Stories that have distilled life

“When we are born we are in conflict with the world, when we die we are in conflict within ourselves. Without conflict there is no birth, no death. There is no life.”

Not only on the soil of Telangana, but also across India, the life of man has become extremely conflicted in the last four decades. The lives of the masses have become more conflicted. That’s why writers and movies are taking care of the lives of the lower classes more than before and strongly portraying the aspects that are not available to the characters. Storytellers who have come from the masses are doing this work more cautiously. Sides of life that are not usually found in poetry are well reflected in stories. Emerging writer Sheelam Bhadraiah is writing such stories with a touch of humanity. Sheelam Bhadraiah, who created a sensation in Telugu narrative literature with his first collection of stories called ‘Lottapesu Pulu’ in 2021, is another story collection ‘Gangeddu’.

In 1956 Dr. Palla Durgaiah published the poem ‘Gangireddu’. In it, the life of those who earn their living by playing the game of Gangireddu and the tricks of Gangireddu are told. This ‘Gangeddu’ story volume which is now being made global by Sheelam Bhadraiah is different in form and nature. Palla Durgaiah ‘Gangireddu’ Muppathika Muvvisam (Almost) is a sadhu (Innocent) in nature. But Sheelam Bhadraiah’s contempt for ‘Gangeddu’ was burning brimstone. This ‘Gangeddu’ is not the type to listen to what the dominant classes say. The kind who avenges the injustice done to his master’s family.

There is a new look that shows support to the poor and homeless people of the village against all odds. Sheelam Bhadraiah is a writer who examines people’s lives from a very close perspective. That is why he stood on the side of the people and showed the people as the winners in every story with a public perspective. No life is lost in any story. There is no story of without winning life. None of the stories ended in death except the story of ‘Kagada’. All the stories in this are stories that teach you to love life before death. Bringing industrialization, showing that life should not stop there if an unexpected event happens, the plight of not finding any other work except ‘Pakija’ work to swim the whole world even if generations change, the thirst for power, the need to fight till the last moment to protect one’s self indicating.

To inform that conscience is one thing no matter what we do, it always watches and warns us, to show how many lives a single ‘accident’ can change, to portray the poor state of humanity standing on the edge of ‘fear’ in the background of Corona, to remove new branches from a dead branch of life without falling off like a twig at an early age, ‘Bad Touch’. Sheelam Bhadraiah’s material diversity is immense, like teaching girls studying in school the discernment and skill to recognize something good touch, turning around the ‘hope’ inside man and turning into a worm that goes around the lamp, boiling and boiling the conflict of life, witnessing how much the villages were crushed in the armed struggle of the Telangana peasantry.

What makes the modern story unique is that what is said in a story is as important as how it is said. What is said between the lines is as important as what is left unsaid. The stories of Sheelam Bhadraiah proved that there is satire not only in poetry but also in stories. In each story, the sentence structure along with the compelling story attracts the reader. The sculptural ingenuity shown in stories like ‘Mirror’ and ‘Kurchi’ shows new ideas to new storytellers. These stories are a slap on the face to those who complain that Telangana stories are suffering from lack of sculpture.

Generally the stories are progressed in Flashback Technique, Chronological Order or Present Tense. Sheelam Bhadraiah goes beyond all these and tells the story with Slide Technic, which adds a new sculptural flavour to the story. Along with material innovation, the temptation to tell something new hangs in these stories.

The story is not interested in hitting the target directly, like an unfired arrow. Curiosity is different in some unexpected twists and turns with a bit of sparkle, a new light and an unexpected ending. The stories in this take unexpected turns and continue with great suspense and finally end somewhere. It appears to be a skill that the narrator has practised and acquired.

A typical reader notices the object of the story. But the intelligent reader examines the narrative, the sculpture, the language, the diction, the characterization, the scene design, the atmosphere, etc. For such intelligent readers, these ‘Gangeddu’ stories are a great intellectual food. Stories like ‘Paruvu’, ‘Asha’ and ‘Sangharshan’ are perfect examples of this.

Anyone who lives as a human being cannot help but be saddened by the tragic events unfolding before their eyes. Narrators are more empathetic and introspective.

Stories are written when there is some sort of worry, concern. Such stories fill the eyes with tears and the mind with emotions. If the harsh times are removed and written as stories, they will become ‘Ganta’, ‘Pakeeja’ and ‘Kagada’ stories. Seelam Bhadraiya’s stories are written by looking into himself and looking into the society.

As long as the heart is beating, we will be disturbed. We keep getting hurt. It is possible for Mercury Writers like Sheelam Bhadraiah to give them a narrative form. There are many fragments of stories floating around us. It’s a good skill to keep them in the loop and weave them into stories. The stories of ‘Siggu’, ‘Bad Touch’ and ‘Conflict’ are good examples of this.

Kagada is a unique story in this collection of stories. The background of this is Telangana peasant armed struggle. On the occasion of 75 years of this struggle, it is a good attempt by the narrator to convey the legacy of the armed struggle to the present generation. The story begins with description, continues with dialogue and finally ends with Maybelli’s death. After reading the story, the character of Maybelli will haunt you for many days. The language used by the storytellers, the proverbs used in the context, the characters, their natures, the names of the characters, etc., many aspects of the story make the storyteller a public writer. All the stories in this book have unveiled Sheelam Bhadraiah as a public storyteller. For any story to be given some place in the hearts of the readers, Human Touch and Readability should be two qualities. This is a storybook that has plenty of these two qualities. To make people think, to bring the witness of life into the stories as realistically are the basic features that stories should have. It can be said that Sheelam Bhadraiah has achieved these effectively. It can be noticed that the narrator uses words like ‘Ibrikam’, ‘Namarda’, ‘Rosina’ and ‘Tabedu’ which have slipped out of the story. Many such words which are not included in the dictionaries can be collected through these stories. It is a reference book for linguistic researchers.

It can be said for sure that after reading these stories, people will feel more humane. The author has perfectly succeeded in capturing the mentality, nature and life of Telangana people. These 14 stories introduce the lives of two rainbows.

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