Aruna Gogulamanda
BIOGRAPHY
I’m Aruna Gogulamanda hail from Andhra Pradesh, India. I’m the middle child of a five membered family and am the only daughter. I have two brothers who chose Jesus as their Saviour, my mother, a staunch Christian, brought us up religiously with Bible knowledge. My older brother is an English lecturer and younger, is a fashion designer. I’m educated at different places in erstwhile A.P. My dad was an agricultural officer and hence, we’ve got to spend at most remote places, too. When once he was working at ITDA, a government organisation that’s set up for the development of tribal communities of AP, we happened to live at the most beautiful places, which were filled with forests and streams. May be there I picked up writing poetry.
Later I joined Intermediate and bachelor of degree Courses simultaneously and I feel it’s, there, I came across social discrimination in different forms and that’s how, i started thinking about the differentness of Indian society and it’s institutionalised Caste and gender discriminations. Later after joining M.A at Hyderabad Central University, my thoughts grew stronger and I initiated writing about the different discriminations that are existing in the so called great Indian society. I have also used my social media platforms to address the issues More effectively and more effectively. In India where, wherever you go your Caste follows and people take great pride in belonging to a certain Caste, unrealised that I hail from an oppressed Caste and identity and because of the same identity, my mom discarded the Hindutva that she used to like before and embraced Christ, who loved the humanity as a whole without any discrimination. I’m brought up by her learning how Jesus was a social reformer who fought against the discriminations that prevailed when He lived. Presently in India, the Dalit are fighting tough fights in the present regime, for choosing Christianity over other religions and facing attacks for doing so.
I personally feel that at this crucial juncture, it’s very important for the Churches and Christians across country to come together, to proclaim that Christianity is a way of life and not a Religion and Jesus was a great reformer who stood by every oppressed. For the same reason, I’m using my pen as a weapon, to make the world realise that Jesus brought Peace to the world and not war.