Born in a middle-class agricultural family, with limited means, Narla had to struggle hard in the early years of his illustrious life to achieve his ambition of social mobility upwards.
His ancestors migrated from the Andhra area of former Madras Presidency to central India in what is now Madhya Pradesh and settled in Sagar, MP ,and traded in grains and supplies.
He was then editor of Andhra Prabha, the Telugu publication of Ramnath Goenka's Indian Express Group of newspapers.
During Second World War as well as in the post- independence period, the readers of the paper would first savour his opinions on various matters before turning to the news columns.
The daily newspaper published from Madras (today's Chennai) had such a stature that it lifted the status of Telugu journalism.
Narla introduced to Telugu readers Suryadevara Sanjiv Dev (of Tummapudi village in Guntur district) by serialising his memoirs in the newspaper to the delight of art lovers.
Brahmananda Reddy wanted to check Andhra Jyothi daily during 1969 by introducing a bill in State Assembly to curb the freedom of the press.
From famous libraries, to monuments, art galleries, every aspect of life in the countries that he visited attracted his attention.
In the process, he developed friendship with the Kashmiri leader, Prem Nath Bazaz, who was banished from Jammu and Kashmir by the administration of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
Roy) Sushil Mukerjee (Minerva Associates, Kolkata, Radical Humanist), Niranjan Dhar (author of a controversial book on Vedanta in which he charged Swami Vivekananda the seer with shallowness), Justice V.M.
When AGK Murthy's critical comment on it at a public meeting at Guntur was reported to Narla, he lost no time in obtaining as many books on Roy as possible from Guttikonda Narahari, secretary of the Radical Democratic Party of Andhra Pradesh and set out to study them.
Narla disproved the popular belief that as age advances, cynicism and pessimism set in and that people start believing in karma, fate, the supernatural and the like and fall prey to all sorts of superstitions.
Roy was his advocacy of human values, ethical norms, co-operative economy, decentralisation of the political structure with power being spread out, renaissance, critical outlook towards life, scientific approach in understanding every aspect of nature, purging history of myths and parables, secularism keeping the State and religion apart, so that religion remains a matter of personal faith and not the basis of administration.
Narla wanted these positive aspects to be adopted by modern India so that it can discard superstitions and blind beliefs.
He wrote monographs on Kandukuri Veeresalingam (Brahmo Samajist and famous social reformer of Andhra Pradesh), Gurjada Appa Rao whose prose drama Kanyasulkam, meaning sale of brides, demolished the practice of child marriages and sale of young girls as brides to aged persons and Vemana, a Telugu sage whose simple poems dispelled blind beliefs.
It was a delight for book lovers, art critics and others to visit Narla's residence for serious discussions and to savour his vast library.
The books include The Truth about the Gita, An essay on Upanishads, the Poverty of Intellectualism in India (Mysore University Lectures), The East West-dichotomy.
Unable to find fault with the content and reasoning of the thesis, the examiners were on a fishing expedition to spot loopholes in his language.
Apprising the vice-chancellor of the mischievous role of caste minded examiners, he said he would have to expose the case before the public if they sat on his thesis further.
The Andhra Prabha later published several critical articles of Krishna Rao on Marxism and the Marxian approach to literature, the art and aesthetics/ Narla also studied the negative aspects of India both in the past and the present.
While admiring Gandhi's role in the freedom movement Narla opposed his religious approach to solving political and other problems.
Narla pointed out the defects in Indian culture from divergent perspectives and appealed to the younger generation to discard belief in karma and rebirth which undermined vitality and sense of self-dependence.
As a conscientious journalist Narla was upset when the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution were suspended and 'internal emergency' imposed in 1975 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
During the late 1940s he submitted his resignation as editor of Andhra Prabha while supporting the journalists who were resisting the efforts of the proprietor, Ramanath Goenka, to disperse the newspaper establishment from Madras to the districts to defeat Government regulations on pay scales of the staff.
He also disapproved of the writings of Gudipati Venkata Chalam a popular Telugu writer who grew into an advocate of free sex while promoting women's liberation.
After giving up newspaper editorship Narla took to writing plays on serious themes with lengthy prefaces – on the lines of George Bernand Shaw's works.
Narla could not complete his characteristic lengthy preface for the play, which was originally, titled it PANCHALI or wife of five persons.
Each verse ended with the refrain, Navayugaala Baata Naarla Maata (the path of the new age and Narla's word) literally.
Narla was briefly associated with the founder of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as advisor to the chief minister N.T.
The Narlas's eldest son Mohan Das is a professor in cell biology working in New York city.