>
> this is such an evocative passage. I can hear the voice of the
> granfather as much as I can hear the sound of the rain. Can you tell us,
> to whom the grandfather is speaking? to whom is he saying:
>
> adEdO daaniki nuvvE pErainaa
> peTTukO....
>
At the begining of the story, the 80 year old grandfather is
telling this to his young grandchildren asking him for a story; a
college-going grandson reading nearby is also listening. By the end of
the story, the younger ones have slept, only the college-going kid is
listening.
> Is the rest of the book written in this style that begs to be read
> aloud?
Out of the 100 stories in this collection, many (most) of them are in
this style. The stories are usually in a third person narrative by the
author, but occasionally (like in this one) one of the main characters
may be doing the narration. Many of the stories have evocative passages
like this one. The last one, where the writer is making an offering to
the Lord (amarESwara of amaraavati) is like a torrential outpouring
rarely matched in Telugu prose.
>Who are the other characters?
Well, there are many. They include all the people that you are
likely to meet walking in a village. They include the palanquin bearer,
the tailor, the village merchant, the temple priest, the fishermen, the
newly weds, the rascals, the school teacher, the bus driver. They are all
here.
>Is the author still writing?
I am told that the author, satyam Sankaramanchi, died about ten
years ago.
Another book from him that I recall is seeta swagathaalu
(seeta's thoughts), the soliloquies of a young, urban middle class Telugu
girl. I believe this was serialized in the Yuva monthly in early 60s. I
read it as a published volume. It is not in the same league as amaraavati
kathalu, but still is quite good.
Regards. --- V. Chowdary Jampala