Sudhanshu Jandhyala Lakshmi Narayana Sastry Rachana Sarvasvam : Vyjayanti- Aadi Kavi - Jaya Bharathi- Pratima- Sulochana - Chandragupta Vijayam

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vE7ixh3ZNQNZjwKAuJucjlGjK24pGM83/view?usp=drive_link 

Poems "For Mother - by J. Padmini Priyadarsini

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SkzT--I1NzUe6Ngj6_P-1qiu7g5P49Z5/view?usp=drive_link 

poems on peace and environment "Dove and the mother earth"

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GA7S_7MVcdvxTTXj5It-T0I1pETMqbN3/view?usp=drive_link

a book of poems translated  from English into Telegu titled ''Yedalothullo''

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dVTvG97zPDYzfWA7UJB8-w_Q1WAjXBid/view?usp=drive_link

Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "Virgin Soil Upturned" : A Review

 

Sholokhov’s novel Virgin Soil Upturned shows the phase of collectivisation of agriculture  in 1930s in the  then Soviet Union. Davidov is sent to achieve total collectivisation to a village Gremyachy Log. . he along with Nagulnov and others persuades the farmers to go into collectivisation .  The farmers who are initially reluctant agree to it .  But the process is not smooth as the former white guards and sympathisers of Kulaks try to put spokes in the process to fail the experiment. Yakov Lukich plays a dual role in acting as expert in agricultural affairs and covertly aiding general Polovtsev  planning to start a rebellion against the soviet power. They even kill Khoprov and his wife thinking that the former would reveal their treacherous past. Razmyotnov. Maidannikov ,Shchukar, Lubishkin, Demid , the silent   support collectivisation and kulak families such as  are sent away. Nagulnov adopts an aggressive line and collectives even livestock but later he has to admit his mistake and return poultry, in the story the man-woman relations also form a parallel plot. Nagulnov’ wife Lushka take sup with Timofei, a son of Kulak and hardly cares about what others think. Davidov acts as a facilitator and zealot in solving problems arising out of reluctance of farmers and  impetuosity of Nagulnov  in hastening collectivisation. He does not approve of il treatment of women . General Polovtsev’s attempts to rouse Cossacks fail when they come to know from Stalin’s letter that collectivisation can go as per the cooperation of the farmers.

The village gets slowly transformed and faces many hiccups in moving towards Collectivization. The class war has not subsided but taken a different turn and bureaucrats are hard pressed to meet the targets. The Cossacks known for their  martial valour and rebellious spirit  turn slowly  towards collective  agriculture.

The problems in drawing people towards collectivization are portrayed in a vivid manner. The poor farmers were enthusiastic, the middle level farmers rather reluctant and kulaks were hostile either openly or covertly . the peasants feel it hard to part with their land and live stock. Many resorted to killing of their live stock posing problems to the organizers. They had to be refrained from  lightering their livestock. Nagulnov’s  hard approach has not succeeded whereas Vanyusha’s amicable  approach convinced even the most reluctant,  once Stalin’s letter criticizing left deviation came to be known, the farmers come and demand their land and livestock back. Nagulnov has come under criticism . 

Sholokhov’s woman characters are assertive and rebellious. Razmyotnov’s wife Marina cares no man and takes away her land and starts ploughing. Lubishkin and others who try to intervene are intimidated by her strength and will power . Nagulnov’s wife Lushka whom he divorces cares a jot for social and sexual  mores that constrain her and mocks Davidov for his reluctance to postpone taking of her hand till after sowing and her former husband  Nagulnov for neglecting her in the name of world revolution.

Reading all this after nearly a century shows  a village in a different era and how it struggles to come to terms with changing fortunes of Soviet power. The iron hand of State keeps people to play safe or murmuring and they find it difficult to change themselves to  a anew situation.

Party leadership calls Nagulnov and charges him with left deviation and expels him from the party. His plea regarding his past service is no regarded and he says that he would approach regional committee. Meanwhile in Gremyachy Log Village things become hot and the villagers, particularly women refuse to give awa seed grain to the collective farm of Yarskoi. The fury of women leads to attack on Razmyotnov, Davidov and others and they attempt to open the barn to take back their rain. Grandad Shchukar ‘s relating of his childhood experiences and his getting outwitted by a gypsy in purchasing a mare provide humorous relief to this serious novel of  class struggle that takes new forms in its intermingling with personal animosities.

The novel shows the trials and tribulations faced in collectivization . Makar Nagulnov and Davidov  slowly convince the people, join new members  in the party and try to capture saboteurs like Yakov Lukich  and officers of old regime   Polovtsev and  Latyevsky.  whom he shelters. Davidov agrees to marry Varya, joins her in an agricultural college for training and comes back to the village Gremyachy Log.   In the attempt to capture the enemies of revolution , Davidov and Nagulnov are killed. The culprits are later caught and duly punished. Varya comes back to take car of her family and grandad Shchukar and other party men such as Razmyontov  and Maidannikov are filled with sorrow.  Razmyontov sees beyond the horizon  ‘’the sky was ablaze with scarlet flame and , wakening nodding  Nature to fresh life, the last storm of that year broke in a majestic fury , as if at the height of Summer.”               

A Review of Sashi Tharoor’s Nehru : The Invention of India

 

Sashi Tharoor’s work, Nehru : The Invention of India  gives an amiable as well as an objective portrait of Nehru. Nehru’s evolution from an indifferent  youth to passionate patriot to national  leader to  become the  first prime minister of India . He has discovered India through his writings ,  experiences and international outlook which made him an outstanding leader. Motilal Nehru and other members of his family joined Nehru in national movement and the father recognised early the man of destiny in him. Nehru gave up an aristocratic life style in favour of life of hardships which moulded his character in to a fiery nationalist . To him Gandhi was a father figure .Though his scepticism made him doubt Gandhi’s political judgements, he came round in the end. He was a democrat to the core and wrote an anonymous article against himself in which he opposed personality cult. His secularism, Socialist ideas leading to introduction of  planning in independent India and his balancing through non-aligned movement in the era of cold war gave him a lot of recognition on the world stage. But Tharoor criticizes his emphasis on  the public sector which was finally given up in favour of privatization in 1990’s by the government of Late  P.V. Narsimha Rao-led Congress government. Tharoor ‘s  beautiful and captivating style offers  an intimate and warm  profile of the champion democracy who refused to shake hands with Fascism and corresponded with chief ministers of the States in the interests of federalism. Though Chinese turnaround  and a war lost caused him a lot of anguish to him who supported China before and after its independence for its liberation and rightful place in the UN. His relations with his colleagues such as Patel, Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Ambedkar are cordial despite differences in their  approach. Nehru treaded a middle ground between the Right and the Left and did his best to retain the unity of various groups in the party. He could not but accept Partition forced by the British but he never compromised regarding secularism and remained a beacon of hope to lay foundation for industrialization of India. He experienced an intense loneliness as an individual but dedicated his entire life for the glory of India and upholding the principle of unity in diversity. His Kashmir policy attracted a  lot of criticism but he never believed in theocratic approach to the problem and His failures if any were due to excessive trust in others . He evinced a passionate desire for  international peace in the era of cold war in which nuclear threat loomed large.                            

Rereading Barrister Parvateesam After Four Decades

 

Barrister Parvateesam is a novel that delights as well as instructs. It uses humour to expose cultural differences between the east and the West. Written a century ago , it still is highly readable although it language seems somewhat remote now but relevant at the time of writing .

In the first   part we find Parvateesam in his childhood , school life, adolescence in which he  joins nationalist movement to the cost of education resulting in failure in studies and  later decision to go  abroad to become a barrister. It is the most humorous part depicting pranks in school days, competition for place in merit order and initially he comes out on flying colours. His father chides him for failure  and asks him to look after agriculture. Then Parvateesam leaves his village without  informing his parents. His train journey shows many humorous incidents from taking ticket, tying his bundle to chain used to stop the train, use of washroom . When he gets down in Madras he haggles with cart drivers, changes  his hairstyle, buys  sundry things which are needed in England , goes to a shopping mall and falls while trying to walk on tiles instead of on carpet. On board steamer to Colombo to Marseilles, he faces troubles due to his vegetarianism, sea sickness and uncertainity about his future.                

In the second part written after forty six years at the behest of Narla Venkateswara Rao and Puranam Subramanya Sarma  , the reputed editors  of Andhra Jyoti , the novelist  shows subtle humour arising out of cutural clash. Parvateesam reached London and was fortunate to have  a friend like Menen and later Raju to allay is fears in the beginning stage.  Menen familiarizes him with life in England taking him to otels. Picture houses and explaining intricacies of social behaviour. Raju helps Parvateesam a lot. When Parvateesam joins Barrister at law In Edinburgh university, Raju helps  him find a residence, familiarizes the apt  behaviour , takes him to  picture houses  and familiarizes him with games like golf. Parvateesam soon learns things quickly , becomes a good player of golf and earns name whne he recites Telugu poems in the presence of  Anant  Kumara swamy . Duggirala Gopala Krishnaiah, later a veteran freedom movement leader appreciates him a lot .  Parvateesam’s experiences in his rented house with his land lady and her two daughters as a good soul. He puts up with their pranks and takes them to see plays .  his love with a  Scottish girl shows him as a young man given to emotions but prudent enough not to cause nay suffering to his family. He realises his limitations and bids her farewell with much anguish. While on return journey, he and other passengers pass through a perilous journey due to the world war going on at the time.  In the part we find Parvateesam growing into a man of good manners. Knowledge, responsibility and unblemished  moral sense. Humour comes out in misunderstanding new cultural norms . Two examples are that Paravateesam when invited to a party feels shy to ask for washroom in host’s house and urinates at the street cornet and even discloses it thoughtlessly. He also takes to task one new comer from India who goes to an evening  party in the morning itself and wants to stay there even in the night without bothering about inconvenience to his hosts.                   

In part three, we find Parvateesam’s return to his native place, the innocent questions by the curious villagers about his life and education there . It is like the coming back of Ulysses. Here the novelist describes the foreign returnee’s reflections, loneliness , agreeing for  arranged marriage thanks to the trick by his friend and well wisher Raju . The protagonist enjoys reunion with his parents , their love and affection and initial reluctance to tie the knot and final succumbing to tradition. The story is told in a style of subtle humour. Paravteesam goes to Madras and meets eminent lawyers such as Narayana Murty and Tanguturi  Prakasam( the real character in Andhra history) and becomes a practising  lawyer in high court . He also gets his wife Saraswati educated .He gains name in a short span  but both of them  he slowly gets attracted to nationalist movement, meet stalwart leaders like Duggirala Gopalakrishnaiah   at the cost of his practice and economic status. He relates many humorous anecdotes in lawyering.  He gets very active in nationalist movement  , finds the increasing suppression of the people in movement by the  British , gets disillusioned by lack of ethics in lawyering  practice and undergoes  even jail term in the cause of freedom movement. At last he goes back to his native place, refuses his father-in-law’s advice to carry on his practice and decides to listen to his father who wants to take care of their agricultural lands. We find a sort of parallel between this part and Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao’s ‘Chaduvu’ . The difference is that Sundaram’s saga has completely happened in India where as Parvateesam is a foreign returnee. But both of them have got influenced by traditional mores and also  national movement . Their education has not turned them into careerists but as people who responded to the call of the nation.  

The novel has a few things which are  more  politically incorrect  these days. His reference to nonvegetarian food as ‘malakoodu’ and depicting the reaction of the other  customers at   his entry  in a  hotel ‘as if they saw an untouchable amidst brahmin meal’ in the first part. But this only reflects the bias of the novelist  prevailing at the time  and even now casteism has not been eradicated completely from  our social system. The travails of Parvateesam are reflection of conflicts faced by the    middle class and upper caste  Indian youth  caught in the cultural conflict between the East and the West a century ago.