A dais to enrich the Telugu language

Writers, poets, musicians and Telugu language lovers have been working to enrich the Telugu linguistic. Some prefer to conduct programmes in towns and cities and recite various topics to the audience. And a few conduct avadhanams and debating on various subjects to improve language skills. However, a Hyderabad-based journalist P Venkateswara Rao has adopted the present trend and utilising social media to popularise Telugu. He understood that social media is best to reach the public and it has more influence on students, women and scholars, techies and even layman too. So, he made Facebook as a dais and started conducting various programmes and attracting the members, viewers from foreign countries also.

P Venkateswara Rao, working with a popular Telugu daily is a man of passion and loves Telugu language. He initiated a programme to nurture Telugu speaking, writing, listening skills to present generations too. He started a programme titled 'Telugu Haaram' and started conducting live programmes from March 2018 on various issues between 11 am to 12 pm on Sunday.

Idioms, phrases, proverbs and their usage are difficult to understand for the present generations and some words are said to be in an endangered position too. He started explaining Vemana Padyalu, Sumati Padyalu, Ramayana, Mahabharatam and some other mythological books and explaining how those short poems are interlinked with the personalities and attitude of a human being. He started the Facebook group and in 80 weeks it has around 1,000 members and is growing.

Discussions are conducted on various topics like idioms and phrases, poems, poets, authors, language slangs and dialects. Venkateswara Rao stated that the present generation is not interested to read Telugu literature and they are mostly attached to electronic devices like mobile phones and computers and everybody is connected with Facebook or some other social media. "I am walking on their path and calling them towards me to learn something about our mother tongue. Telugu is not only a language it's our culture, our tradition. It's an asset we should carry forward to our next generations. I am working on enriching and protect our language for future generations too,'' he said.

His live programmes in Facebook has garnered the attention of Telugu lovers and it also has an audience in Dubai, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Mauritius, Maldives and even from some other States all over India. People are actively watching the programme and participating in debates and enjoying the real taste of the language. Prominent writers, authors and pandits are personally attending the weekly live programmes and expressing their views and taking part in improving the writing and understanding skills in students and youth. The members in overseas countries are more interested to see the programmes and actively participating in the discussions, debates in the programme. For this Venkateswara Rao has made small arrangement in his home at Hyderabad and using the room as a studio to shoot the live programmes. ''I have been getting unimaginable support from the netizens and I am proud to be a person, working on our mother tongue,'' he shared.

Even he conducts discussions on popular literature like 'Kanyasulkam' written by Gurajada Apparao. How the writers like Chaganti Somayajulu and Tulasi have added sweetness and flavour to our mother tongue. Storywriter like Kalipatnam Ramarao of Srikakulam and prominent writers like GV Chalam, Sri Sri also were the discussion points at this dais. Interested Telugu language lovers can contact him at 9705347880.