A distinguished Katha

An anthology of Telugu short stories, ‘Katha’ contains 336 stories written by 156 writers, all captured in one volume, which will be released today. ‘Katha’ turns out to be the only series published continuously since its inception 25 years ago

Bringing out a mammoth anthology of 336 stories by 156 writers in a volume is not a small feat and the Manasu Foundation, which has already proved its capability of performing such herculean tasks, has to be lauded once again for it.

The encouragement that the writers received from ‘Katha’, may not be in kind, but recognising their effort during those difficult times is something remarkable. Among the 150-odd number of writers whose stories were included in ‘Katha’ series, not even a single writer left the track of serious writing in spite of luring by others.

The fact that around 50 writers still continue to write short stories, earnestly reflecting the nuances of the life of the contemporary man and championing the cause of the insulted and injured without expecting any remuneration (not even the money they spent for the stationery and postage) reflects not only the extraordinary mettle of the Telugu short story writers but also the unstinted leadership of ‘Katha’. The editors of ‘Katha’, Vasireddy Naveen and Papineni Sivasankar are to be profusely congratulated for this stupendous effort.

I still remember the days when my father collected and edited two anthologies of Telugu short stories for Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Akademi during the beginning years of 1980s, namely ‘Tholinati Telugu Kathalu’ and ‘Oka Dasaabdhi Telugu Kathalu’. It was not easy to procure the stories of those bygone days.

The mammoth Xerox machine of those days completely occupied the tower room of the library. In order to photocopy every paper, the technician had to apply chemical to the metallic surface of a rectangular square box that had to be inserted into that machine, handle the piston using a lot of force and get the paper photocopied.

By means of that strenuous effort, all those stories were copied and collected, and finally those two volumes of Telugu short stories of the past were published. That my father never considered it a job or a work and also that he took it as a sacred duty as well as his tribute to the great short story writers, is a different matter.

The AP Sahithya Akademi wanted to bring out the selected stories of the remaining decades but it didn’t materialise as AP Sahithya Akademi was then terminated by the government. National Book Trust brought out only one anthology of Telugu short stories, which was edited by Vakati Panduranga Rao and Puranam Subrahmanya Sarma – two renowned short story writers.

Central Sahithya Akademi brought out three volumes of Telugu Short Story anthologies, two of them were edited by D Ramalingam, a noted critic. In 1995 another anthology of 60 selected stories under the editorship of Vedagiri Rambabu and afterwards it has not brought any anthology of Telugu short stories.

Meanwhile, many stray anthologies were published by associations like TANA, Ranjani and HBT.
But the annual anthologies of ‘Katha’ by Kathasahithi can be easily distinguished from all the others as it is the only series, which has been published continuously since its inception in 1990.

Discussing Tamil literature, Jayakanthan said, “It could be divided into two periods, pre-Kurukshethra and post-Kurukshethra. ‘Kurukshethra’ was the name of a special journal published during the 1960s.” It is not an exaggeration to say that Telugu short stories can be divided in the same way, pre-Katha and post-Katha.

By the year 1990, the leftist influence on Telugu literature was on the wane and the entire world was on the threshold of globalisation. The ‘Katha’ series has taken the responsibility of continuing the legacy of leftism and encouraging the great human ideals of it and it has been on the same track till the day.

As it has been on the side of the common man, it is successful in predicting the onslaught of the globalisation ahead of the times and raging a relentless battle against it. The course of history of mankind is always determined by many factors but it is the duty of literature to give priority to the welfare of the common man and ‘Katha’ has been doing it humbly and determinedly. And at the same time, it has been giving due importance to art also.

During the last two-and-a-half-decades, many changes took place in Telugu literature. Feminism became a strong movement followed by Dalit and minority literatures. The progress and the growth of them can be easily noticed by reading all these anthologies.

Majority of the stories in ‘Katha’ series during the last fifteen years were published in Andhra Jyothy Sunday supplement and it has to be complimented for carrying the torch of serious literature during the hard times.

Many annual anthologies like Vardhamana Katha, Katha Sravanthi and Katha Vahini are published after the year 2000, but only spasmodically. I have to state that I too was an editor and publisher of 12 issues of annual anthologies, Kathavarshika under the aegis of a literary organisation named after my father, but stopped it two years back.