Thursday, April 1, 2010

A new wave in the offing

The trend now in Telugu writing is to look into ourselves; look into our own. This could be called introspection in a very broad sense of the word. Well-known writers are now asked to write, not just creative or critical writing, but about how and why they have become what they are today. The best way to ponder this is to talk about themselves in as dispassionate and objective way as they can. It’s not very easy for egocentric people (most writers are just that) but the attempt by publishers is interesting and novel. What’s more, the writers have risen to the occasion and the readers seem to be liking them.

First there was the publisher from Tirupathi, a committed Telugu language promoter, Kota Purushottam who came up with the idea to find what moulded the character of each of the reputed Telugus in different fields (here it was not just literary people but reputed personalities from all walks of life, with literature taking a big slice). This book recorded one or a few incidents that influenced their life; this took those people right down to their childhood, coming up with interesting and inspirational incidents. The whole idea behind this exercise was not for the protagonists to introspect, but for the next generation to be inspired by it. It is something like a motivational book, trying to say that all extraordinary things stem from ordinary situations. It seems to have paid off, with the success and wide readership it has managed to acquire.

Full report here New Indian Express

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