"That man on the road" ...

.. is 'contemporary telugu short fiction', edited by Ranga Rao. I bought this recently and have been reading it slowly, its not that easy a read. There are several interesting points that come to my mind.

-Translated Indian vernacular stories are quite fascinating. One enters a whole other world that people like me, steeped too much in the English language and western literature, and burgeoise (sp) upper middle class Indian experience, rarely enter. BTW, there is an excellent series called "Katha", which is a yearly anthology of translated Indian short fiction, and that was my first exposure to this flavor of writing. In the case of the current book, its obviously of particular interest to me as its all Telugu stories. The Telugu-ness is there in full measure, in the names of he authors (Boya Jangaiah, Toleti Jaganmohana Rao, Allam Rajaih ...) and the personalities portrayed in the stories. There is a real vitality to some of the stories and an addressing of contemporary problems that is quite intense. There is a anguishing tear-jerker of a story called 'Mariya' about the harsh treatment and exploitation of a poor Christian family (in the story they are called 'Kirastanis', apparently the Telugu-ization of 'Christian', something I didn't know). There are a couple of other quite affecting stories about social problems. There is one story about the diehard socialist/communist crowd that is probably still to be found in academic and journalist circles. There is a very amusing piece about one man's adventures in the stock market. There is a science fiction (!) piece called "Manava Factor". There is a wicked little story about a family trying to retain their competent but rebellious servant maid. And there is a fantastic little piece following the conversation of a husband who has been reading too much of the wrong type of poetry and is getting prejudiced against women, and his wife who handily demolishes his arguments. That story is entitled: "Can't dance ? Blame the percussionist !" and begins like this:
===
'Yemandi!'
'....'
'Why don't you respond?'
'....'
'Please take your tea'.
'....'
'Look here, it is getting cold'

===
That is so *fantastically* (to my mind) evocative of an Indian family milieu. It even happens at our (ie. mine and Priya's) house now and then. Its great fun trying to back-translate:

"Yemandi!"
...
"Ami badulu chepparantandi ?"
...
"Tea theeskondi"
..
"Idigo chuudanadi, tea challaripothunnadi"

===

The last few lines of the story are like this:
(Husband) "I never imagined that you are so fair-minded. Don't you deserve a reward for this ?"

"Stop it!"

"You haven't displayed any so far, where has this modesty come from?"

====

Ahem... anyway, as you can see I am quite taken with the book.
There is a very erudite afterword by the editor Ranga Rao. BTW, the name Ranga Rao and his book "Fowl Filcher" are a fragment from my memory from way back, but I vaguely assumed he was Kannada (probably confusing him with Raja Rao) and found out with this book that he is Telugu. He discusses some fine points of translation, and also talks about the current state of telugu literature. According to him, current telugu writing is vibrant and in good shape. Nowadays we are seeing more writing from the backward Telengana and Rayalaseema area which is a welcome trend, as well as more Dalit and women writers.