Chaganti Somayajulu

Chaganti Somayajulu (17 January 1915 – 2 January 1994) popularly known as CHASO was one of the all-time great short-story writers of the 20th century Telugu literature. He is famous as 'CHASO', combining the syllables from his name ('CHA' from Chaganati and 'SO' from Somayajulu). Chaso is a Legendary writer and a Master Artist.

He was born at Srikakulam to Kanukolanu Lakshminarayana Sarma and Thulasamma. He was named as Narahari Rao and brought up by his biological parents till the age of 13. He had his primary and middle school education at Municipal High School, Srikakulam, Andhrapradesh. Then he was adopted by Chaganti Bapiraju and Thulasamma and renamed as Somayajulu. He came to Vizianagaram with his adoptive parents [1] and studied at Municipal High School, Vizianagaram and at Maharajah's College, Vizianagaram.

His first story Chinnaji was published in Bharathi in 1942. Subsequently, he wrote many short stories and poetry. Many of his short stories have been translated into other languages. Compilation of his short stories were published in 1968. He compiled short stories of some important writers as Kalinga Kadhanikalu during his 70th birth anniversary.

He influenced many people and friends such as Srirangam Srinivasa Rao, Srirangam Narayana Babu and Acharya Ronanki Appalaswamy.

He was longtime member and president of the Progressive Writers' Association of Andhra Pradesh.

He was married to Annapurnamma (1915-2010). His children were Ammaji (1932-1964), Chinnaji (Chaganti Tulasi, a well-known writer in Telugu), Bapiraju (1939-), Srinivas (1941–42), Krishna Kumari (Noted popular science writer (1947-) and Sankar (noted short story writer and Municipal Commissioner (1952-1996).

He died of throat cancer on 2 January 1994 at the age of 79 in Madras. As per his wish, his family members donated his eyes and body to Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute for research purpose.

Books :

Chinnaji Kathalu -1943 Chaso Kathalu _ Visalandhra Publishing House, Hyderabad Chaso Kavithalu - Vsialandhra Publishing HOuse, Hyderabad Merugu - One act play

His short stories are translated into English and published as "Chaso - Selected short stories" by Sahitya Academy in 2014. Some of his stories are translated into English by Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Schulman for Penguin Classics (A Doll's Wedding and Other Stories).

Some of Chaso's famous stories
  • 'Kunkudaaku
  • Bondu Mallelu'
  • Chokka Bochuthuvvalu
  • Chinnaji
  • Dummalagondi
  • Empu
  • Kukkuteshwaram
  • Enduku Paresthanu Nanna'
  • Oohaa voorvasi
  • Parabrahmam
  • Vaayuleenam
  • Eloorellali
  • '
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References
  1. Somayajulu Chaganti, 20th Century Luminaries, Part II, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, 2005, pp: 1024–5.
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