The Enlivening Kolleru Lake and its Belated Awakening in Akkineni Kutumbarao’s Softly Dies a Lake

Abstract

Nature is the ultimate water source, and water is the life for species' survival. When natural resources thrive beyond the vastness of necessity, humans take it for granted. Kolleru Lake was also not an exception. It was once a magnificent lake where the livelihood of an entire village depended on it. Kolleru Lake was not only a place where people grazed their cattle and caught fish from the lake. It held nature in its whole form. Kolleru Lake interblended the villagers for shared purposes. Softly Dies a Lake, written by Akkineni Kutumbarao, is the English translation of his Telugu novel, Kolleti Jaadalu. In the novel, a sexagenarian, Srinivasa Rao, revisits the village where he was born and grew up. As he re-envisions the days lived in resilience with Kolleru Lake, self-realisation is awakened. The lively nature of integrity is evanesced from the village as the lake dies. The lake was a larger entity in itself. The paper attempts to gather the lively aspects of villagers during the resplendent Kolleru Lake as envisioned by Srinivasa Rao. The idyllic nature of Kolleru Lake succumbs to inevitable artificial annihilation.