i had the good fortune of being in a school which
had very good telugu teachers. i also had the good
fortune of getting introduced to sanskritam at an early
age, through the "sanskrita bhAshA prachAra samiti"
classes in vijayawada. one would think that would
make me very good in telugu sahityam. unfortunately,
thats not really so.
i always had someone to explain the meaning to me
when i read the classics. in the process, i did
pick up a lot of knowledge but i was still short
on confidence. prose was always easy because it
was straight forward. even if it was not, i could wade
through it. but then, i was always fascinated by poetry
and wanted to read all those classics, which r classified
as "nArikEla pAkam"(as tough as a coconut to crack).
sadly, i am still in the same stage, looking for
classics with "TIkA tAtparyam"(prati padArdham).
not that i didn't venture out on my own.
at IIT kharagpur, to my amazement, i found
a great collection of telugu SAhityam, mostly
donated by Telugu academy somewhere around
1960. hand written copies of "the kharagpur telugu association"
magazine were also present. i just felt so happy
discovering them, although it was only after a full 2 years
that i did so.
(aside:
however, i had to fight with the librarians constantly to
check these books out. most of the books were in a very
bad condition, as they weren't properly taken care of.
the IIT library has almost written them off...no account
nos. could be found on most of the books. still, i managed to
read "munimAnikyam gAri kAntham", "krishnapaksham" of krishna SAstri,
several works of dASarathi, Arudra and many more great works like
"sAkshi", vIrESalingamgAri "rAjaSEkhara charitramu", chilakamarthi
"ganapathi" and gurajaDa "kanyASulkam".)
i always found it very enjoyable when i could understand
what's going on. esp. i remember kalidasu "raghu vamsam"(sanskritam)
with TIkA tAtparyam. it was really enjoyable. to enjoy the best
of telugu sahityam, knowledge of samskritam is also essential...whether
one likes it or not.
based on all these small experiences, these r my ideas:
1)one needs to start slow. read both prose and poetry.
if possible, have a teacher/some one knowledgable to
expalin.(well, we have "telusa?" to ask for explanations :-))
since this is not always possible, find books
with detailed annotations. emphasis should be
on building one's vocabulary, so that u can move on to
bigger works. the a.p. secondary education board
telugu texts for 7th to 10th std. should help a lot here.
2)try out everything and find out the subjects u enjoy the
most. try going to viSAlAndhra this time on your trip to
a.p and buy the books u get interested in. esp. "Emesco"
series of classics such as allasAni "manucharitra", ramakrishnuDi
"pAnduranga mahatyamu", chilakamarthi "ganapathi" and so on...
the subject should interest you, for otherwise, believe me,
u will never read the books. SriSri "maha prasthANam", namDuri
"emki pATalu" would be enjoyable. so will be
"bArishTer pArvateeSam".
3)try and learn elementary vyAkaraNam from
telugu guides for 10th std. and above.(as these
guides are written for students in a simple manner.)
five authors guide for 10th & intermediate should be very useful.
4)to make it easy for all of us,
"telusa" pamDithulu "chamDhassu" mIda
konni articles post chEstE bAgunTundi.
explain everything from "gaNa viBhajaNa" to
the chamDhassu of common vRuttAlu.
(ramakRishna gAru manchi viSwanAthavAri
examples to sIsam chamDhassu
sure gA post chEstArani ASistunnAnu.)
i have been looking to learning these for a long time.
hoping to see "chamDhassu" FAQS :-) soon on "telusa?"
regards
prasad
-- ********************************************************************* Prasad Chodavarapu * WWW Homepage: * 305 N.Lincoln Av., #S105 * * Urbana IL 61801 * http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~chodavar* ********************************************************************* ph:(217)-344-0473(R) * "manasanE oka sampada prathi * (217)-244-6909(O) * manishilOnU unDanI, mamatalE * ********************************** prathi manasulO koluvunDanI" * e-mail:chodavar@students.uiuc.edu* --rAjaSrI * *********************************************************************