The intellect of Padma Sri awardee Kolakaluri Enoch, his literary style, his concern for the common man and the philosophy behind his writings came up for wide discussion at the national seminar ‘Acharya Kolakaluri Enoch Sahityam - Salochana’ organised by the Telugu Department of Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam (SPMVV) in Tirupati last week. The event was conducted to mark the conferment of the title Padma Sri on him by the central Government as well as the completion of 60 years of his literary career. Noted writer and actor Gollapudi Maruti Rao dubbed him as a ‘revolution’ with an unending fighting spirit. Armed with a quiver full of arrows, he aimed at the practice of social alienation, said Rao, a childhood friend of Enoch.
P. Kusuma Kumari, former Vice-Chancellor of Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur, hailed him as a multi-faceted personality. Rachapalem Chandrasekhar Reddy, who has recently been selected for the Central Sahitya Academy award, hailed Enoch’s works as a wake-up call for those in slumber and a guiding light for those wishing to fight back.
In the valedictory session, G. Krupachary, Vice-Chancellor of Dalit Open University of India (Guntur), welcomed Enoch’s gesture of building a casteless marriage hall in his native Vejendla village, while Cuddapah Ramanaiah, former Vice-Chancellor of Dravidian University (Kuppam) lauded him for handling academic, administration and research activities with élan and ease. The biography Naanna , written by Kolakaluri Madhujyothi, the seminar director and Enoch’s daughter, was released the previous day.