Libraries
He had an indefatigable urge to visit libraries to spot books he might not have read earlier. Similarly, he would haunt second-hand bookstalls in search for the rare books. In the process, he was an up-to-date researcher on his favourite topics. He wrote monographs on Kandukuri Veeresalingam (Brahmo Samajist and famous social reformer of Andhra Pradesh, Gurjada Appa Rao whose prose drama Kanyasulkam, meaning sale of brides, demolished the practice of child marriages and sale of young girls as brides to aged persons and Vemana, a Telugu sage whose simple poems dispelled blind beliefs. Thanks to his practice of thoroughly researching his subjects before undertaking his writings he (Narla) produced excellent books.
It was a delight for book lovers,art critics and others to visit Narla's residence for serious discussions and to savour his vast library. M. Chelapathi Rau, the eminent editor of the National Herald was a frequent visitor to Narla Gutaa. Krishna Murthy (publisher of Sri Sri Audio in London) was another close friend of Narla and stayed with him whenever he visited Hyderabad. Narla also had a flair for collecting Buddhist sculptures from various countries for serious study of their characteristics.
Read more about this topic: Narla Venkateswara Rao
Famous quotes containing the word libraries:
“To me, nothing can be more important than giving children books, It’s better to be giving books to children than drug treatment to them when they’re 15 years old. Did it ever occur to anyone that if you put nice libraries in public schools you wouldn’t have to put them in prisons?”
—Fran Lebowitz (20th century)
“riding flatcars to Fresno,
Across the whole country
Steep towns, flat towns, even New York,
And oceans and Europe & libraries & galleries
And the factories they make rubbers in”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)