Chelam’s foreword to Gitanjali

We know that Tagore originally wrote his Gitanjali in Bengali, and later translated it into English. We understand that the poems of original Gitanjali can be sung to folk tunes. Gitanjali seems to be popular even among illiterate people since all the poems of this masterpiece are sung throughout Bengal. It is Chelam who translated Gitanjali into Telugu in 1958. His translation is acclaimed as a classic in Telugu literature.

Chelam, quite justifiably, felt the collection of poems known as Gitanjali needed a comprehensive introduction. Chelam’s introduction to Gitanjali is a literary piece by itself. He opens his introduction with the following quote from Tagore’s Fruit Gathering.

They knew the way and went to seek you along the narrow
lane, but I wandered abroad into the night for I was ignorant.

I was not schooled enough to be afraid of you in the dark,
therefore I came upon your doorstep unaware.

The wise rebuked me and bade me be gone, for I had not come
by the lane.

I turned away in doubt, but you held me fast, and their scolding
became louder every day.

This is verse 16 in Rabindranath Tagore’s collection of poems entitled Fruit Gathering.

A State of Uplifting Bliss

I have always wanted to write. There is pleasure in writing. There is enjoyment in expressing our views in words. We all do this when we speak. I have been writing something or the other right from my early childhood. I love words and their meanings. I may not have any profound views. At times there is an absence of novelty in my thoughts. It hardly matters to me for the moment.

The very act of placing words together to express my views makes me happy. I bestow a kind of permanence to my thoughts when I write them in words. I find a special joy when I read my own thoughts. They are my thoughts. They have come out of my own thinking. They are part of me. Still, at times, they look so alien to me. When I think of something that I have written quite a long time ago, I find it as though I never wrote those thoughts. They appear so remote and alien to me. What makes them appear so remote from me? May I have to investigate into this matter? Are they not my thoughts? Am I not the creator of those views?

I am like a small child learning to walk. It takes time for me to run, to write effortlessly. There are times when I ask myself: “Why do I write?” What purpose do I want to serve by writing? I do not know any answer. Can I restrain myself from writing? Certainly I cannot. There is something within me that compels me to write. There is an irresistible urge that propels me to express myself in words. It is something innate. It is certainly an innate compulsive urge to free myself from the burden of thoughts.

Thoughts enter my consciousness without any of my efforts. Thoughts haunt me. They enter me. They urge me to translate them into words. This is something spontaneous, something that happens without any of my involvement. I am a mere spectator. Thoughts enter my mind, find their expression, and appear as clusters of words when I write.It is for this reason some thoughts appear so alien to me. It is I who give those thoughts a form in words. Did I think those thoughts? I am not certain. Perhaps I am a sort of a medium. Thoughts do not belong to me. Where do these thoughts come from? I do not know for certain. The fragments of sentences I compose with words are mine.

I am certain about one thing. I have got to write. Writing is an intrinsic part of my being. I cannot keep away from writing. We need to communicate with others for our survival. We speak mostly out of necessity. We need to talk to each other in order to get things done. We certainly use words when we speak. In one sense, the act of writing can also be used as an essential operation for worldly existence. It is a mundane crumb of the writing act.

Creative writing would never turn into a routine activity. Writing, in its true form, is not merely meant for worldly communication. Writing has a sublime role to play in the life of the writer. It helps the writer in his contemplation. One can discover oneself only when he is conscious and mindful. Writing helps to refine ones powers of concentration that lead to contemplation. Writing paves the way for self discovery.

There is magic in words and in the feat of writing. Yes, it is a feat. Man can reach his inner source through this feat. He can find his original self only through an act of writing. True writing evolves simply through an awareness of the reality of this wonderful creation. Writing is a kind of penance that takes the writer into a state of uplifting bliss.

A detailed profile of Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki is Professor and Head of the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Chaitanya Engineering College, Visakhapatnam. He was born in 1956 in the ancient town Rajahmundry on the banks of river Godavari, and had his early education in his native town. He received his B.Tech (1978) and M.Tech (1980) in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the JNTU College of Engineering, Kakinada.. He had a rare opportunity to work under the guidance of noted scientists like Mrs. L.C.Manoharan of National Aeronautical Laboratory, Bangalore, in partial fulfilment of his M.Tech program. His Research Notes appeared in 1980 in the International Journal of Electronics published from London.The theoretical and experimental training he received from his teachers like Prof. Nallamothu Lakshmi Narayana, Prof. V. Ranga Rao, and Mrs. L.C. Manoharan developed in him a keen interest in the design of electronic circuits with discrete components as well as linear and digital ICs. He began his career as lecturer in Rastriya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, Bangalore, in 1980. He joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Hyderabad as a Design Engineer in 1981, and worked there for one-and-half years. His love for teaching took him to Bapatla Engineering College towards the end of 1982. He has been associated with this college right from its inception and assumed positions of Assistant Professor (1985) and Professor (1992). He taught at Adam’s Engineering College, Paloncha (2000-2009), and joined Chaitanya Engineering College, Visakhapatnam in 2009.

He has authored two textbooks on Pulse and Digital Circuits and these two textbooks have been published by Tata McGraw-Hill Education in 2006. He has also revised the classic textbook Pulse, Digital and Switching Waveforms by Jacob Millman and Herbert Taub originally published in 1965 by McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. After a long gap of 42 years, Tata McGraw-Hill Education has brought out this updated second edition of Pulse, Digital and Switching Waveforms in 2007.

Suryaprakash does not really belong to the world of words by his formal education or by his present profession. He hails from Rajahmundry, and during his primary school and high school, he was exposed to some of the great works in literature by his language teachers. Some of his teachers were poets of great distinction in Telugu. Influenced by prominent literary critics like R.M.Challa of Indian Express (Vijayawada Edition) fame, Suryaprakash chose to write serious prose right from his early college days. The weekly column Let’s tune in R.M.Challa in the Indian Express has sustained his interest for decades. Suryaprakash used to contribute regularly to the Letters to the Editor columns of India Express, Deccan Herald, and The Hindu in 1980s.

Suryaprakash wrote several poems and short stories as literary exercises, and some of them were published in the Sunday editions of prominent newspapers. He has been suffering from the writer’s cramp from his college days, and he did most of his writing on his portable typewriter. He translated some of the great short stories in Telugu into English with the encouragement of some of the editors. He wrote a few film reviews and book reviews as well.He feels comfortable with philosophy, psychology and literature. While Suryaprakash cannot exhibit any academic credentials in literature, his vast reading kept him in good stead on this count. Being a reader of literature of several genres, he is well disposed to spend his spare time for the pursuit of his literary ambitions. He intends to translate a well-known Telugu classic novel Chivaraku Migileydi by Butchi Babu into English as one of his present projects.

Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki has been elected as a Senior Member of IEEE in January 2009. He has been a member of the Board of Studies, Acharya Nagarjuna University, for more than a decade. He has served the UPSC as an Advisor in Electronics. He is a life member of the Indian Society for Technical Education, Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, and Fellow of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. Prof. Prakash Rao has taught several subjects in Electronics and Communications Engineering in his teaching career spreading over more than two decades.

Suryaprakash loves the sun and sea of the beautiful piece of earth Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, India. He lives in Visakhapatnam with his wife Saraswathi and his sons—Vamsi Krishna and Sasikanth.