Hunger and poverty are my first gurus that taught me lessons of life that have helped me grow at every step, Jnanpith award winner and Telugu litterateur Ravuri Bharadwaj said on Saturday.
Speaking at a function organised at Kalabharati Auditorium here by the Indian Society for Cultural Cooperation and Friendship (ISCUF) to felicitate him on the occasion of receiving the highest national award for literature in the country, he said the struggles of his life helped him become what he was today.
He did odd jobs for survival. There were days when he slept on temple steps and drank the water from the village tank to satiate his hunger, he recalled and said he was grateful to the temple for providing him shelter and the village tank for filling his stomach.
He recalled his association with film writer and lyricist Acharya Atreya and other literary figures in Telugu literature and narrated some anecdotes from those associations.
He expressed his gratitude to Andhra University for being the first to recognise his work and bestowing an honorary doctorate on him. The Telugu literary giant was felicitated by RINL Director (Finance) P Madhusudhan, MLA Malla Vijaya Prasad and a host of luminaries from the city. Chairman of the reception committee V.V. Rama Rao, ISCUF general secretary T.S. Sukumaran, and professor Chandu Subba Rao were present.
