Amaravati Stories
The stories are about the people of the village of Amaravati and were first published in the AandhraJoyti newspaper. Later on, the stories were published by Navodaya Publishers in the form of a book, which bears art of renowned artist Bapu. The book was re-printed several times.The series ran for two years. They follow a typical Chekhovian style.The stories are heart warming and are about people (especially from andhra)encounter in their everyday lives.
There are 101 stories in this collection, each one having a simple picture drawn by Bapu. The foreword is by Mullapudi Venkata Ramana. These stories are work of imagination and fiction, and they are inspired by incidents and folk stories related to Amaravathi.The stories, along with the pictures drawn by Bapu are considered as one of the best Telugu short story collection of 20th century. This book also won the Andhra Sahitya Academy award in 1979. The stories were dictated by Sankaramanchi to popular All India Radio news reader Prayaga Ramakrishna who wrote down the stories.
Syam Benagal made a TV serial based on these stories with the name “Amaravati ki kathayein”.