Farmer scripts his way into Telugu literary world

For someone whose first love is agriculture, Vattikuti Sambasiva Rao, a farmer hailing from Guntur district, has scripted his way into the Telugu literary world by penning two unique books on cricket – Bharat Ratna and Jayaho Bharat . While one signals the end of the Sachin Tendulkar era, the other is on India’s performance graph in recent times. Interestingly, this 65-year-old, whose earlier notable contribution to literature was his book on late Chief Minister and Telugu matinee idol N.T. Rama Rao, developed an interest in cricket only a decade ago. But it seemed enough to spur him to try his hand at writing books in cricket, which he says is his ‘first love’.

Encouraged by his children, he seems to have mastered the art of interspersing his knowledge in the language with cricketing terms, which catch the imagination of the average cricket lover.

The books were formally released by Indian women’s cricket captain Mithali Raj and

Andhra Jyothi Editor K. Srinivas here on Monday.

‘Huge Tendulkar fan’

“I am a huge fan of Sachin Tendulkar and am longing to meet him at least once. I consider it God’s grace that I wrote my first book on him,” he remarked. Mr. Rao said that he was almost ready with another book on India’s progress in the ongoing World Cup.

Pens two unique books on cricket – one signalling the end of the Sachin Tendulkar era and the other on India’s performance graph in recent times