The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Conquering Queen’s language

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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Conquering Queen’s language

M.L. Melly Maitreyi

Hema Macherla of Warangal, settled in UK, bags ‘Reading Hero’ award

Hema Macherla mastered the language with her grit and determination and is winning laurels
She bagged second prize for ‘Big Red Read’ Book of the Year 2009

going places: Hema Macherla seen with Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at 10 Downing Street, London, after receiving the ‘Reading Hero’ award.

HYDERABAD: She is a simple comely housewife with a rural background who left for foreign shores to begin her married life with her physician husband in England three decades ago.

If she was a typical immigrant woman of her ilk, faced with the dilemma of living in a alien culture and no knowledge of Queen’s language, Hema Macherla has come a long way indeed.

Today she stands tall emerging not only as an author in a language which she mastered with her grit and determination but winning laurels for her very first English novel ‘Breeze from the River Manjeera’.

While the book capturing troubled lives of many women who go abroad as young brides only to experience the shabby treatment meted out to them in their marital lives, their tribulations and triumphs, won good reviews and awards for the story and author’s simple evocative style of writing,

Hema’s amazing achievement is an inspiration for every one to overcome shortcomings.

Interestingly, her book touched a chord among women not only from India but from the West and Europe.

How did she overcome her language barrier? It all began with her embarrassment over her inability to understand phone calls she answered when her husband was not around.

Then she taught herself English, beginning with reading children’s story books with the help of a dictionary, a present from her husband.

She would go through every sentence again and again till she understood every word. From then on, the local library became her favourite haunt as she discovered the joy of reading in English.

The big break

“It was my husband, Radha Manohar, who suggested that I write this novel in English to reach larger segment of readers across the cultures,” she says.

After writing about 70 pages, she joined a group of aspiring writers headed by a published writer, to hone her skills.

At the instance of this group, she sent a few chapters and synopsis for ‘How to Get Published’ Novel writing competition organised by a popular chat show on Channel IV in 2004.

“I could not believe when my novel was among short listed 26 novels out of 44,000 entries,” recalls Hema on a visit to city.

Linen Press liked the manuscript but wanted her to edit and fine tune it. “Editing the manuscript was another learning process for me,” she recounts. But the best was yet in store for her.

After her book was out in 2008, book launch in Nehru Centre in London and signing events in local libraries, her novel was nominated by local library chief for ‘Reading Hero’ award, organised by National Literacy Trust.

She won the award that was presented to her at 10 Downing Street by UK Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown.

She also won second prize for ‘Big Red Read’ Book of the Year 2009 award organised by libraries across UK.

Hema with another contract from her publisher, is already working on her second novel.

With a flair for writing in her mother tongue, Telugu, Hema, who hails from Atmakur in Warangal, has 25 short stories to her credit in various Telugu magazines.

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