About amaraavati kathalu - part 6 (final)
V. Chowdary Jampala (cjampala@quark.dayton.net)
Mon, 24 Nov 1997 08:52:07 -0500 (EST)
About amaraavati kathalu - part 6
(continued from previous posts)
I still haven't touched all my favorite stories from this collection.
I can keep writing; writing pages and pages about each of these 100
stories. I cannot open this book and close it after reading just one
story. Satyam Sankaramanchi touches on various facets of life in these
stories. He writes with equal facility about raaja vaasireDDi
venkaTaadri naayuDu and the elikala baachigaaDu. The stories seem to come
from the writer's heart with honesty and sincerity. He has respect,
sympathy and understanding for his characters and their lives. He
paints pictures of their relationships and surroundings, sometimes
with delicate strokes, and with quick, broad strokes at other
times. He understands words and the subtle meanings that they convey.
Both the dialogue and descriptions (narrative) are constructed with an
amazing facility of purpose, and without seeming artificial. He
understands the power of the sounds. He could capture the lyrical gurgling
of the river in one story and capture the urban cacophony in the next.
After all, how many people could get down perfectly the clarion call of
the city bus cleaner, "gunTru gunTru gunTru gunTru gunToooor!"?
Then there is the issue of 'technic'. As I noted earlier, these stories
are not in a single style. Different narrative technics are used in this
series. Sometimes it is straight forward story telling. Sometimes, it is
not immediately clear which direction this story is taking. Sometimes, the
stories begin with a lyrical outpour that makes you thirst for more.
Other times, it is the author's description of an event that takes center
stage. Sometimes, it is the final twist in the story that adds unexpected
weight to the story; some other times, it is the final comment of the
author. Sometimes, the tension escalates as the story proceeds and at
other times it is diffused early. More often than not, the form fits the
content perfectly.
What is even more impressive is the fact that Satyam Sankaramanchi
wrote all these 100 stories in a span of almost two years. These were
not stories that were written well in advance by the writer and then
submitted en masse. Each of these pieces was written, on the average,
about one a week, and they were written without a break with looming
deadline pressures every week. Remember that the author had to
work a full time job at All India Radio too while writing these
stories. The author himself confessed in the preface that he was a
procrastinator and couldn't get to his stuff until the very last minute.
That means that he had very little time to hone and fine tune these works
and that they did not have many iterations before being published.
It is a testimony to the genius of this writer that he was able to write
100 stories in this span of time under such circumstances and that all of
them can be rated as at least good and as publication worthy. As I
noted earlier, the brilliance of some of these is simply astounding.
Whenever I read these stories, I feel thankful to a lot of people:
Satyam Sankaramanchi, the author; puraaNam subrahmaNya Sarma, the
editor who encouraged the author and insisted that they be written
regularly; baapu for the wonderful illustrations that often match (and
occasionally surpass) the brilliance of the story; muLLapooDi venkaTa
ramaNa for his sincere, eloquent appreciation, and Navodaya Publishers,
a class act among Telugu publishers, for their wonderful production of the
book.
Now, I have to thank Vasu and Madhav for making me read these stories
once again. If not for them, I wouldn't have experienced this pleasure
at this time.
Regards -- V. Chowdary Jampala