Somayajulu Chaganti

Chaganti Somayajulu (17 January 1915 – 2 January 1994), popularly known as CHASO, was a short-story writer in 20th century Telugu literature. His nickname, "CHASO," is a portmanteau of the syllables from his name ('CHA' from Chaganti and 'SO' from Somayajulu). He was born at Srikakulam to Kanukolanu Lakshminarayana Sarma and Thulasamma. He was named as Narahari Rao and brought up by his biological parents till the age of 13. He had his primary and middle school education at Municipal High School, Srikakulam, Andhrapradesh. Then he was adopted by Chaganti Bapiraju and Thulasamma and renamed as Somayajulu. He came to Vizianagaram with his adoptive parents and studied at Municipal High School, Vizianagaram and at Maharajah's College, Vizianagaram. His first story Chinnaji was published in Bharathi in 1942. Subsequently, he wrote many short stories and poetry. Many of his short stories have been translated into other languages. Compilation of his short stories were published in 1968. He compiled short stories of some important writers as Kalinga Kadhanikalu during his 70th birth anniversary. He influenced many people and friends such as Srirangam Srinivasa Rao, Srirangam Narayana Babu and Acharya Ronanki Appalaswamy.