Lifescapes: Telugu Short Stories (Hardbound - 1999)

Naveen’s short stories encompass a wide spectrum of life. They reveal his insights into the intricacies of the psychological, social and political life of the Telugu people and lay bare the reality behind the manifest. The themes touched upon by him in this collection of short stories are so varied as to include the psychological conflicts experienced by the sensitive among us, exploitation of children and adolescents by unfeeling guardians and employers, violence in rural Telangana, the subhuman lives of beggars and subalterns, the ill-treatment regularly meted out to women within and outside marriage and the insensitivity of women themselves to the genuine needs of their men. That is indeed a mouthful of life to savour and mull over.

Naveen creates a great variety of characters. He doesn’t suggest solutions [to problems]; he gives a comprehensive picture of them. It’s for us to take in as much of the picture as we want.
—R.S. Sudarsanam

Famous Writer and Critic

Naveen is a renowned novelist and short story writer in Telugu. He has 23 published novels and more than 50 short stories to his credit. He is the pioneer of the stream of consciousness narrative technique in Telugu. His first novel and indubitable masterpiece, Ampasayya (Bed of Arrows), besides going through five editions, has been translated into Hindi and Tamil. His Mauna Ragalu (Silent Tunes) and Karuna (named after the heroine) have been translated into Kannada. Some of his other highly acclaimed novels are: Mullapodalu (Thorn Bushes), Anthasravanti (Inner Stream), Cheekati Rojulu (Dark Days), Vichalita (The Disturbed Woman) Women’s College and Sankellu (Chains). The last of these has been made into a TV serial.

Naveen’s short stories stand comparison with the best short fiction anywhere in the world. So far two collections of them, Life in a College and Enimido Adugu (Eighth Step), have appeared. Apart from winning prizes many of them have also been translated into Hindi, English, Tamil and Kannada.

Naveen has received many honours and awards for his contribution to the Telugu fiction. Special mention may be made of AP Sahitya Akademi (Telugu University) Award for the best novel (Anthasravanti) in 1994 and the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Senior Fellowship in Literature in 1997.

Naveen has been the Principal of an undergraduate college in the AP Education Service. He is currently working on a research-based novel as part of the Senior Fellowship mentioned above.