Sannapureddy Venkatarami Reddy: “Herdsmen know how to take care of the forest”

I am from a village amidst the dry land near the Nallamala foothills, where shepherds and farmers live together.

Being a seed yourself, growing from the soil and looking towards the sky, this is what it means to be a farmer. Similarly, a shepherd is one who recognizes the hunger of his sheep, and spends his entire life yearning for fodder and water.

My life is an equal mix of being a farmer and a shepherd. This is a rural life – where half the body is ripe stalks beaten for corn, and the other half is a milking udder.

The earth beneath my feet and the lives of the people around me compelled me to write ‘Konda Polam’.

I see myself as a court scribe, a voice for the dry lands and highlands, waterfalls, streams, hills and thickets, trees and other life forms from the Sagileru River to the Nallamala hills. My profession is to sit in front of them, listen carefully to what they say and bring it to the world. The Nallamala hills told me the story of Konda Polam and I wrote it down easily.

This book could have been a realistic depiction of the tragic lives of the Golas, but by writing it as an adventure, you have created a story that reads like a fantasy to the urban reader (I often think of Tolkien’s works) and is still based in reality. What inspired you to choose such a format?

The poignancy and adventure during hill farming operations is a natural part of the herders’ existential struggle. When Golla takes charge of 50 animals and heads for the hills, the compassion he shows to become a sheep himself during the ordeal of feeding them and the courage he shows to protect the flock from predators is genuine. I didn’t have to resort to any imagination. This novel is inspired by the lives of these Golas and nothing else.

Going on mountain farming expeditions is an aspect of the herders’ lives that is not known to the outside world. It is courage born of necessity. When it is a question of life or death, the only way forward is to risk death for life.

I wonder why today’s youth do not take these shepherds as inspiration to handle difficult situations in life. That pain is reflected in the novel. “Loving your work, taking ownership of your work, and being a workaholic” – this three-pronged approach will make anyone a winner. This is my firm belief.

This belief inspired me to create the character of Ravindra Yadav, send him into the forest and change his career from a software engineer to a forest officer.

Did you envision the action scenes while writing them? What type of research was involved in this process?

I sourced most of the incidents from the shepherds of Nallamala villages. I have been hearing those stories since childhood. It is a deeply thought-provoking lifestyle. I trekked to all those hills with other people from my village – to collect dry grass or wood or to visit holy places. As I walked through those forests – through the waterfalls, trees, ravines, meadows, valleys, rocks and rocky areas, I remembered stories and linked them to places. To be able to write novels, I mentally became a shepherd myself, roaming in the wooded hills.

Perhaps, if the shepherds themselves had written the novel, the description would have been even more realistic, closer to their real life experiences and feelings!

All the characters are well-built and different from each other. Readers can differentiate Pulayya from Gurappa or Ravi from Bhaskar. It is a story about men and their relationship with sheep. You add to this by including various tribes in the Nallamalla area. And despite being marginalized, women play important roles and leave a lasting impact. Tell us about it.

The character of Pulayya is based on a real person from my village. Even other characters are based on people from nearby communities. Yanadi settlements, and Chenchu, Sugali settlements naturally became part of the story.

Although the herders are mostly men, the driving force behind them are the Gola women. The shepherd is always outside, moving with the flock day and night and in all seasons. The herd is the center of his existence.

The shepherd’s wife takes care of the household – raising children, managing finances, celebrating festivals and rituals, maintaining good relations with neighbors and relatives – to ensure that her husband is free to focus on the flock, which is their livelihood. When she asks about her husband’s well-being from people returning from the mountains, her moist eyes reflect the bond between the couple.

Invisible footprints of women can be seen on every path of shepherds in the hills. The sympathetic presence of the absent shepherds can be found in every decision the women take to run the household with great patience and tact.

The relationship between the forest and humans is at the center of the story. How do you see Tiger Lessons contributing to the broader conversation about environmental issues?

Herders may not be aware of the terminology and slogans used by conservationists. But they know how to take care of the mother forest.

The tradition of not carrying sharp weapons into the forest is an example of his philosophy. There is a strong belief, that they should confine themselves to finding fodder and water, and not destroy the forest. This means not cutting trees and not killing any animals. Even if a tiger attacks the herd, consider leaving one or two sheep as a tribute to the forest. Attacking animals in their habitat is against the ethical code. In Tiger’s Lesson, this is the main message of Pulayya. After injuring the tiger, Ravi also regrets his actions.

The message of the novel is to co-exist with nature and not destroy the delicate ecosystem. If this message is spread widely, we will find solutions to most environmental concerns.

Konda Polam was adapted into a film with the same title before being translated into English as Tiger’s Lessons. The film primarily highlighted a romantic angle for the protagonist, Ravi, which is not in the book. How do you feel about your story evolving in different media, and how does each medium introduce it to new audiences?

I used some literary techniques – proverbs, metaphors, descriptions of nature, local legends and so on – with the intention of making the reader see the landscape and feel the thrill through my eyes.

When the director said he wanted to adapt the novel as a film, I was curious how he would translate my words into visuals. Readers imagine scenes in their minds. But the audience ultimately only sees scenes from the director’s imagination. I was with the crew during production. I watched them bring flocks of sheep in front of the camera, watch actors struggle with dialect, and use various tricks to turn descriptions into cinematic sequences. This was a different experience for me.

Now I am surprised to see the story in English. The life of the shepherds hidden behind the Nallamala hills, which is known throughout the country or the world, is something I had never even imagined. The pain of my soil, the grief of the forest, the existential struggles of humans and animals, are now leaving the Telugu land and traveling into the wide world. I am very thankful to translator Narasimha Kumar and Bloomsbury Publishers for doing this.

What books do you recommend to your readers that deal with similar themes or narrative styles?

My literary journey started from reading Puranas, poetry and continued till modern literature. In these books, the stories offered me a bird’s eye view of the human experience in forest habitats. When it comes to modern literature the trees are visible among the concrete forests. Man, who once lived in small huts under trees, now lives at the mercy of humans in sky-high buildings, with some vegetation here and there.

We are advancing science and technology to make human life more pleasant and to defeat disease and old age. In this process, we are unable to see the destruction of other life forms that have the right to live with freedom on this planet. We seem to have a philosophy that believes nature was created specifically for the benefit of our species.

Konda Polam This mentality raises a small, but relevant question.

It describes flora and fauna, rivers, hills and caves. Ramayana or the beauty of human settlements in forests Mahabharata, And vivid description of seasons in poetry AmuktmalyadaMake readers feel the warm embrace of nature. Modern literature brings before you the tragedy of barren landscapes, devoid of greenery and ecological diversity. Today’s youth should read books that delve deeply into the root causes of this destruction and offer solutions.

Akanksha Abismrita is a freelance writer.