Grandfather’s love takes wing in poetry

Book review

Metro India News | Hyderabad 

Yarlagadda Raghavendra Rao, who has left his distinct imprint as the editor of reputed literary magazines 'Vipula and Chatura' and has travelled extensively through the world of literature, has now taken up his pen to create a beautiful poetic work titled ‘Thummeda Rekkala Meedha Muvvenela Aakaasham’ roughly translated ‘The Sky of Tricolour Rainbows on the Wings of a Bumblebee’ is not merely a collection of 63 poems but an extraordinary work of affection and love, in which a grandfather lovingly observes, experiences and records every tiny moment of his granddaughter ‘Avyana’s’ childhood.

The opening dedication

“To golden little Avyana, the granddaughter who transformed my heart into a stream of moonlight…”—beautifully announces the fragrance of love that permeates the entire book. Every poem seems to have emerged naturally from the depths of lived experience and the innermost tremors of the heart. The words are not merely written; they appear to have been lived first and written later.

Telugu literature, as well as world literature, has given us many memorable works about children. Yet the way Raghavendra Rao has captured the 365-day journey from a child’s birth to her first birthday, transforming each little movement, smile, gesture and giggle into 63 individual poems, is indeed a rare and remarkable experiment.  One of the most striking qualities of this collection is the manner in which 'Vatsalya—the tender, unconditional affection of a grandparent—is woven into every poem as an invisible inner rhythm'. It is not merely a theme, it is the very breath of the poetry.

When the poet playfully declares, “At any gathering of poets from now on, who could possibly be a greater poet than me? Ah… who indeed?!” the words reveal not merely the confidence of a poet, but the innocent pride of a grandfather who is completely immersed in love for his granddaughter. Another noteworthy feature of the book is that each original Telugu poem is accompanied by its English translation on the facing page. Translators Kalluri Shyamala, Mandalaparthi Kishore and Savyasachi have rendered these beautiful Telugu poems into English with remarkable naturalness, retaining their tenderness, emotional warmth and poetic fragrance.

This book is precisely such a treasure

The deep emotional undercurrent within Yarlagadda Raghavendra Rao’s poetry makes this collection a distinctive contribution to Telugu literature on Vatsalya, offering us an intimate and beautiful portrait of grandfatherly love. One day, when Avyana grows up and turns these pages, she may discover something far more precious than a record of her childhood. She will discover her grandfather’s heart.

She will find his love hidden in every word, his wonder in every image, his affection in every line—and perhaps realize that before she could understand the meaning of love, she had already become its meaning in her grandfather’s life. And for little Avyana, it is perhaps the most priceless gift a grandfather could ever leave behind—a childhood that will never fade, because it has been preserved forever in the immortality of poetry.

- N. Vijaya Raghava Reddy