Minister for Mines R.V.S. K. Ranga Rao, former Member of Parliament and litterateur Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, MLA Meesala Geeta, Municipal Chairperson P. Ramakrishna, and actor Gollapudi Maruthi Rao felicitated and presented ‘Gurajada Visista Puraskar’ to cine playback singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam at Ananda Gajapathi Auditorium on Thursday. Mr. Balasubrahmanyam was the 17th eminent personality to receive the award.
Gurajada Samskritika Samakhya has been organising ‘Gurajada Sahiti Chaitanyotsavam’ in commemoration of legendary writer Gurajada Appa Rao’s anniversary every year on September 30.
On the occasion of 102nd anniversary of Mahakavi Gurajada, Dr. Lakshmi Prasad and Mr. Anant Sriram, who along with A. Gopala Rao, P.V. Narasimha Raju, K. Prakash, members of Samskritika Samakhya, elite of the town, and school children took out a rally with the belongings of the legendary writer from Gurajada’s house and paid tributes by garlanding his statue at M.R. College (Autonomous) in the morning.
Talking to media, Dr. Lakshmi Prasad emphasised on the need to preserve works of Gurajada as was done in the case of Rabindra Tagore and Shakespeare by the respective governments. Already, he alleged, many a number of Gurajada’s books were in a state of decay. They needed to be treated with chemicals, digitalised, and preserved for the future generation by the government.
Lyricist Anant Sriram compared the rally of carrying Gurajada’s belongings with that of a procession carrying clothes of Lord Venkateswara Swamy in Tirupati. He felt that Telugu literature would survive for ever if the youth were involved such events.
