APRIL RELEASE

Sunil K Poolani sent me the edited version of content of my book titled Stories of Love and Beauty by email on 31 March 2010. Now it is my turn to go through it all and check if anything needs to be changed in terms of content here and there. I am attending this work from this afternoon keeping my personal diary editing work aside for a while. I would complete it at the earliest and send it back to Poolani for some little more pre-production work and then print of the book.

I will add a passport size photo of mine on the last cover of the book along with the little description of this book. The creator of a work of art is a sensible human being. He has a visible human form. I think others have a right to see him or her. Seeing photos develops our attachment with or detachment from others. Merely text can't do it. Let the response from readers be positive or negative, a writer's photo must be there in a book, I presume. He is not a solitary, sick and forsaken bird. He is a tangible creature in society. Let others see and communicate with him, if any. We are seeing the photos of many humans in different places now as part of our modernity and fashion. I believe some writers are not less than these creatures in terms of their individual worth or contribution in making us a little comfortable and happier from some perspective. Then why do they hide themselves somewhere in this world without showing themselves to others? I dislike intentional disappearance and anonymity to a great extent.

Sunil asked me to write content for 'About the Author', 'Acknowledgments' and ‘Dedication’. It looks a little odd and difficult to beat my drum for the first section. I regret to know that I got nobody to write something about myself. I invite Sakshi O Juneja to write something about me for this section if she can do it. Anybody that knows a little about me is also welcome. If you write it badly, I know how to make it optimum. If you write it exactly representing my character and thoughts, I don’t interfere with it. Otherwise I will do it seeing some samples elsewhere on Internet. Samples guide us. Originality and creativity put us apart from others, rightly or wrongly!

‘Acknowledgements’ is not a difficult section. In fact I don't like to have this section in my book because I write it all in my foreword itself which I would do after reading all the edited version of content of my book because I forgot what I wrote in these 64 short stories. I will write about 800 to 1000 words for this foreword. It sets the background for my book.

Earlier an educated gentleman dictated me to delete the photos of a creature to whom I decided to dedicate this book. I will dedicate this book to her anyway because it is the truth and a dreamer should not kill a beautiful and harmless truth to anybody. He or anybody else in this world has no rights or guts to deal with me in this regard. I am the dictator of a truth and it stands on its own. I will write about my creative inspiration by her in writing all the 10-page long stories in it. She has the moral rights for it. I have no authority to go against it because I like to be a practitioner of tangible truths in this world to some extent.

I would listen to three Telugu film songs repeatedly while writing foreword for this book. They are: 1. Vedamlaa Goshille Godavari...from the film Andhra Kesari. 2. Meghamaa Dehamaa...from Manchu Pallaki. 3. Ye Naavade Teeramo...from Sankeertana. These are three of my many most favorite Telugu cine songs which elevate me psychologically to reach my desired state of mind necessary to write considerable foreword for this book. It is all love, beauty and admiration I filled up in most of these short stories. There is a female character and I in almost every story in this set.

I felt delighted to know that Radhika Nair edited the raw content of my work because she is a female and this book is a humble submission of respect and love from my end to the race of women in this world, beautiful and sensitive ones in particular. Mishta Roy and Veeranjaneyulu contributed to the cover pages. Both represent art, traditional and modern.

I believe Sunil can bring it out in this month if I send it fast back to him along with the pending inputs from my end. I love these stories and book a lot because it is going to be my first published work and also I wrote these stories without a professional bent of mind; strategically working out characters, events and substance minding a niche segment of readers or a particular publishing trend. It happened naturally. I would continue this trend as much as possible.

I think I can finish my work with this book in a week's time.

Sunil K Poolani of Frog Books in Mumbai is publishing this book.

Attached above is the cover page of this book meant for my creatures visiting this blog site frequently. I will update you on this matter as and when the situation demands it.

Sincerely,

Datla Chiranjeevi Raju.