LITERARY FETE: Krishna Collector Navin Mittal having a word with noted writer Mullapudi Venkata Ramana and city Mayor Tadi Sakuntala at the inaugural function of 17th Vijayawada Book Festival on Sunday. Photo: Raju. V.

VIJAYAWADA: A Telugu man buying books? How `shameful' it is, so said the irrepressible `Gireesam' of Kanyasulkam fame.

But this is not from the original work of Gurazada Appa Rao but in the satirical lectures of Gireesam by Mullapudi Venkata Ramana of the inseparable `Bapu-Ramana' duo.

But after so many years down the line, does Mullapudi Venkata Ramana hold the same view about Telugu people's preference to borrow books rather than buy them? For sure, he does not.

Inaugurating the 17th edition of the Vijayawada Book Festival here on Sunday, the writer confessed that he was ready to make amends to his views, as he had seen more and more Telugu people buying books and reading them.

The writer, who created Budugu, the `Dennis the Menace' of Telugu people, enlivened the evening with his trademark wit and sarcasm in a written speech read out by a friend.

"But Gireesam is a rigid fellow. He wouldn't so easily agree about more and more Telugu people buying books. So he would probably say books have gone up because population has gone up too," Ramana chuckled.

As he reminisced, if cinema pushed theatre to oblivion, TV drove cinema to less importance. "But there is nothing that can beat a book," he professed.

Ramana made his choice clear as far choosing between two scenarios is concerned. For him, the scene of an avid book reader holding a book in his hands and reading it intensely is much more pleasing than a Telugu girl clad in the traditional attire, with that long beautiful `jada' (a long dressed hair) designing `Rangoli' in the early hours of winter in front of her house.

That may have upset his close pal, but the writer in Ramana preferred the second option.

"If a farmer is `Annadaatha' (giver of food), a publisher is `Gnanadaatha' (giver of knowledge)," he remarked to a round of thunderous applause.

And who was the first publisher in Telugu? Who else than `Aadi Kavi' Nannayya himself, who chose to get his book published by King Raja Raja Narendra. "But Potana preferred Lord Rama to be his publisher as he did not seek the patronage of any King," Ramana remarked.

District Collector Navin Mittal, presiding over the function, said that it was no mean task to organise book festival for 17 years without any break.

He paid glowing tributes to Jagdishlal Jetly, the founder of Asian Educational Services who died recently, after whom the venue of the book festival was named. Mr. Mittal said that the late Jetly's reprint of Krishna district's manual, prepared by the British, was a useful book for all officials in the district.

Mayor Tadi Sakuntala recalled how she grew up reading Bapu-Ramana's books on Budugu. "I wish the present generation of children have the opportunity to do the same," she remarked.

Ms. Sakuntala urged Ramana to write some satire once again to enliven the literary atmosphere in Andhra Pradesh.

Vijayawada Book Festival Society president R. Ramaswamy welcomed the gathering, while secretary D. Ashok Kumar proposed vote of thanks.

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