Meeting Shri Y.B. Satyanaranaya - Author of 'My Father Balaiah'

I loved reading the book 'My Father Balaiah' and reviewed it on my blog. The book has made waves for many reasons - all the right ones - including making a guest appearance with Rajnikanth in his movie 'Kabali' (he is seen reading it in one of the early scenes in the movie. Imagine my surprise when I received a mail from the author Mr. Y.B. Satyanarayana, telling me that he enjoyed reading the blog. We connected over phone and made plans to meet and finally I met him a couple of days ago at his office 'Centre for Dalit Studies' in Tarnaka.

Shri Y.B. Satyanarayana and me

Mr. Satyanarayana has a genial manner and laughs easily. He spoke about his journey, the book, the avenues it opened. He spoke of how they could finally get more funds for the backward castes, how he gave a lecture at the Tata Trust, which was attended by 47 Directors from Tata group of companies including Cyrus Mistry and how Tata Trust has offered a grant to his projects. He told me about the work done at the Centre for Dalit Studies, where he is serving in the capacity of Secretary, the many camps they conduct. One such camp is the 'Summer Samurai Young Journalist's Camp' where several known media people and academics spoke to young children from residential schools. I offered my availability and asked him to count me in for any kind of work he thought fit for me.

CDS primarily tries to provide employable skills to Dalit students and sometimes place them too. Some of the work done by the CDS includes conducting courses on automotive servicing, electronic repair, laptop repair, hardware and networking, mobile servicing, DTP work, website designing, Electrician, carpentry, bar bending, painting, welding, building, plumbing, fashion designing, garments, beauticians - the idea is to target the communities that have no voice and give them employable skills.

(To know more about CDS please visit www.cdsindia.org. 
Address: 12-5-149/6/B1, MNR Plaza, Vijayapuri Colony, Tarnaka, Secunderabad - 500017 
Email: cdshyd99@gmail.com
For free training programs contact - D. Dinesh Kumar, Hyderabad - 9550450067, Mangesh (Nalgonda) - 9908065328, 9848904008 and P. Shankar (Medak) - 944113181)

We spoke for almost two hours and I had to finally leave because I had another engagement. I could not leave without buying two copies of the book from this remarkable person, one for myself and one for my brother, both signed by him.

I promised to meet him again before he embarked on a trip to the US to visit his daughters but also to speak at some Universities including Harvard and Yale. I am happy for him - its a tale that deserves to be told. I am also looking forward to associate with him and speak to the participants of his camps and share my thoughts. Mostly I am looking forward to enjoying another fine chat about his experiences and his plans and to hear him laugh in that child-like manner of his.