Jalagandam and Other Narratives

I had ambitions of literary writing right from my school days, originated, driven and developed by my involvement with the Panchayathi Board Library at my native place (detailed in one of the narratives here).  However much I tried I could not put a few lines together.  During my SSLC time, I was reading the humorous plays by Shree Bhamidipaati Kaameswara Rao, a very popular Thelugu writer.  I read almost all his works in the library.  One day I picked up one of his plays, copied it and modified to the best of my ability.  I worked on this for some days more, adding bits and pieces, some from his other plays.  After a few days I picked up some courage and took it to the class and read it to my classmates.  Everyone was quite impressed and praised me.  But there was one ‘idiot’ who said, ‘This is not yours.  Most of it is from the plays of Bhamidipaati Kaameswara Rao’.  The balloon was pricked and I was crestfallen. Then it was a case of ‘once bitten, twice shy.’

The next serious attempt at literary writing was when I was doing research in the University.  This was triggered by the then suddenly popular so-called ‘revolutionary poetry’ put out by a bunch of nascent left wingers.  The repulsiveness of the narrative in this poetry enraged me and led me into writing some 17 or 18 page poetic commentary, nearly in the left winger style.  My roommate (also my name sake), KS Kameswara Rao, who was doing research in history, advised me to hold it for some time.  Slowly, with pressures of work, it was out of my mind, and now it is somewhere in my old papers, almost totally irrelevant to the present times.  About the same time I penned a long story, half autobiographical, but did not have the courage to send it out for publication, as some people about whom I was critical in it, were still alive and could easily be identified.  This too slipped into the oblivion.