EDITORIAL.
Nidadavolu Malathi
March 2010.
This number features a woman writer from the sixties, who has been just as zealous then as now. I met
Sivaraju Subbalakshmi (Venkata Subbalakshmi) in August 2009 and was taken as much by her zest and
as her convictions. Her convictions may not be up-to-date, nevertheless, they speak of a generation, who
did not have the advantages some of today’s women have. Her lifestyle and the ability to speak her mind
freely are notable for me. I hope you will find the article equally educational. While she had several good
stories to her credit, I chose the one story which reflected her personality, as I saw a few months back.
The story, Traveling in a Ladies’ Compartment, brings out her sense of humor and depicts the humor we,
the Telugu people, enjoy in our day-to-day lives.
Some of you might have read the article on Bhandaru Acchamamba by Kondaveeti Satyavati on this site
and another story, Women’s Education. The present story, The Lakshmi Puja Day, [Dhana trayodasi] is
significant in the history of Telugu literature. The Telugu original, dhana trayodasi, was published in
November 1902 in a historically significant women’s magazine, Hindusundari. Some scholars maintain that
she is the first writer, regardless of gender, to write a short story with a sense of structure in the modern
sense. The story, The Lakshmi Puja Day, vouches for this claim.
The author, Bhandaru Acchamamba (1874-1905), is a pioneer in the women’s movement and the women’
s education movement. Her monumental work, Abala Saccharitra Ratnamala, [Biographies of outstanding
women in 3 volumes] was not completed before she died in 1905. Nevertheless, it is considered a pioneer
work for its design and content. The volumes were planned to cover the biographies of women in history,
women in Hindu mythology, and women abroad, vouching for her breadth of knowledge and outlook.
The story, The Gift of Forgiveness, depicts our values at two levels at least—the teacher-student
relationship on one level and the duty of a professional at another level. The author, Dr. Kolakaluri
Enoch, is a celebrated writer, who has been writing short stories, mostly in the regional language of
Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh, and also, issues confronting the dalits. In the story under reference, he
portrays the internal struggle of a doctor, who is forced to choose between his commitment to his work
and moral obligation to his teacher and mentor.
Dr. Enoch has a style of his own, which appears to be elaborate, repetitive and, at times, even disjointed.
He makes the best use of this style to hammer the point home with the precision of a electric screwdriver.
I have stated on numerous occasions that translating Telugu stories implies reinterpreting them because
of the peculiarities mentioned above. I urge the readers to keep an open mind and read them for they are
attempting to convey.
Happy reading!
Nidadavolu Malathi
March 3, 2010.