Tuesday, January 21, 2020

THe sea side bride




The Sea Side Bride

“Don’t let winter enter your house
If old age knocks on your door
Don’t let him in
Let he be told , you are not home”
Says Devulapalli Krishna Sastri, The famous Telugu poet.
 This  comes  true in “The Sea side bride”, recently written by my 94 year young friend Dasu Krishna Moorty .A very interesting auto fiction for sure.
Life is a series of highs and lows, but it is also a many splendoured thing when we look back at it .of course it depends on the glasses we look through.
“Old age also is the time we relive the past merely by reminiscing…….” Says he.
“At ninety three I use the computer for a minimum of eight hours ,mostly mining the Google ,which is my dictionary, encyclopedia .pharmacopeia and also cornucopia .I compare it to Krishna’s mouth containing the universe” says this nonagenarian writer, who loves ,nature, literature , music and life with all its colors and their hues.
“The Sea Side Bride” has in its first part, the memories of his palatial house with a number of rooms, a printing press with its own powerhouse and a car. His was a life of    opulence in his childhood and youth at Bezwada .Afterwards, his family moved to Hyderabad of Nizam state, but  his school and college education was at Bezwada.  . The second half has anecdotes from his life called” Stories” and the third part is about his immigration, his life in America and, the transformation of his loneliness into creativity. Cracking the infinity of time and, breaking the silence. Starting a web site along with his daughter, he began translating Telugu stories into English and publishing anthologies. That way getting in touch with many Telugu writers. And one of them is me an old aquintance ,rediscovered in that process .
This book also enlightens us on how the cities looked at that time of his life .The pre independence Bezwada with two cinema theatres and only ten motor cars seen on the roads, the railway station of Bezwada .dividing the town into old and new. With its three canals,  it looked   Venetian. The erstwhile Nizam state capital Hyderabad, and the then Barkatpura and its chaman.  At that time .Barkatpura was a posh area   where the officials and rich people lived. His father rented two flats in a beautiful house .By that time he had completed studying Law in Belgaum and was waiting to take up a job,  he was not interested in. That was the perfect time for romantic thoughts and he found his dream girl in a small cottage like house opposite his vantage window .Being a lover of music and nature our writer is no less romantic.He wooed the girl and told his mother about his love .But the girl’s parents were rather afraid to give the girl in marriage to our writer because of the girl’s low financial status and rustic background. The girl went away to her village .our writer took it stoically and proceeded to join in journalism course started at Osmania university just then. His father being a journalist once did not object to his taking up that course. That being the birth of a renowned journalist and writer. From here we come across the title story “The Sea side bride” .The girl who hailed from Bapatla a village on the sea shore and famous for its jasmines. He liked her and married her. Theirs was a happy companionship with great concern for each other.  Their daughter who won a National scholarship at high school level and  later did her PH.D in the  United States Of America  and married the  boy of her choice. He writes about his fever in a train journey to Chennai. A theft in his house at Delhi, about a renewed friendship after a long pause, about jettisoning the junk where he locates valuable memorabilia. The junking becomes a long process .As a journalist in prestigious news papers he attends various press conferences in various countries  and had  varied experiences .one such experience  was to know how we  form stereotypical opinions about people and countries mostly by the influence of media..And how those opinions turn out   to be false . When a Pakistani and A Bangla Deshi help the writer in a plane journey   and reveal their ambition for friendship between our two countries, he wonders how we fall into the trap of politicians and the media. In addition to the stories in lighter vein about getting his birth certificate in Bezwada ,confiscication of the cutlery in the Newark airport and never getting it  back and a couple of similar ones with wit and humor.  The story about his wife’s leaving this world. Her last rites. and his departure to America, grief still sitting in his heart, his sobbing  alone, are touching to the core   He transformed his lonliness in  the wood and  glass house  in the United States of America  into creativity  . He could see the flowers in the garden from behind the window glass  .where he was alone until the three people returned home ,.It took a little time to acclimatize and adapt. .He captures the golden moments when he went on a   road trip with his wife in America .The first time the couple visited their daughter and gave her a kanjivaram Saree as a blessing to the mother to be. KrishnaMoorty garu likes Raymond Carver. and Haruki Murakami.His style is simple, witty and at the same time touching.
This book is a welcome gift to the reader who wishes to know the transformation of the society from the early 20th century until this day. A seasoned   journalist and writer, Krishna Moorty garu is quite abreast of the times and his memories  are a treasure trove for the posterity.I know it is mind over the matter.I am proud to be known to him,to become friends with him  and to get this book as a gift from him.
P.Sathyavathi
vijayawada