.
That said, I feel that, in general, the habit of book reading is falling on the wayside in the current competitive world. Recent articles I was reading in Eenadu about the growth of giant book shops and e-books suggest book reading may be coming back into mainstream.
But in a state where not being able to speak, read or write Telugu is considered a merit badge, I am depressed about the future of Telugu literature.
hi kuppi glad to see you going out doors ,re re reading books..enjoy!like we did.you had very good exposure to Telugu and English literature(may be we should remember venemma Bamma)
as you said there was Namini who wrote very good stories( it is a different thing that success has gone to his head and he thinks he is better than srisri,rachakonda).every time will find its own great people.
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