HYDERABAD: Teacher, writer, poet, songwriter and social activist Nandini Sidha Reddy has been selected for the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award 2025 for his poetry collection Animesha in the Telugu category. The Sahitya Akademi announced the awards for 24 languages on Monday.
Animesha (meaning “one who does not blink”) is based on the Covid-19 pandemic and its social impact. Expressing his delight over the award, Sidha Reddy said he wrote what he felt. Speaking to the TNIE, he said that although the central theme of Animesha revolves around Covid-19, it also emphasises environmental protection.
He said that if the environment had been protected, the Covid-19 pandemic might not have occurred. According to him, the relationship between nature and human beings is like that between a mother and child.
While Animesha traditionally refers to a god or goddess who does not blink, Sidha Reddy said that in his work it symbolises nature, which too never “blinks its eyes”. The poetic work, representing Covid-19, consists of 19 sections.
Sidha Reddy served as chairman of the Telangana Sahitya Akademi during the BRS regime. During his tenure, around 125 important books related to Telangana literature and culture were published. The Akademi also brought out works of nearly 300 vaggeyakaarulu (composer-poets), including those of Eega Buchchidasu such as Yadagiri Narasimha Swamy Satakamu and other compositions.
Born in June 1955 in Bandaram village of Kondapaka mandal in Siddipet district, Sidha Reddy earned his PhD from Osmania University in 1986. His father, Balasidha Reddy, participated in the struggle against the Razakars.
Sidha Reddy worked as a Telugu lecturer at the Government Degree College in Siddipet and retired in 2012. One of his popular songs, “Nageti Salalla Naa Telangana,” inspired many during the Telangana statehood movement and also received a Nandi Award from the state government.
Several writers and politicians congratulated Sidha Reddy on being selected for the Sahitya Akademi Award. BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao termed it a great achievement, saying that the long poem Animesha poignantly portrayed the global crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Juluru Gouri Shankar, former chairman of the Telangana Sahitya Akademi and a poet associated with the Bahujan movement, said that conferring the Central Sahitya Akademi Award on Nandini Sidda Reddy was an honour not only for a poet who gave literary expression to the soil of Telangana but also for humanistic poetry reflecting the lives and struggles of migrant communities.
Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Tourism Minister Jupally Krishna Rao, BRS working president KT Rama Rao, former minister T Harish Rao and others also congratulated Sidha Reddy.
VALASA GAADA FROM ANIMESHA ON MIGRANT WORKERS DURING COVID-19
Vahanaalu levu.. vaallakunnadi kaalle.. evi nadavakapoyinaa .. nadavaalsindi kaalle .. kaallu nadavakapote .. kadupu nadavadu (There are no vehicles; they only have their feet. Even when nothing else moves, it is the feet that must move. If the feet stop moving, there will be no food for the stomach)
This story has been written by VV Balakrishna of The New Indian Express.