It was a pleasant surprise for the students of Class X at the Government Tribal Welfare Boys High School in the agency village Bodlanka, when they got a chance to interact with a writer, whose short-story was part of their syllabus. They posed him a series of questions ranging from the background of the short-story to the lifestyle of the writer during a session that lasted for about an hour. Some of the students even wanted to have a photograph with him. Amazed by their response, the writer also conducted a session on simple methods of learning English.

Dasari Amarendra, a retired engineer-cum-manager from the Bharat Electronics Limited by profession and a writer and traveller by passion, visited the school the other day, located about 70 km from Maredumilli, along with his friends and spent a few hours with the students. In the early 1990’s, he had translated a story for the National Book Trust and a portion of it had been made part of the State government’s syllabus.

During his interaction with headmaster Balu Reddy, Mr. Amarendra mentioned about the lesson ‘Chitragreevamu’ and expressed his desire to meet the students who learnt his story of a pigeon in their classroom.

It took a few minutes for the students to understand the fact that the man in front of them was the one who penned the lesson in the Telugu textbook. “By the time of writing this story, did you know that children would read it for years and answer questions on it in their exams?” asked Ganapathi Reddy, while his friends asked the writer’s intention in penning the story, duration and the immediate response from the readers.

Mr. Amarendra said he had never expected that his translation would become part of the curriculum and he would meet the students one day. Having been impressed with the enthusiasm of the children, Mr. Amarendra enquired with Mr. Balu Reddy about the pupils’ interest in other subjects. After coming to know that the students feel English as a tough nut to crack, he taught them simple methods of learning the foreign language. “The way the residential school is being managed is just amazing and the children here are very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. They promised me that they would speak to me only in English by the Independence Day-2018 and invited me as their special guest of the function,” Mr. Amarendra shared his joy with The Hindu.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by K.N. Murali Sankar Maredumilli (East Godavari Dist.)