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12.
THE TELUGU PARADIGM.
UNDERSTANDING VASAT,
THE ILLITERATE’S INTERNET
I
‘@LóRiLi?¿?[xqsVN]??sV;?’
don’t speak the language either. It’s Telugu, Sahiti tells me so
(sahiti.org). If I could write Telugu, Sahiti will translate me into
English instantly, and it’s free. No, I didn’t find Telugu a trickery;
I found it a treasure once I started thinking Marshall McLuhan
who understood media like nobody else (read Understanding
Media: The Extensions Of Man, McGraw-Hill 1964).
We’re in India, where Mohandas ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi lived – and died – for non-violence. So did a Telugu, another
martyr, another hero to this country. Since Jawaharlal Nehru was against the creation of linguistic states
(hinduonnet.com), Potti Sriramulu decided to fast for the creation of a state of Andhra, for the Telugus. The fast
went beyond 50 days, beyond physical endurance. Sriramulu died but his dream came alive, a state coming out
from the Telugu parts of Madras and Hyderabad, now Andhra Pradesh. In his honor, there is a Potti Sriramulu
Telugu University (twincitiesbbs.com). The University is in Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh; it is a State
University offering Carnatic classical music, Kuchipudi dance, folk arts, sculpture-drawing, mridangam or veenaplaying,
acting, astrology (india9.com).
Elsewhere, the Tri-State Telugu Association and Telugu Association of Greater Chicago (telugo.org) invites us to
a dinner in honor of Sri Nara Chandrababu Naidu, ‘the force behind Andhra Pradesh progress,’ who will speak
July 3. It’s too late for that now, but progress is never too late.