When Nellore-born author Mohammed Khadeer Babu made Hyderabad his home in 1995, the abundance of rocks and chilly evenings amid open spaces made him feel the city was similar to an expansive village. Little did he realise this would become nostalgia as he bore witness to drastic changes in the character of the city over the next two decades. Metro Kathalu , his book comprising 25 short stories, was born out of his desire to address concerns pertaining to metros that are witnessing rapid urbanisation.
Only a handful of Telugu short stories have been written about the identity of a metropolis. “This isn’t about Hyderabad alone. I feel cities are in the process of losing their distinct characters. Multiplexes, pizza joints, weekend choices, mainstream cultures, livelihood issues are similar across cities, stripping the place off any individuality. I wanted readers living in a façade, to rethink about our roots and analyse reasons behind losing our nativity,” he says. The cities and characters in Metro Kathalu are deliberately kept nameless in a bid to highlight the universality of the stories.
The stories see life through the eyes of a woman — both working women and homemakers —because, “This is a male-dominated society and many men don’t try to see life from the shoes of a woman; the lack of understanding affects our ecosystem.” He mentions that metros have conditioned the lives of women while new concerns have replaced the troublesome mother-in-law.
Tapi Dharma Rao’s Inapa Kachadalu was his inspiration for a story set in gated communities, which he feels have become cellular jails for women. These stories also underline that metros come with a lot of peer pressure and don’t let its residents experience little pleasures of a smaller town. “I’ve highlighted how distance between relationships are a cause of concern. Job pressures curb our travel, reduce our frequency in attending social gatherings, which are the only outlet for many to experience life.”
Life in the corporate sector, besides those of cable TV operators and auto drivers, also make for an interesting read.
Yet, not everything in a city can be termed black and white, he reiterates. “It offers you privacy and anonymity, but at a certain cost, especially to those who seek to live life without interference and societal acceptance. I neither want to whine about it nor be optimistic; I have written stories with a matter-of-fact approach. Our lives have become mechanical and we’re too casual to accept it.”
These stories happen over a year’s span. Khadeer Babu has experimented with the writing style by including sentences without pauses — help interpret the meaning in different contexts — and the absence of proper nouns too adds up to the reader’s interest and generates anonymity.
He terms the stories in his previous book, Beyond Coffee, a prequel to Metro Kathalu . “Most of our Telugu short story writers hail from smaller towns and also write about them. Cities need to find their place. One book isn’t enough to describe a city from multiple dimensions, I need more stories to do that. I hope to release this book in English in the near future.”
