Sundara Telugu, by word and spirit - TeluguPeople.com News

Tirupati, December 30 (INN): World Telugu Conference ended with a resolve to promote Telugu and Union Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi spoke about the use of good Telugu in the media.

Media has been using good Telugu but for the scramble of news channels has done some damage to the language.

Though the Union Minister blamed the anchors for bad Telugu, one cannot accept it in toto. Script writers, paucity of time and competitive world have put many constraints on news packaging in electronic media.

It seems that news channels are giving preference only to good looks without taking into consideration any of the journalistic and linguistic credentials while picking up anchors.

A small example from a world renowned channel (English) will clear the air. The candidate should be qualified and should undergo training, after being selected, which includes a stint in all departments.

Then the candidate, if selected for being in news division, will be attached to a senior person and the cub will get the feeling of what reporting is like.

Then the candidate will be on guard duty, pity very few people know what it means even if some of them are doing it unknowingly. It will then be small and safe functions followed by spot news and then a regular beat, ministry and the like. Then the person will be qualified for anchoring one bulletin.

Things are different and the language has taken new turns with lots of words, mostly from English creeping into the lingo. Some of the colloquial words or phrases from films too made it to the newsroom.

Puritans may not agree but the diction of Telugu took a beating both in print and electronic media as well.

Cracking the whip is translating into 'korada jhulipincharu', there is no word like 'jhulipinchu', it is should 'jhalipenichu' and it passed off since long. West is being pronounced as 'Pachchima' instead of 'Paschima' and has come to acceptance.

The list is long but one thing is certain. Concerted efforts were made by a section of people, who have some common agenda, to destroy old Telugu and bring in the slang of one particular district and give it the status of original Telugu.

In the name of space saving measure or whatever some alphabets were done away with. Some words starting with a vowel are being written with phonetic effect but the same is not followed all the time.

Telugu metre poetry is discouraged and simple poems from Bhagavatham and the many satakams have become a far cry. Promoting Telugu or starting a new ministry will not solve the problem.

Each student from class four at least should know at least 100 poems by heart by the time he reaches seventh standard and the curriculum should be designed in such a way.

Ideologies apart the beauty of the language should be passed on to the next generation.

The influence of Progressive Writers Association (Arasam) or Revolutionary Writers Association (Virasam) comes in later but initially, the students should first taste the sweetness of the language in childhood.

Ideology should not deprive any student from learning the poems written by Bammera Pothana, Vemana, Dasarathi, Sumathi, Srinatha, Durjati, of the classical age and of Rayaprolu, Gurajada and then come to free verse.

Arudra's Kunalamma Padalu, Sri Sri's Sirisiri Muvva and others also should be included but beauty of language should overcome ideologies.

A small anecdote from recent game show will tell how backward we are in our heritage and culture. The answer will be displayed on the screen while the anchor gives clues and the participant should tell the name correctly is the game.

The answer was displayed on the screen was Tammuddu (brother). The first clue was 'What Vibhishana is to Ravanasura' no answer. Second clue it is a hit film of Pawan Kalyan, pat came the reply, Tammudu. Not those films are more popular but epics are discarded badly. It's a sad state, indeed.