In the ever-clamorous knowledge segment, marked by mobile phones and video games, it is indeed a novel attempt to bring Nobel award-winning stories to the midst of college students. The idea is to introduce the students to world-class literature and in the first place, kindle book-reading habit in them, in the wake of complaints that the book-reading habit has plummeted, especially the Telugu literature.
Sakam Nagaraja, the state organising secretary of Abhyudaya Rachayithala Sangam (ARASAM), brought out a compilation of the stories written by Nobel Prize winning writers Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw, Yasunari Kawabata, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz, Doris Lessing, Ivan Bunin, Pearl S. Buck and Alice Munro. The stories are presented in chaste Telugu, with effective translation by Muktavaram Parthasarathy, Kakani Chakrapani and G. Lakshmi.
Touted as Sankranti release, the book has an eye-catching cover page drawn by famous artist Bapu, which visualises a traditional Telugu village fully decked up for Sankranti. While the inimitable ‘Bapu Bomma’, a young woman draws a ‘Muggu’ and tops it up with ‘Gobbemmalu’, the backdrop is provided by Haridasulu and Gangireddulu.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Nagaraja, a retired Telugu lecturer and an active associate of Telugu Bhashodyama Samiti, a movement to spread Telugu literature, brought out the book along with Vaka Prasad under the Abhinava Publications banner. It was Mr. Nagaraja who had brought out books containing smaller moral stories in the past, targeting school-going children.
Sakam Nagaraja, the state organising secretary of Abhyudaya Rachayithala Sangam, brings out a compilation of the stories written by Nobel Prize winning writers