With more than 150 stories and novels to his name, Telugu writer B.S. Ramulu has rightfully received the first literary annual award by the Telangana Saraswatha Parishad.
He has penned prefaces to more than 175 books and has also written on 75 different topics. What the numbers do not reflect, however, is what a humanitarian he is and how challenging his life’s journey has been.
Talking about the different experiences he has had, Ramulu breaks into a monologue characteristic only to those who live, breathe and devour literature.
“Climbing mountains, falling into pits, bearing countless insults, then making my way back up on all fours, losing friends on the way and realising who my true friends are, who’ve been by my side through thick and thin... that’s what my life has been like,” says Ramulu, who has also been accorded a literary award by the Telugu University.
Ramulu started writing when he was only 13. “I started by writing small poems, showing them to teachers and feeling happy when they appreciated them. Slowly, I graduated to taking part in story-writing and essay competitions. I’d preserve those small pencils and erasers that I won as prizes. My friends nicknamed me Kavi Gaaru and I wanted to make that come true. All these little things encouraged me to become what I am today,” he says.
Ramulu, who is also a social worker, says he spreads his message through writing stories. “What’s taught in classes, we forget immediately; what’s told in speeches lasts only a few days; but what’s written in stories or novellas lasts a very long time.”
He writes on feminism, among many other topics. “Real feminism teaches us humanism and self respect. But those who confuse ego with self respect aren’t true feminists.”
Some of Ramulu’s stories focus on bringing feminism into the family. Coming from a family of beedi workers where women earn as much as men and have the same social status, feminism is a subject that is close to his heart.
The author has gone through many shifts in ideologies that are reflected in his short stories, Viluvalu, which he wrote over a few decades. The themes in the book range from Nationalism to Marxism and Naxalism. And the advice he has for budding writers is to read everything that they can lay their hands on.
