Karthik further said that it is very difficult to pursue education, especially if one is living in a tribal community.
Hyderabad: A collection of poems on the lives of tribals from Telangana’s Nizamabad district has been included in the MA Telugu Language and Literature course at the Andhra Pradesh University, according to the 25-year-old writer, who hails from a tribal community himself.
The poetry collection titled “Balder Bandi,” is by 25-year-old Nunnavath Karthik who hails from Nizamabad District and writes under the pen name of Ramesh Karthik Nayak. He has published three books namely Balder Bandi, Dhaavlo and Kesula.
“I write poetry and short stories in Telugu and English. I published 3 books which include a poetry collection, a short story collection and a compilation with Professor Surya Dhananjay about Gor Banjara. I am a tribal writer who writes about Banjara tribe. Recently my first debut poetry collection has been selected for the MA syllabus. Previously also one of my poems was inscribed into the degree syllabus in Telugu. I am very happy that my poems have been getting incorporated and getting more attention”.
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Karthik further said that it is very difficult to pursue education, especially if one is living in a tribal community.
“But I made something better and I learned a language to express my feelings and tell the people about our community. I never found any stories to read in Telugu or English, so I started writing poems and short stories”, Nayak added. Nyak added that since childhood he used to draw sketches in his school.
“I started writing captions for sketches and eventually moved into poetry. My language teachers have encouraged me a lot. I took inspiration from the works of people like Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ravi Shastri in Telugu and professor Surya Dhananjay. However, I was always searching for stories related to my community. I wanted to read them”, Nayak added.
Speaking about the poetry collection ‘Balder Bandi’, he says, “Actually, those poems are my childhood poems. I haven’t written much poetry after growing up as I moved into short stories. When I came to Hyderabad to pursue my diploma education, I was not interested in pursuing it.
But my parents thought that if I pursue a diploma I can get a good job and salary. I pretended like I was pursuing my education and used the time to go to the library. I pursued my Degree and PG through distance education. However, my parents are very happy now that I made something which other students have not.”
Nayak said he wants to write more stories to know people and how we live our lives.
“People often have a perception that we have reservations and all the facilities from the government. We do have them, but when you look into our personal lives you see all the despairs and wretched lives. So, I want people to experience those lives through my writings,” Nayak said.
Malikarjun, another young writer and friend of Karthik said, “I am an author of four Telugu literature books. I knew Ramesh Karthik from the beginning. He was a student when I met him. He was very excited about publishing his first book ‘Balder Bandi’, a collection of his earlier poems. I was very happy for him as he was coming from a tribal background and publishing a book”.
“In less than three years of time he has three books in his hand and he is also editing and publishing other new books. I’m very happy about his success. His book was nominated for Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar twice and was also recently introduced in academics in universities. He has grown big in less than five years.
The biggest advantage and the originality in his books are his backgrounds. He takes something unique from his life and portrays them in stories. I wish him to do more better things in life and in literature, ” Malikarjun added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by HW News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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