Barrister Parvateesam

Yesterday, I got hold of the book “బారిష్టర్ పార్వతీశం” (Barrister Parvateesam), for which I had been searching for a long while. I first read the book as part of my Class X Telugu course, but that was just an abridged version of only the first book (the original story was divided into three books, and the one I bought is the unabridged compilation of all three).

Almost everyone who read the book during school days had a good time with it because it was so funny, and we wanted to read more of the story, i.e., to get the remaining two books. But it was not possible because there were the public exams to attend to, and the two years after Class X too were hectic and no one had time to even read the daily newspaper!

I finally managed to find time out of my empty schedule to hunt for the book and I was really delighted upon having found it at last. But the timing could not have been worse – I have board exams again in a month and if I sit down with this novel now, I can be sure to pile up a host of backlogs like I did in the first year!!! I’m certainly not looking forward to that so I’m trying to resist my temptation and have now put it away safely. But I wanted to express my delight somehow and that’s the reason I’m putting out those feelings over here!!

If I’m not wrong this book was written in 1924 and since then it has survived through the ages and still remains in everyone’s memories as a hilarious tale of a simple fellow who runs away to England from his native village in Andhra Pradesh, India to pursue law. His many misadventures may seem too simple for people of this generation but those who know what it was like in those pre-Independence Days will relate to the funny situations and can truly sense the humour in it. That doesn’t mean today’s generation cannot enjoy it – it truly is a must read for all people who love Telugu humour.

I actually was planning to post the book up here because I read somewhere that all printed work before the 1930s (or was it ’20s?) is acceptable to be distributed freely all over the world. But then I did not want to take a risk, and besides, I’m not a huge fan of e-books and believe that holding the actual book in your hand and reading it whenever/wherever/however you like is the best way to enjoy it completely. So if you get a chance, go get this book ASAP!!!