“I prefer writing travelogues to short stories. Of late, I found comfort in writing about places I have been visiting. It doesn’t mean that I am not going to write short stories any more,” says Telugu writer and poet Dasari Amarendra, who settled down in Delhi some four decades ago.
“I am physically away from the Telugu land, but not psychologically. Even today, my thought process goes on only in Telugu. I translate those thoughts into English or Hindi while speaking to non-Telugu people,” says the writer, who is here to attend the Datla Devadanam Raju Literary Awards function at Yanam. He also participated in an interactive session organised by the city-based ‘Aaswadana’ literary organisation.
Churning out short stories from real life experiences has made Amarendra’s ‘Sefalika’ - a compilation of short stories penned by him - different from contemporary compilations. “Over 80 per cent of incidents and characters in my stories are from real life. Even in the remaining 20 per cent fiction, I tried to use incidents that were narrated by my friends and relatives,” he says. Amarendra’s stories deal with contemporary issues and raise questions on imbalances. “But, they are not judgmental,” he says.
“I’m anxious that the critic in me is dominating the story writer. The conflict between these two roles is one of the reasons behind the absence of short-stories,” says Amarendra, who considers himself a novice in following the trends in literature such as post-modernism and magical realism. “I studied post-modern art for six months and found that it was an excellent work. Similar schooling is needed for me to understand post-modernism in literature,” he says.
Mr. Amarendra’s recent works, ‘Aatmeeyam’ and ‘Saahitee Yatra’, have been acclaimed by critics, and he has plans to write travelogues.
