These fifteen stories reflect contemporary cultural changes in Indian families. They stand witness to social, political and economic changes in globalized India and are in a way histories told from below. The writer’s interests are wide-ranging from children and women issues to unethical practices in professions, to devastation of farmers’ lives and to environmental degradation. Her empathy with the world of nature, keen observation of little creatures and plants and trees is unparalleled, and nature is the real friend to her lonely characters. However, damaging the current divisive and destructive forces are, her characters fight against these at times boldly and at others quietly, and live in hope and find happiness while playing positive role in other’s lives.
The oeuvre of Chandra Latha reflects how women writers begin with autobiographical writings and slowly and steadily emerge to be classical writers who could transform their writings into microcosms of the contemporary world. She is very adept at choosing striking themes from the life around her and in giving a suitable form to them as chiselled works of art. She is among the very few who tried their hand at many genres – short story, novel and essay. She has successfully depicted all the phases of the lives of women from cradle to old age, from yearning for love during their upbringing by the grandmothers to old age when they crave for the endearment of their parent’s home. Chandra Latha’s stories deftly depict the nuances of women’s existential struggles. She presents the matrimonial incompatibilities of women as authentically as she depicts their loneliness against the backdrop of the social, political and economic milieu of the period. As an environmentalist, she reflects the precarious condition of humans who lived as a part of nature in the past and then paid the penalty for transforming nature into a mundane commodity.
An unpretentious style, idiomatic expression, objective outlook and thought-provoking narrative make Chandra Latha’s stories unique and significant. Jayaprada’s translation of these stories has successfully captured the essential spirit of the original stories through felicitous expressions which precisely retain the tender and delicate native flavours.
MADHURANTHAKAM NARENDRA, Writer
Each story has a message and in some stories the message is made obvious while in some others it is left to the reader to infer. However, all the stories reflect on common life experiences and cover areas such as education and its status, family and married life, evils of dowry, infidelity, parent child relationships, red-tapism in administration and what have you. Each story picks up on a social problem and presents it in the form of an intense drama. However, the pessimism that sets in is warded off by providing a hope for the future…Each story leaves the reader with a question, a question that can neither be answered nor has a perceivable answer. That makes the collection worth reading again and again.
In conclusion, a word about the translator is essential. Prof Jayaprada is a recognized translator (by the Sahitya Akademi) and has been in this job for over three decades. She taught English at the prestigious Andhra University. Being a native speaker of Telugu, she understands its nuances and is able to succinctly capture them in English, and this is no mean task. In short, she has enriched the Indian writing in English by contributing this volume to its repertoire.
S. MOHANRAJ, IJELLS (International Journal of English: Literature, Language and Skills)
(Link to full review – https://www.ijells.com/volume-12-issue-4-2/)
Many stories here are grounded in the sights, sounds and smells of the countryside even when there is a brief detour to the dazzling urban world.
DIVYA SHANKAR (review on Instagram)
CHANDRA LATHA
Dr CHANDRA LATHA broke into the Telugu literary scene with the publication of Regadi Vittulu in 1997 when she won the Telugu Association of North America award in a competition for her novel depicting the lives of farmers during the green revolution. Her other novels include Vardhani (1995) dealing with the psychology of a spoilt child brought up in a joint family, Drushyadrshyam focusing on environmental issues arising from the displacement of a village in submersion, and Vallu Veellu Paarijaataalu (2011) sensitively depicting honour killings and khap panchayaths.
Her short fiction – compiled in Nenu nanna navutha (1996), Idam Sareeram (2003), Vivarnam (2007) and Bottetti (2020) – delineates issues ranging from concerns of women and children, to cultural effects of globalization, medical advances and software boom on individual lives. Her non-fiction describes the demands of environmental and socioeconomic issues: Chepa Legara Vaccu! (Fish can fly!) Vacche Daretu (2010), Itanala Kadavaku Eeboothi Botlu (2010). Her latest novel Neelumpuraasi (2022) is a thoroughly researched historical novel that deals with indigo farming and trade in the 19th century Andhra Pradesh by the colonialists.
C.L.L. JAYAPRADA
Dr C.L.L. JAYAPRADA retired from Andhra University having taught English Literature for thirty years. She is a bilingual translator with more than half a dozen published works to her credit: He Conquered the Jungle (Macmillan, 1998); Purusha Ahankaraniki Sawal (Hyderabad Book Trust); Stories of Tenali Raman (CBT); Yagnam and Other Stories (Sahitya Akademi, 2006), Beyond the Backyard: Telugu Women Writers’ Contemporary Stories with P. Sathyavathi and V. Pratima (Sahitya Akademi, 2019) and Sri Narayana Guru (TTD). She won the Jyeshta Literary Award for Translation in 2000. She has published more than 80 stories in Telugu and English national journals. Her English translation of Tirumala Ramachandra’s autobiography From Hampi to Harappa shall be published by Sahitya Akademi. Her major interests are postcolonial writing, women’s stories and children’s books.
Ratna Books 