Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Entertainment | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

He does Telugu proud

In a span of 17 years, he has authored 150 short stories in Telugu

He believes that only a person who is in constant touch with contemporary society can breathe life into his writings. He writes only on things that he is familiar with and refrains from drawing solely on imagination. That explains why he had stopped writing in Malayalayam, did not venture into writing in his mother-tongue Tamil, but continues to write in Telugu, the language he is associated with. Little wonder, his stories strike a chord with his readers.

Meet, Lakshmana Iyer Ramaswamy, popularly known as L.R. Swamy, whose `Godavari Station', a short story in Telugu, was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece by readers. It has been translated into seven regional languages besides English.

It is about the loneliness encountered by a mother whose son leaves her in search of work, flies to the US and marries an American girl and settles down in that country without even caring to write a letter to his mother. In the end, a poor labourer and his wife take her to their home and care for her though they themselves were leading a hand-to-mouth existence. Though the woman initially turns down their request to stay with them so as not to trouble them, touched by the couple's love and care, decides to settle down with them.

When Swamy was in SSC, the popular Malayalam weekly, `Mathrubhoomi', conducted competitions in writing one-act plays. His work describing life as a `forbidden fruit' for the poor bagged the first prize. With the encouragement given by his elder sister, he pursued his literary activities. Between 1960 and 1970, about 100 of his poems were published by 'Matrubhoomi'. His unique style won appreciation from the litterateurs.

Born to Tamil parents in Kerala in 1944, Swamy had his school and college education in that State. He moved out to Bombay when he got his first job in the Trombay Division of the erstwhile Fertiliser Corporation of India (currently Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Limited). In 1967, when Coromandal Fertilisers Limited was started in Visakhapatnam, he joined CFL as a shift-in-charge.

"Initially, I had difficulty speaking Telugu, but soon realised that many of its words have been derived from Sanskrit. I started speaking Telugu with a Sanskritised accent and people used to appreciate it," recalls Swamy.

During a `kavi sammelanam' organised on the occasion of Ugadi in 1970, he presented a poem in Telugu which came in for appreciation from the noted writer, Ghandikota Brahmaji Rao. It was, however, the suggestion of another eminent writer, Venkata Krishna Rao, that spurred him into writing short stories in Telugu.

Thanks to his concerted efforts to gain mastery over the Telugu language between 1972 and 1989, he bagged the first prize in the short story competition conducted by the popular weekly, `Andhra Jyothi', in 1989. The same year, he joined the noted literary organisation, Sahridaya Sahiti, and has been an active participant in its literary activities. For the past six years Swamy is its president.

In a span of 17 years, he has published about 150 short stories in Telugu. An abrupt beginning, a unique feature of his stories, draws the interest of the reader. The difference can be noticed in narration, theme and conclusion. About 40 of his plays have been broadcast over All India Radio. Over 60 of his stories have been translated into Hindi and 10 into English.

Apart from writing in Malayalam and Telugu, he has translated some of the works of other writers mostly from Malayalam and Tamil into Telugu.

Despite his busy schedule as a senior manager in Andhra Petrochemicals Limited, he finds time to pursue his literary activities in the evenings.

His ambition?

"I strive to develop humane thinking through literature."

B.M.G.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Metro Plus    Bangalore    Chennai    Coimbatore    Delhi    Hyderabad    Kochi    Madurai    Mangalore    Pondicherry    Tiruchirapalli    Thiruvananthapuram    Vijayawada    Visakhapatnam