This no pulp fiction at book fair: Bisexual love foray in Telugu lit

HYDERABAD: After exploring race relations, class differences, inter-caste romance and old-age love, the Telugu contemporary serious fiction scenario is taking a new turn with the penning of a new anthology of stories titled ‘In the Mood for Love’ that features the first ever Telugu bisexual story ‘Naa Julia’ (My Julia) penned by Y Manasa.

This story, along with others in the anthology, will hit the stalls at the Hyderabad

Book Fair

scheduled to begin on December 15. At least 12 young writers in the 30-40 age group have come together from different professions like film making, finance, teaching and developmental work to essay the Telugu contemporary literary work. “All of us believe that love is binary, it is beyond regular thinking between the opposite sex. The stories also break the stereotype of monogamy,” Aparna Tota, editor and author of one of the stories ‘Valentineduvveare’ told TOI. Telugu pulp fiction has had its dose of Mills and Boon type of romantic novels thanks to writers like late Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani, breaking the stereotypes way back in the 1950’s with writers like Chalam but exploration beyond the opposite gender started only in recent times. The anthology does not deal with anything with the mainstream idea of relations and romance and hopes to be a tribute to all kinds of love sagas and informs readers of the many facets of love, including instances of a woman having a series of relationships and learning from them.

Venkat S, publisher, said none of the relations in the book end in marriage. “The book breaks this notion that every relationship has to end in marriage,” he said.

Another unique feature of the anthology is that every story has a context or event based on a calendar of the event. For example, one of the stories unfolds during Pongal holidays in January, while another story revolves around Valentine’s day in February.