86-yr-old who transformed his residence into public library in Kerala felicitated with Padma Shri award
Kurella converted his own residence at the village into a library which comprises over 200,000 books that attracts book lovers, students and researchers from all parts of the state
“Age does not matter when one wants to fulfil one’s dreams,” was the observation made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mann Ki Baat programme two years ago, while referring to 84-year-old Vittlacharya Kurella, a retired college principal of Telangana who has been collecting books and making them available for the common man.
This unusual hobby of Kurella, even at this age, which attracted the attention of the Prime Minister, fetched him the coveted Padma Shri award from the Centre. “It is an honour not just for me, but for the entire rural Telangana. It is an encouragement for reviving the reading habit of the people,” Kurella, now 86, told reporters at his residence at Yellanki village of Ramannapet block in Yadadri Bhongir district, when the media broke the news about the Centre rewarding him with Padma Shri on Friday.
Kurella converted his own residence at the village into a library which comprises over 200,000 books that attracts book lovers, students and researchers from all parts of the state. “I have constructed another floor in my house to expand the library and accommodate more books being collected,” he said.
Kurella had developed a book-reading habit during his school days in late ‘30s. As he could not afford buying books, he used to borrow books from friends and teachers. He always wished to set up a library with a collection of rare books, but it remained a dream for several decades.
He began his career as a Telugu teacher and retired as a degree college principal in 1993. During his service, he collected a good number of books. In 2014, he remodelled his old house at Yellanki and constructed a big hall on the ground floor to accommodate around 5,000 books.
Subsequently, Kurella started making appeals to all his friends, well-wishers, poets and writers to donate books for his library, which began growing into a massive collection. It is now attracting the attention of several research scholars in several universities in Telangana including Osmania University, Kakatiya University.
“As many as eight research scholars got their PhDs based on the information gathered from my library. A couple of scholars are doing research on my work as well,” he said.
Pioneer in Yakshaganam
Another unsung hero from Telangana, who was conferred with Padma Shri award is 67-year-old Gaddam Sammaiah, who has mastered the traditional folk art of “Chindu Yakshaganam.”
A native of Devaruppula village of Jangaon district, Sammaiah performed 19,000 shows over the last five decades, even while eking out his livelihood as an agriculture labourer. He learnt his art from his parents, who were also stage-performers.
Apart from depicting mythological stories in Chindu Yakshaganam shows, Sammaiah also improvised the art to promote social awareness by adopting subjects like girl child literacy, environmental conservation and gender discrimination.
Hailing from Damarigadda village of Narayanpet district, 63-year-old Kondappa is considered to be the only living exponent of Burra Veena, an indigenous stringed instrument made with bamboo, gourd shell and metal strings. He is now giving training to a few students in his area on playing Burra Veena.
Kondappa sings ‘Tatvalu’, socio-religious moral compositions and spiritual and philosophical renditions in Telugu and Kannada. He gave a few programmes in Doordarshan and has become recently popular with his song in Telugu film “Balagam,” which has become a superhit.
