Melodies of Life (Turlapati nagabhushana Rao)

  “Come on, let’s go, Raju, let’s go watch a love movie, come on, let’s go, Raju…” In Nandigama, my relatives and close friends call me Nagaraju. Humming a parody of a movie song, Vijaya Babu signalled to me. I immediately picked up another tune and sang back: “Come, come, little boy, flying like a ‘time-pass’ bird, without even looking at your book, come on, come on…” and I gestured back at him. “They say it’s a really good love movie. Let’s go watch it,” he said. That’s the term he used for romantic films. It was a tiny room on the terrace of a house in the Sixth Lane, Arundalpet, Guntur. The owners rented it out to bachelors and students. My elder brother knew about this, so he spoke to the owner, rented the room for a month, and put the three of us, (Parthasarathy, Vijaya Babu and me) there — basically dumped us into that room. Out of the three of us, Parthasarathy,  was the serious type — always with a book in his hand, deeply absorbed in studying. He had come along with ...

  The lion laughed! How could it not, when a mouse comes hopping about? When someone tries to impress by parading the skills they do not truly possess—and when such a spectacle has been witnessed time and again—wouldn’t a lion laugh? The lion sat upon a throne-like chair! The mouse, knowing neither fear nor reverence, pushed the door open and slipped inside. Its tiny eyes darted about, scanning the room. Then it saw a majestic figure. It was said that even the mightiest and the most powerful people trembled at the sight of that form, moreover, in that awesome ambience! But the mouse had no idea that such fear was meant to be felt… after all. As if singing to itself, “What a great chance I’ve got!” it rushed boldly inside. It wanted to impress by showing off its intelligence and greatness. Seeing this innocence, the lion then smiled. But that smile was neither pompous nor sarcastic. It was a smile of a peculiar kind. In fact, no one could tell what kind of smile it was. Nor could an...