Friday, September 25, 2015

Prabhala Bala Ganadhar Tilak from Tenali

was a school teacher I knew in Gudavalli village around 1950. I was probably in sixth or seventh rade at that time. My father was the head master and he used to visit our house. I was never in his class but remember him as a good looking man with thick curly hair, always smiling and we were always varay of the spray when he talked. I do not remember visiting his house. He was meat eater and probably it was not cooked in his housed. My father liked him and used to invite him. We also heard that he played bridge and chess and sometimes won and was probly the state champion once. I did not remember his family name but mentioned him as a bridge player in a thread on Ramaro Kanneganti's wall. One Venkateswara Rao Veluri remembered him:

"Yes! Tilak, I consider as one of the greatest bridge player from Tenali. ( I can easily rate him as good or better than the current greats from USA).His surname was Prabhala. He was a hired player at one time for a Mumbai team at a national meet in early 1960s."

It seems that there was a so much talent around Tenali, some of it forgotten. It was a literary centre when I was growing up (forties and fifties) and there were writers like Tripuranni Ramaswami, Gopichand, humanist Ravipudi Venkatri, G.V.Krishna Rao who wrote on philososphy, Kodavatianti kutumbarao, Sarada, Natarajan, Chakrapani who those days was known for his Sarat translations, many film and drama actors from Tenali and nearby villages. And there was Hindi promotion movement started by Yalamanchili Venkatappiah which influenced some of the writers. Here is a blog post about Tenali (not all the information may be correct. I do not think Chittoor Nagayya was from Tenaqli)

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