Category Archives: Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Proof of Satavahanas’ trade, cultural ties with world nations found

About Telangana, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinion

Fine pearls, pearls made of shell, shell-beads, and tortoise-shaped beads found

The Satavahana dynasty rulers had very good regular trade and cultural exchange programmes with all the countries in the world as was evident with the recovery of 40 fine pearls with holes and other material including metals during the excavations conducted by the State Archaeology and Museums at Peddabonkur village of Peddapalli district.

The department had launched the excavation works in a scientific manner in a sprawling 67 acres of land in the village since February 18 to unravel the history of Satavahana dynasty.

During the excavations for the first time the authorities had found the fine pearls, pearls made of shell, shell-beads, tortoise-shaped beads, gold-plated pearls, mud pearls, crystals, bangles, pottery, measurement pottery, dice made of bones, horn of deer, metal products etc.

Director of Archeology and Museums N.R. Visalakshi, who inspected the excavations on Wednesday, told newsmen that the recovery of pearls and other materials indicate that the Satavahana rulers were prosperous 2,000 years ago. The recovery of pearls and other materials show that they had trade and cultural relations with other parts of the world.

She said that they had unearthed pottery dump-yard and huge collection of pottery during the excavations. The coins and metals recovered from the spot would be sent for metallurgical survey to conduct non-invasive survey to analyse when it was first fired and the textures etc. without causing damage to the metals, she added. All these recoveries were collected after conducting excavations for 30 cm to 60 cm depth.

During the earlier excavations in the village in 1968 and 1973-74, the department had unearthed brick constructions, brick wells and the coins used by the Satavahanas, Mauryas and Romans.

She said that they were taking up the excavations in a scientific manner to preserve the ancient history and legacy of the Satavahana dynasty. She added that they would further continue excavations in coordination with district administration.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Peddubonkur (Peddapalli)- March 29th, 2018

Collaborative training for Telangana women weavers

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy
Yarn dyed in natural colours drying at a weaver’s home

As part of a programme called Disha, UNDP, Creative Bee and IDF will help women weavers step up the quality of handlooms and form a cooperative movement.

Government-mooted schemes meant for the betterment of weavers and craftspeople have benefited some pockets of the State, but there are many other regions where weavers struggle to make ends meet, relying on daily wages to get by. Some of these villages in far-flung areas see women making barely ₹500 to ₹1000 per month, after spending 15 to 20 days weaving a sari. “It’s heartbreaking; the women hold on to their craft because they don’t know anything else, but they haven’t been able to leverage their skill to better their livelihood,” says Bina Rao of Creative Bee.

Rao has been travelling extensively in the interiors of Telangana and has just wrapped up a training programme for 140 women in a village near Pochampally. The training is a part of a year-long programme called Disha. Training modules will be held in villages across Yadadri, Nalgonda, Warangal and Siddipet districts, with the support of IKEA Foundation, IDF (research body India Development Foundation) and government of Telangana.

The prime objective is to promote entrepreneurship by equipping women weavers and craftsmen to understand changing market needs and learn the ropes of direct marketing. At the end of the programme, Disha will function as a women’s cooperative body. Disha is a pan-India initiative by UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in collaboration with several government and local bodies to conduct training in textiles, agriculture, handicrafts, education, women empowerment, and more.

In Telangana, UNDP is working with Creative Bee and the focus is on textiles. Creative Bee is harnessing its two-decade experience in the textile sector to help 2000 women weavers learn direct marketing and step up their production quality.

“Weavers will be trained to use internationally approved and environmentally safe VAT, reactive and acid dyes for cotton and silk; these dyes are safe on their skin as well, unlike the dyes they now use. We found many villages using naphthol dyes that are carcinogenic and environmentally harmful,” says Rao.

Challenges ahead

To get things underway, despite the partners on board, Rao says there were challenges. They didn’t have funds for yarn, fabric, dyes, stipend and food requirement for the training days. “Weavers won’t turn up for training unless their daily wage loss is compensated,” she points out. She knocked the doors of corporates seeking CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds. Some of them were willing, but only after the current financial year. Since the training had to begin, she used yarn and fabric from Creative Bee Foundation and dyes were sponsored by Gujarat-based Colourtex.

Rao points out that while many pockets specialise in ikat weaving, after the division of Telugu states into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, we don’t have a plain fabric weaving stronghold like Mangalagiri. She mooted the idea to weaver pockets in Siddipet and Sirsila and plans are on to step up plain fabric weaving.

Thinking big

Creative Bee is also reaching out to pan-India retail stores such as FabIndia and Westside, exhibitions and e-commerce portals for better reach of the products developed by the women. In addition, 40 women will be trained to form a manager cadre and handle marketing and administrative responsibilities. In principle, Rao notes that the state government has agreed to have a building that will work as an aggregation centre. “But we are also looking at a contingency plan in case it doesn’t take off. For this, we are hoping corporates will chip in,” she says.

Efforts are also on to enable each of these women reap the benefits of the sale of their products through proceeds that will be deposited in their bank accounts.

As a first step, women weavers will directly interact with buyers and showcase their handloom products in Hyderabad on March 30 and 31; 11am to 5pm, at Saptaparni, Road no.8, Banjara Hills.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Fashion> Handloom / by Sangeetha Devi Dundoo / March 27th, 2018

Dravidian language family is 4,500 years old: study

About Telangana, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinion

The Dravidian language family’s four largest languages — Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu — have literary traditions spanning centuries, of which Tamil reaches back the furthest, researchers said.

The Dravidian language family, consisting of 80 varieties spoken by nearly 220 million people across southern and central India, originated about 4,500 years ago, a study has found.

This estimate is based on new linguistic analyses by an international team, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, and the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun.

The researchers used data collected first-hand from native speakers representing all previously reported Dravidian subgroups. The findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, match with earlier linguistic and archaeological studies.

South Asia, reaching from Afghanistan in the west and Bangladesh in the east, is home to at least six hundred languages belonging to six large language families, including Dravidian, Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan.

The Dravidian language family, consisting of about 80 language varieties (both languages and dialects) is today spoken by about 220 million people, mostly in southern and central India, and surrounding countries.

The Dravidian language family’s four largest languages — Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu — have literary traditions spanning centuries, of which Tamil reaches back the furthest, researchers said.

Along with Sanskrit, Tamil is one of the world’s classical languages, but unlike Sanskrit, there is continuity between its classical and modern forms documented in inscriptions, poems, and secular and religious texts and songs, they said.

“The study of the Dravidian languages is crucial for understanding prehistory in Eurasia, as they played a significant role in influencing other language groups,” said Annemarie Verkerk of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

Neither the geographical origin of the Dravidian language nor its exact dispersal through time is known with certainty.

The consensus of the research community is that the Dravidians are natives of the Indian subcontinent and were present prior to the arrival of the Indo-Aryans (Indo-European speakers) in India around 3,500 years ago.

Researchers said that it is likely that the Dravidian languages were much more widespread to the west in the past than they are today.

In order to examine questions about when and where the Dravidian languages developed, they made a detailed investigation of the historical relationships of 20 Dravidian varieties.

Study author Vishnupriya Kolipakam of the Wildlife Institute of India collected contemporary first-hand data from native speakers of a diverse sample of Dravidian languages, representing all the previously reported subgroups of Dravidian.

The researchers used advanced statistical methods to infer the age and sub-grouping of the Dravidian language family at about 4,000-4,500 years old.

This estimate, while in line with suggestions from previous linguistic studies, is a more robust result because it was found consistently in the majority of the different statistical models of evolution tested in this study.

This age also matches well with inferences from archaeology, which have previously placed the diversification of Dravidian into North, Central, and South branches at exactly this age, coinciding with the beginnings of cultural developments evident in the archaeological record.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Science / by PTI / Berlin – March 21st, 2018

Hyderabad: Crafts, conquerors and continuum

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel
Glory atop Muhammad Saleem (in blue shirt) putting together pieces of the finial on top of the Hakims’ tomb. Serish Nanisetti

It’s the craftsmen who had kept alive the legacy of monuments

The dull rhythmic sound of a copper sheet being beaten into shape has a melody of its own. The tak-tak-tak-tak of the silver foil being beaten into slivers used in wrapping sweets and pans is predictable and heard often near Charminar and its surrounding areas. But that of copper sheets being beaten on the anvil has a different melody.

Near Chowk Masjid, the sound of copper and brass being beaten into shape and welded into vessels echoes over the urban cacophony, Azaan from various masjids and zipping vehicles. Inside an arched entrance is the small recessed room of Muhammad Saleem, one of the master craftsman and a coppersmith. “I have learnt it from my father who used to make similar objects. He used to make them in Basavakalyan. I have been making it here from the time I was a kid,” says Saleem.

He has made those tall tapering cones that adorn temples, dargahs, masjids and can be seen from great distances.

Presently, he is working on a finial; that involves cutting, beating and moulding into shape a copper sheet that weighs about 90 kilograms. “When I first mould it by hammering, it has a dull brown colour. I hammer it again to bring out the reddish shimmer which lasts longer if the copper is pure,” says Saleem about the 14-feet tall finial in 14 pieces that will be installed on Hakim’s Tomb at the Qutb Shahi Tombs Complex. The finials moulded by him have been installed in Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur, and many places in Telangana besides a host of sites in Hyderabad.

Incidentally, all the 14 pieces will not be crafted by him. Two of the pieces are from the old finial that used to exist in the place. So, what Saleem has made has to blend in with what was made centuries ago. In the setting sun as all the copper pieces are laid out on the ground in a row, the difference of finish on the objects could be easily detected. So can the similarity. While the pieces made by Saleem have a freshness with the beaten pattern, the older pieces look plain. “I can create a finish like that. But this will retain the pattern as well as shine for a longer period of time,” says Saleem.

It is craftsmen and metalworkers like this who have played a role in creating and preserving monuments. History is replete with examples of conquerors who carted away wealth after their successful endeavour.

When Timur conquered Delhi in late 14th Century, his assistants not only calculated the treasure they were taking with them but took away with them master craftsmen, on the orders of their master.

“I ordered that all the artisans and clever mechanics who were masters of their respective crafts should be selected from among the prisoners and set aside, and accordingly some thousands of craftsmen were bidden to await my command All these I distributed among the princes and amirs who were present, or who were officially engaged in other parts of my dominions. I had determined to build a Jami’ Masjid in Samarkand, the seat of my empire, which should be without a rival in any country; and for this reason I ordered that all builders and stone-masons should be set apart for my own especial service,” wrote Timur.

A similar thing happened when the Northern sultanates conquered the Southern kingdom of Vijayanagara in 1565. Thousands of master craftsmen rendered jobless shifted to the wealthier northern kingdoms resulting an efflorescence of architecture and craftsmanship including in Golconda that we can now see and admire.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Serish Nanisetti / February 24th, 2018

His voice, a capsule of tribal histories

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All

Ramachandraiah is probably the last such singer left in A.P. and Telangana

Sakine Ramachandraiah could easily have been awarded honorary doctorate by any university. An unlettered man from Koonavaram village of Manuguru mandal of Bhadradri Kothagudem district, Ramachandraiah has oral histories of the Koya tribe on the tip of his tongue.

One only has to mention the story to have it cascade effortlessly from his vocal chambers, in Telugu as well as Koya language.

Belonging to the ‘Doli’ sub-division of the Koya tribe, which has been traditionally ordained with the duty of reciting the tribe’s clan histories, Ramachandraiah is probably the last such singer left in the two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

“Some times, I cross the State border to perform in Chhattisgarh, where people want the songs in Koya language,” Ramachandraiah says.

He sings at marriages, at funerals, and he always sings at the biennial Medaram Jathara also known as the ‘Sammakka Saralamma Jathara’, which is touted as the world’s largest repeat congregation of tribal communities. The Medaram Jathara is to be held from January 31 to February 3 this year, at Eturunagaram of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.

Gazette

The Doli community is described as ‘professional beggars’ among Koyas by the Godavari District Gazette of 1896. Though their duties are priest-like and along with ‘Oddis’— the superior priest class — they can be classified as the ‘literate’ in the tribe, their status is still considered ‘inferior’.

Doli men sing oral histories based on the ‘Padige’s or pictorial scrolls inherited by various communities over centuries.

“Earlier, Doli families used to live in a hamlet called ‘Soppala’.

Now, nobody lives there. Few are left who can recite oral histories as accurately as Ramachandraiah,” says Jayadhir Tirumala Rao, academic and researcher of tribal communities.

Prof. Tirumala Rao is spearheading a project to document the oral history of ‘Sammakka-Saralamma’ as told by Ramachandraiah, and he vouches that the story, if fleshed out from the myth it is enmeshed in, could substantially aid historical research.

“Sammakka-Saralamma story is about the war waged against the Kakatiya dynasty by tribal women who challenged king Prataparudra when he had levied tax on them for the tanks he had got constructed in their forests. The Koya tribe had then lived on hunting-gathering, and never cultivated any land.

So, the king sought to send outsiders into the forest for cultivation, which was the last straw on the camel’s back. This story comes out very clearly from the song recited by Ramachandraiah,” Prof. Tirumala Rao says.

Apart from ‘Sammakka-Saralamma’, the balladeer sings the stories of tribal warriors such as Gari Kamaraju, Pagididda Raju, Irama Raju, Gaadi Raju, Bapanamma, Musalamma, Nagulamma, Sadalamma and others. He also knows and recites the stories behind the endogamous tribal sub-divisions and their surnames. “Now, nobody wants to sing the stories. Even my own son refuses to follow the tradition,” Ramachandraiah laments.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by Swathi Vadlamudi / January 10th, 2018

MEPMA bazaar opened

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration / Positive News and Features
MEPMA Mission Director T.K. Sreedevi at a stall at All India Industrial Exhibition at Nampally.

A bazaar exclusively to house the stalls of 55 entrepreneurs of self-help groups was opened on Saturday at the All India Industrial Exhibition by T.K. Sreedevi, Mission Director, Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) which promotes SHGs.

The exhibitors who are drawn from all over the State were given an opportunity free of cost to display and sell their products, a release said.

L. Vandana Kumar, Additional Mission Director-MEPMA, and other officials were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – January 08th, 2018

This dessert van in Hyderabad is simply W.O.W.

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Travel
Sweet truck Aishwarya and Priyanka at their truck parked in Sainikpuri, some of their adorable looking desserts | Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal


W.O.W is the first food cart run and managed by two young girls

Aishwarya Balasubramanian and Priyanka Natesh are cousins in their early 20s. Yet it was not until boredom with their regular jobs and the wish to pursue their individual dreams brought them to a common discussion platform, that they realised they might have something common and concrete on their minds.

Aishwarya wanted to do something that allowed her some time to pursue higher studies and Priyanka wanted to try out her bakes and goodies outside the closed circle she was catering to. Also the fact that one loves to eat and the other loves to bake made the partnership a good one for a food business. Without spending much time on their idea they discussed their ‘business plan’ with their parents.

Food business was fine. But the girls wanted to run a food truck and name it ‘Women on wheels’ (W.O.W) “That was a concern for our parents; mostly about our safety. So when we started, one of our parents would be there with us for safety and to understand the crowd that came to buy our food stuff,” says Aishwarya.

W.O.W’s happy glowsign can be spotted from a distance among the line of food trucks which stand on the popular food spots of Secunderabad. W.O.W is also the first and the only food truck managed and owned by women in the twin cities.

“After we decided on the plan we approached experts who design food trucks in Hyderabad. We knew what we wanted for the exterior look but were unaware of the technicalities so we let the experts deal with that. We also gave him the happy bubble gum colour theme for the colour palette.
Our food truck is based on the Mom&Pop food truck culture in the West. We wanted to do something in the food truck business that would make us stand out from the rest. Since Priyanka bakes and is very popular for her eggless desserts, we were confident of our time-tested products,” says Aishwarya.

W.O.W can be spotted at different stops in Secunderabad on different days from 7.30 pm to 10 pm. They have a new menu everyday; apart from home-made desserts, cakes in a jar, they also sell gelatos and fruit flavoured sorbets. “I used to bake because it was something I enjoyed doing. I started experimenting with eggless bakes and they became popular. Then by word of mouth I started getting orders and within no time, my hobby baking turned me into a home baker,” says Priyanka.

While the girls haven’t faced any trouble from their clients, it was the other food cart businesses that showed them some resistance in the beginning. “We weren’t welcome for sure. They would try to make us lose our spot. We stayed put and without jostling for space, made our way into the business in Habsiguda,” says Aishwarya.

Since W.O.W sells only desserts and cakes, their food truck sometime turns into an impromptu place for birthday celebration for friends. “Sometimes some regular diners come and place orders with us for a surprise birthday treat. That’s an overwhelming feeling. It’s nice to make us feel a part of such a celebration,” adds Priyanka.

Aishwarya who is pursuing her PGDMA in Human resources says she is a people’s person and loves to talk to the crowd to understand their taste, likes and dislikes. “The food cart business has been a learning experience. It is doing good and we are still innovating but the fact that ‘there is a rule, yet there is no rule’ makes it uncertain.”

How would she explain ‘there is a rule, yet there is no rule’? “Sometimes we are asked to move our cart saying it’s against the law and when I seek written permission to park the food cart, I am told I can park it anywhere except in a ‘no parking’ zone and we shouldn’t obstruct traffic.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Food / by Prabalika M.Borah / January 08th, 2018

Hyderabad gets its own ‘Art District’

Arts, Culture & Entertainment
Children playing in a street painted yellow under the Art District project of St+art India in MS Maqtha of Hyderabad. | Photo Credit: K.V.S. GIRI

MS Maqtha abutting Necklace Road station gets an aesthetic makeover

It is a colourful makeover for one of the most neglected parts of the city. It is Blue Chowk, Yellow Gully, Pink Gully at the MS Maqtha abutting Necklace Road station. While last year, artists from across the country and world painted the side facing Necklace Road, this year St+Art Foundation took the inner streets of Maqtha for a makeover.

At the entrance of MS Maqtha is the sign in black and white about the Art District. But it doesn’t prepare you for the riot of colour ahead.

A green wall that leads to a yellow lane or a different turn takes you to a blue square. All this in one of the must rundown areas of the city where sewage flows on the street, overhanging wires are the norm and where young boys zip around as if life is a motocross race.

But now, some of the streets have an identity and are easily navigable. It wasn’t all that easy.

One of the persons who initially opposed the project is Muhammad Sadiq Ali, who now proudly shows around the area to visitors. “Even foreigners are coming to see this. I opposed it worried about what they might draw and paint; after all this is my house,” he says pointing to his three-storeyed house. “I relented after speaking to the artists and their coordinator.

They showed me what will be drawn here and how the area will look like once it is finished. Now I am happy that I agreed to get this thing painted,” says Mr. Ali, who has a furniture workshop in the area.

“People of Maqtha, while being sceptical at the beginning, became extremely helpful and supportive. That’s also why we organised several workshops with them and in the public school of Maqtha.

They offered us food, chai and of course, their walls! And it has been a truly participative effort in which murals have been created by the artists thanks to their interaction with the inhabitants. Their stories, their desires came into many of the art pieces. Also, the kids of each gully we painted have been constantly with us. We discovered great young talents who painted with some of the artists,” says Giulia Ambrogi who has been the face of St+Art in Hyderabad.

“Maqtha Art District is the third art district in India after Lodhi Art District in Delhi and Mahim (E) Art District in Mumbai. The vision for the neighbourhood is to become a hub for contemporary art and a new area of interest of the city, while also being regenerated thanks to art interventions,” says the statement by St+Art India Foundation.

“We had a good time while working on the project. We did experimental morphing and it was better than last year’s experience,” says artist Kamesh Bhagatji.

Last year, Kamesh and Avinash had created a mural called reflection on the other side of the road.

“When people walk into the area and look around and click photographs, we feel proud. I want to keep the area clean like this. The place looks so much better,” says Muhammad Nawab, a resident.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Serish Nanisetti / Hyderabad – January 04th, 2018

Around the world in 26 years

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion
Bitten by travel bug Indranil Chowdhuri

Hyderabad-based Indranil Chowdhuri combines his passion for travel and sports and has visited 107 countries so far
North Korea: Check

Greenland: Check

Cuba: Check

No, this isn’t a list of all countries difficult to get a visa but a few places among the 107 nations that Indranil Chowdhuri, 56, visited in the past 26 years. While travelling was integral to his job early on, later it became an all-consuming passion.

Sharing details about his journeys, Indranil says, “My first trip abroad was when I went to Myanmar in 1992 for work. Then I travelled a lot as I was into exports. When I casually counted one day, I realised that I went to 40 countries. That was when I wanted to reach the three figure mark and stepped up on visiting newer countries. The critical mass of my visits has been in the last 12 years, and though after I hit a century, I lost the urge for numbers, I still am passionate about exploring new places.”

As an avid sports fan, Indranil combines travel with sporting events, be it Olympics, football world cups or major tennis events so that he can merge both his great loves. What research is a part of a frequent traveller’s routine? Indranil explains, “I start with Lonely Planet guides. I have a lot of them with me and then I read up extensively about the place. I make notes and do my own ticketing and reservations. I don’t engage the services of an agent or a tour company unless there is no option, as they have a pre-planned programme and I don’t like that at all. Travel should include the freedom to do my own thing my way.”

Confessing that travelling excites him as it gives him a chance to explore different countries, cultures and cuisines, Indranil says the challenge is to converse with local people in their language. He explains, “I do basic research and try to speak their language. When they see me try, they always speak English which makes it easy to blend in.

The intrepid traveller also has a thing for souvenirs and points out to rooms filled with trinkets in his apartment. Shot glasses, magnets, swords and daggers (exquisitely carved), busts of famous personalities, tees and baseball caps — there is no shortage of reminders for trips he has undertaken. Indranil says, “I never wanted a big collection, but somehow when you travel you pick up things. I have 3000 plus shot glasses of cities, celebrity houses and football games I’ve been to.”

For someone who has been to Peru and stayed with an Inca family, spent time with a nomadic tribe in a desert in Mongolia and swam in the rivers of Amazon (where he narrowly escaped an alligator), Indranil recounts his most unforgettable experience which nearly got him killed, “I ran into former President of USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, at a cemetery in Russia and raised my hand to greet him. He was surrounded with KGB agents who pounced on me as they thought I was about to shoot. Luckily they realised I was a tourist and since this was before the concept of selfie was introduced, I took a picture of myself with Gorbachev in the background surrounded by his guards.”

On his to-do list is Bahamas which he couldn’t visit so far due to visa issues and a trip to Russia next year during FIFA World cup.

Ask him about his plans for travel in India and he signs off saying that’s a post-retirement trip.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Mallik Thattipalli / January 04th, 2018

Doctor makes a mark in literary field

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features
Dr. Parcha Anjani Devi, who is enriching Telugu short story genre, during an interview with The Hindu in Warangal on Sunday.

Dr. Parcha Anjani Devi’s short stories are winning wide appreciation from readers

“When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you” says American writer George Saunders.

Of all the genres, writing a short story is most difficult one, which many acclaimed writers say.

However, here is septuagenarian medical professional who won a ccolades from her readers by penning beautiful short pieces.

Meet Dr. Parcha Anjani Devi, a reputed doctor in Hanamkonda, who not only earned a name as doctor but also as a short story writer in Telugu literature. Her stories won wide appreciation from readers and were featured in literary magazines and in number of anthologies brought out by various literary organizations in the state.

Telugu magazines – Andhra Jyothi Sunday magazine, Rachana, Navya, Anveshana and others published Dr Anjani Devi’s stories while the All India Radio airs her stories every month.

Empathy, understanding, family, inter-personal relations and adjustments form themes of her writing. Much acclaimed story, Thanbhi, a Urdu word, meaning almirah, features how a Andhra girl married to a Telangana boy finds difficulty in adjusting. Finding from the diary of her mother-in-law how much she loved her daughter-in-law, the Andhra girl gives up her inhibitions and falls in total love with her new family.

Another story, Naku Nachina Gadhi, which means — the room which I love the most — features the memory that haunts her time and again.

When people share their joy of having a new home and room, they love much in it, she ponders over herself and realises that it is the labour room, which she frequented the most, is what she loves the most.

In the story, Antique Piece, Dr. Anjani Devi portrays how people attach more value to the items they collected, including the antique pieces, the value which they do not give to their aged parents. The parents continue to be neglected and are treated less worth.

“I write once in a while. Unless I am moved, and I have confidence that my story moves my reader, I do not take pen. I am happy that most of my stories are widely appreciated,” she says speaking to The Hindu.

Despite enriching the Telugu short story with her unique stories, this doctor remains unsung and unnoticed by literary organisations and yet she says that she is contented.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao / Warangal Urban District – December 11th, 2017