It was during the Centenary celebrations of the Telugu short story in 2011 that he was upset with lamentations over the non-availability of English translations of Telugu short stories and that Telugu stories did not get their due recognition unlike short stories from other languages both internationally and in India. This irked K.N. Rao so much that he took upon himself the task of translating and publishing select Telugu short stories into English. Recently he has brought out the fourth volume titled, Sister Speak with translations of 18 Telugu short stories into English from eminent women writers. His earlier works were – The Telugu Short Story containing 12 short stories from the likes of famed authors like Sri Sri and Kalipatnam Ramarao and one by the author himself, Shades of Mentality a selection of short stories by Vasundhara and a third volume, A Whiff of Fragrance is a collection of short stories of Sahitya Academy award winner Madhurantakam Rajaram.
Rao felt that stalwarts of Telugu literature did not get the recognition they truly deserved nationally and internationally. As part of this endeavour to take Telugu short story to other language readers, Kasukhela Narasimha Rao, K.N. Rao in short, himself a short story writer in Telugu having his stories published during the 1950s in Telugu Swatantra , Bharathi and other such premier journals, launched his mission of translating Telugu stories into English in 2012 when he was 89! His spirit is indomitable. At 92, he has fulfilled his mission of translating and publishing all the four volumes as he had intended to.
“On the whole, I have translated 51 short stories into English. Surely, there are many more short stories, which deserve to be brought to the notice of the world. I hope a regular translation bureau would be opened in the Telugu University, Hyderabad which would commission capable translators to select the best of Telugu short stories translated into other languages so that Telugu writing get as much notice like other languages,” Rao suggests. Himself an academician, Rao retired as H.O.D of Botany in D.G. Vaishnava College, Chennai and wrote books on the subject including the The Trees of Chennai . His other work, A Mosaic of Human Thought, a collection of essays on varied topics, won him much acclaim.
However, he is disappointed with the way the popular Telugu newspapers and magazines treated English translation books of Telugu short stories. He feels it is time these champions of Telugu language changed their stance and help get some notice to such works which were born out love for the mother tongue. “What did I get out of translating and printing these volumes? Absolutely nothing. A disheartening experience and yet a happy feeling that I did what I could towards expressing my love for my mother tongue. I thought a small effort by me might act as a catalyst. It could be a stone hurled by a mad man, it might hit the target,” says Rao wryly.
