Travelling ravenously!

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – This remark of Ibn Battuta was so apt for Jayati Lohitakashan, who have penned the book titled ‘Adavininchi Adaviki’ by travelling ravenously. In the book, Jayathi Lohitakshan has unveiled a new era in Telugu literature. The book published by Matti Mudranalu, Nalgonda, was released recently. In his preface Sri Vadrevu Chinna Veerabhadrudu, an intellect and a literary critic termed it is first-of-its-kind in Telugu literature.

Although in past there were many travelogues in Telugu literature, ho but this anthology of travel is quite dissimilar. Further, this book is not penned by a renowned writer or by a poet but by a lover of nature – Jayati and Lohithakshan, these two travel enthusiasts live together as two bodies and one mind. It is no secret that they are living with great self-contentment, literally by making sky as roof and earth as ground. The book has Jayathi's travel experiences from the villages of Chattisgarh, Eastern Ghats, Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari, Araku to Pulicat Lake and the Western Ghats.

The book brings the unseen scenic beauty of these places. The writer is influenced by Santoka Taneda, a Japanese roving poet, who wrote beautiful haikus on nature. Jayathi has succeeded to convert her heartfelt things as phrases and words precisely because she has been adored by every object of nature and proved the quote of Laura Ingalls Wilder right, "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere".

The book has an organic language that in an inexplicable manner explains about all the places that Jayati has visited. She has tried to explain the lifestyle of Chhattisgarh village women that dwell in the forest and enjoy by observing their life with contentment. Jayati tried to catch the pulse of their gratitude towards their sacred nature. She is literally fanatic of forest and having an unfulfilled thirst to experience the beauty of everything in the forest.

It is really an amazing thing to know that they have reached these places by facing many difficulties. They have visited the places by bicycles, train, and bus and were not even scared to walk to reach their destinations. They were snubbed at some places and received wholeheartedly at some places with great warmth. They tried to capture the beauty of the nature its dwellers with their DSLR camera to uncover the mystic beauty of the same.

Jayati has naturally tried to explain what she feels about everything in nature. Some lines such as "Adavi naku inka kavali (I need more than this from the forest) are crispier and thought-provoking and reflect Jayati's love on forest and her unimpeachable fondness on the forest.

- E Gajendra Nath Reddy