Avasarala Ramakrishna Rao was a Telugu short story writer. His works include Sampengalu-Sannajajulu i.e., Michelia Champaca and Jasmine flowers), Ketu-Dupliketu (i.e., The mischievous and his duplicate), Pekamukkalu (i.e., The playing cards) and Astipanjaram i.e., The skeleton), Rasavadgita, a pun on Bhagavad Gita), Kadilinche katha (i.e., A moving story).

Early life

Ramakrishna was born in Tuni in

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district. He worked as a Mathematics and

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teacher there before he did M.A. in English. He had a Ph.D. on George Orwell from

Andhra University Andhra University ( IAST: ''Āndhra Vișvakalāpariṣhat'') is a public university located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1926. History King Vikram Deo Verma, the Maharaja of Jeypore was one of the biggest d ...

Literary career

Ramakrishna began his literary career at the age of 17. He authored more than 600

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

, 15 novels and 4

children's novels Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

. He was known for his wit and humor. Apart from his short stories, he wrote a number of one-act plays, songs and poems for

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and literary magazines, essays on mathematics and science. Avasarala's feature 'Mathe-me-tricks' (మేథ-में-Tricks i.e., tricks to solve Mathematical problems easily) was carried regularly in the children's magazine, Bala Jyothi ( te, బాలజ్యోతి i.e., Light for kids), with a silver jubilee run. This feature posed interesting logical, analytical or mathematical problems every month and the readers would send their answers to win the prize. At the time of his death, he was writing a column called 'Angrezi-Made-Easy' (i.e., English made easy) for a leading Telugu daily. He contributed regularly to book reviews and a feature called Sebhashitaalu ( te, శభాషితాలు, a pun on Subhashitalu) in the Telugu edition of ''

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''. According to him, his most satisfying work is Pekamukkalu, a compilation of the short stories published in various magazines over the past 52 years.

Personality

He described himself in the following four lines. In teaching? Non-stop fun! In writing? Evergreen pun! Even at seventy-one I enjoy being two-in-one! Although he taught

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, his writings were in Telugu. His writings reflected his critical views of society and he chose harsh words to describe it according to himself. He was an atheist and wanted people to move from 'foolish faith to pragmatism'. His favorite writers were Ranganayakamma and Volga, both Telugu female writers.

Awards

He won the Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Academy award for his anthology of short stories Ardhamunna Kadhalu ( te, అర్థమున్న కథలు i.e., Stories with a meaning) in 1969. He was the recipient of "Best Writer in Humour" award of Sri Potti Sriramulutu Telugu University in 1994 and Delhi Telugu Academy's Ugadi Puraskar in 2000. He was felicitated by the Andhra Sanskriti Sangham, Chandigarh in 2000.

Death

He underwent a bypass surgery at NIMS, after which he developed complications leading to death. As he wished, his body was donated to the Osmania Medical College for research. He is survived by wife and son.

References