HYDERABAD: Those were the days when the Razakars were unleashing terror in the Hyderabad State, trying to resist the integration of the state into the Dominion of India, when a school-going boy decided to open a library in Yellanki, a remote village in erstwhile Nalgonda district.
However, the feudal landlords who were averse to the idea of letting people get educated were successful in nipping the idea in the bud.
The boy grew up to become a lecturer, a principal and an award-winning writer in Telugu literature and shared the stage with legendary poets such as Mahakavi Dasaradhi Krishnamacharyulu.
Now, at the fag end of his selfless life, 84-year-old Dr Kurella Vittalacharya has given up everything he ever earned to establish a library with around two lakh books in the same village, which currently is a part of Ramannapet mandal in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district, so that others need not face the hardships he did in the pursuit of knowledge through books.
Vittalacharya’s father passed way in 1938, the same year he was born, as a result of which he grew up amid acute poverty, seeing his teenage mother struggling a lot to raise the infant.
Staying in Vishwakarma Hostel in Bhuvanagiri, a young Vittalacharya continued his education while going to all households in the area on every Sunday seeking donations from people to meet basic needs such as food, supplies and books.
As he couldn’t afford buying books, Vittalacharya used to borrow them from friends and spend entire nights reading them so that he could return the books the next morning.
After taking up several odd jobs, he finally became a lecturer at a government degree college, continued his stint for several years and finally took voluntary retirement in 1993.
He did his M Phil in 1977 on ‘Telugu lo Golusukattu Navalalu’ and PhD from Osmania University in 1988, on ‘Swatantra Udyamala Chitrana’ in Telugu novels.
Vittaleshwara Shatakam is just one of the 22 books he has written. Among the several awards he has received is the prestigious Dasaradhi Award conferred by Telangana government in 2019.
Journey started in 2014
In 2014, he started a library at his home with 5,000 books from his collection. He then started distributing pamphlets at meetings, seeking donations from people in the form of books.
Eminent writers, poets and professors were so impressed that they started donating all their books to Vittalarcharya’s library. The collection grew to two lakh books in no time.
His library became a huge repository of information, frequently visited by research scholars from universities across the State, with eight of them receiving doctorates. Frequent readers from the village were given token rewards and were felicitated every year for being regular to the bookhouse.
Thanks to donations from Vittalacharya’s students, who have prospered in their lives, he managed to demolish his old house, and mobilise Rs 50 lakh to build and dedicate a library to his village. The initiative became so popular that those who were inspired by Vittalacharya started libraries in eight villages.
“I didn’t want others to face the difficulties I endured during my days as a student. It is worrisome to see that others who suffered just like me are forgetting their roots after getting well-settled in cities. Even though they see others suffering, such people don’t do anything to help them in some way,”
Vittalacharya shares with a bit of concern. When asked what would happen to the library after his demise, he replied saying that everything has been taken care of.
On December 12, Vittalacharya will be conferred yet another award by Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University for his contribution to literature. He will receive the award from Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu.