What, for instance, are blackberry beads ( Eclipse)? Rudraksha beads? And what is a fort ( Water)? Is it a locality that has come to be so called after a fort in the area or an actual fort which has become a public space? What is Chanti asking for when he asks his mother to ‘make a treat’ for him ( The Truant)? I wish the original story titles had been mentioned. Here and there I felt some phrases could have retained the original word. The translation is smooth and succeeds at conveying the feel and the spirit of the story. A volume of 21 stories cannot represent the breadth and scope of stories written over decades, so can we have more such books, please?
The few women writers featured in this book are from somewhat older times and I would have liked to see more contemporary voices as well. The Night After by Kanuparthi Varalakshmamma, one of the earliest Telugu women writers, is one of two stories that address the aftermath of retirement. Adventure by the colossus Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao (KoKu) is another such. Dada Hayat’s story The Truant is a charming story that provides the reader a much-needed breather from the rest of the emotionally charged fiction in this anthology. Not all the stories are exclusive to the concerns of the community or even expressly set in it. Despite the sorrow the story brims with, it is an uplifting story with the female protagonist ultimately finding familial support. Breeding Machine by Shaik Hussain Satyagni brings into focus the practice of talaq and the preference for male progeny, which, of course, transcends religion or race. Several writers from the Muslim community find a place in this book.
Jajula Gowri’s Signature reflects the travails involved in getting an education, not the least being the procurement of a caste certificate.Įxiled, by the celebrated Madhurantakam Rajaram, has a poor shepherd soliloquising to the Mahatma about the machinations of the upper classes – they have decided that he will be the sarpanch as the government has decreed that the post is henceforth reserved for his community. In Eclipse by Boya Jangaiah, the central character recollects how his father, appealing to be forgiven for his son’s transgression in entering the temple, was ‘accosted by apathy’. Dalit concerns and struggles find voices in other stories. Rayalaseema’s scarcity of water and its infamous faction killings are the missions for two stories by noted writers Bandi Narayanaswamy and Palagiri Viswaprasad. Eye-Opener by Chaduvula Babu is a tale of filial neglect and misjudgment while Vempalle Shareef’s The Curtain, with its focus on the purdah, ends in a thought that I found stunning in articulation and heart-rending in emotion. This book includes at least two stories that fall under this head. The plight of senior citizens is a theme that I see repeated ever so frequently in the Telugu short stories I read. Like most other stories in this collection, it’s a story that casts a sympathetic eye on all the characters and their compulsions. It’s the servants of various stripes who come to the rescue. A nawab dies as his fortunes are in shambles, and his son prepares to hand over his sisters to his debtors in lieu of the money owed. One has to inure oneself to all soul-searching if one is to subsist, and no, the horror doesn’t let up.īad Times, by Illindala Saraswati Devi, is set in 1948, when the Nizam’s territory is on the brink of joining the Indian Union. The Madiga Girl by early modern storyteller Chalam reflects on lust, prostitution, morality and exploitation, while Predators by Syed Saleem, a contemporary writer, has the reader both cringing and sympathising with the protagonist who is forced to rob unclaimed bodies to eke out an existence. There is the debate of right vs wrong and sin vs survival. The stories chosen are varied, though the themes are common enough. The Greatest Telugu Stories Ever Told brings together old greats and more unfamiliar (to me) names, spanning some eighty years. As someone who reads Telugu short stories mainly in the Sunday supplements of Telugu newspapers, reading this book served as a call for re-dedication, if you will, to read wider and rediscover authors known and new. That’s the feeling I had when I read The Greatest Telugu Stories Ever Told, a collection of 21 stories drawn from legendary and contemporary writers. As much as translations have us look at the world outside, they have the salutary effect of bringing a more familiar world closer than ever.
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