I am asking for a moratorium on discussion on this topic.
Paruchuri Sreenivas introduced the topic with a caution that he is
"throwing some flames", commenting that this forum has become "dull" in
his opinion. To that extent, he has succeeded in making it livelier.
While he hasn't "criticized" any particular member of the group, he did
manage to indict a "sacred cow", as it were.
The follow-up to that post, from Veluri Venkateswara Rao has been
"mischievous" to say the least. His was an invitation to an argument. A
bit of Ajyam thrown into the fire, to keep it up, when he said "Telugu
content in Chinnaya soori's telugu, I bet, is anywhere between zero and
nothing!"
Tadigadapa Syamala Rao promptly took the bait, and went off with it,
accusing unnamed individuals as "telugu raani vaaru", and such
discussions as "useless". Here he used intemperate words. Substitute
viSwanAtha for cinnaya sUri, and poetic style (or his personal
philosophy) for the literary style, and I would have been equally
offended. Because, here you are not criticizing an inconsequential
person, me (or TSR), but an institution that I (or TSR) along with a
whole lot of others look upto. Perhaps foolishly, in some others' view.
Yet, I would not have used such strong words in my response, if there
were a response. Dale Carnegie says that the best way of winning an
argument is to lose it. Does it apply here? All of us are grown-up, with
set views, which are not going to change. It is easy to say that "I will
change my views if convinced by facts". In practice, it is difficult, if
not impossible.
Then the discussions have progressively degenerated. At press time, the
posts are becoming increasingly long, with references and counter
references, and exhaustive bibliographies. Other than the major players
in this discussion (they know who they are; I would include aDiyan,
jampAla, and pANini as minor players; perhaps jampAla should really be
considered somewhere in between), I would like to know if any other
member of this group has,
a) enjoyed the tenor of the discussion,
b) changed one's stand on this issue
Again, no more discussion on this topic, for a while. I will have more to
say on this next month. Extremely busy until then.
Ramakrishna