Gangamma Poolu: Stories of Rural Struggles

With a very apt and powerful title “Gangamma Poolu” this collection has 15 stories - each one with a unique storyline in an interesting narrative form. Each story stands out powerfully with an identity of its own, revolving around Social Inequality, Rural Hardships and most importantly focusing on times of water scarcity and concomitant issues of Telangana region. These stories weave a rich tapestry of underprivileged lives and the bad times they endure. The stories mock at the social injustices through impactful articulation.
With more than 120 stories in his repertoire, and as the First Writer in Residence at Rashtrapati Bhavan and as the Sahitya Akademi First Yuva Puraskar Winner in Telugu, Dr Vempalli Gangadhar enjoys a high stature as an established writer with a powerful voice. He espouses the Dalit identity and the woes of sub cultural groups and their economic conditions.
The cruel mendacity by which the wealthy, greedy men lure poor farmers to cultivate opium poppy is clearly depicted in the story - “Tella Deyyam Poolu” the mental battles they fight to bring some semblance of normalcy into their lives, how a woman takes a bold step to control an otherwise unavoidable terrible situation forms the story.
Gangamma is the village deity who is worshipped with great reverence- almost every village will have a Gangamma temple. Every year a Fair or a temple festival is held in the honour of the deity. In arid, drought-stricken regions like Rayalaseema, which forms the backdrop of the story “Gangamma Poolu”, the rural folk, desperately in need of water, will try digging very deep at two points only to be disappointed deeply. They then will appease their presiding deity Gangamma and nature brings smiles into their lives in the form of sumptuous rain filling the cracked earth, empty wells and water bodies.
There are stories based on caste oppression, land struggles, silent battles, portrayal of authoritative uncouth men, the helpless subjugated women, the lives of children who live in denial etc. “Garuda Pachha”, “Mayura Khedam”, “Boggula Manisha”, “Kaalamukham” deserve a mention for their powerful themes.
Gangadhar has woven stories interlinking the daily struggles of marginalized lives and the society ridden with bias and preferences. The humanitarian angle he brings in infuses empathy and understanding in the minds of receptive readers. Though he soaks few stories in morbid sadness, in the end he produces a silver lining to them-also one or two stories are open ended, leaving the closure to the imagination of the readers.
Vadrevu Chinaveerabhadrudu who is an eminent Telugu poet, short story writer, translator, critic and a retired IAS officer, in his Foreword avers - “Three abilities are required for a writer to turn an experience into a Story, first, to have seen or experienced the fact firsthand, to narrate what was seen or experienced personally very convincingly, and third, most importantly, to be able to send the response of that fact or experience directly into the heart of the readers. These stories prove that Gangadhar has all these three abilities as a storyteller”.
Certainly, writers like Gangadhar bring to focus many ills pervading our society through his stories in sensitively crafted narrative style. His passionate and raw expressions in regional dialect directly hits the bull’s eye. No wonder Gangadhar voice as a storyteller is one of the most compelling contemporary voices that documents the harsh realities of marginalized lives.