Re: aDDATa!
Ramakrishna S. Pillalamarri (pkrishna@ARL.MIL)
Thu, 17 Jul 1997 15:21:02 -0600
At 10:55 8/17/96, Prasad A. Chodavarapu wrote:
>that is music to my ears. for years, i have been imploring my friends
>to try playing aDDATa, me guaranteeing a full table for the whole night.
>alas! no one took the bait. i always wondered why only teluguvALLU play
>aDDATa?
Last year I went to Atlanta a couple of times, and went to see Dokka
Ramabhadra Rao. He wanted to know about aDDATa. Kamala was there visiting,
his brother phaNi was there, and a neighboring couple, pradeep and (her
name escapes me now a two/three syllable name, starting with v-?). I
explained the rules and we started playing.
Pradeep and his wife were Hydearabadi maharashtrians. Pradeep was playing,
and she was observing. We really got into the game. We may have started
around 10pm, but it went on till 2 or 3 am!
At one time they couldn't believe the rule that you can use the trump, even
when you are not void in the suit being played. (I think that is one of the
charms of the game). I was the only one who knew the rules beforehand, and
I didn't want to come across as making them up, when that rule appears to
be counter-intuitive to the un-initiated.
So, at midnight I ended up calling a family I had dinner with that night
(that was a little Bapu-gathering). I asked the gentleman, turlapATi
prasAd, if he played aDDu, and if he knew about the rule. He said that in
matters of aDDu, his wife is the acknowledged expert, and gave the phone to
her. She concurred with my statement of the rule.
And the game went on...
>now that this post might be construed as violation of the charter, let
>me escape by asking a question - is "manElA", the word by which "9" is
>referred to in aDDATa, a telugu word?
maNElA - on the face of it, doesn't appear to be a telugu word. I would
defer to the noted entomologists of telusA to proffer the explanation.
On the same lines, the other day I was wondering about the word
"duSSAluvA". How come the prefix "duh", invariably having bad connotations,
came to designate something good. Dr. sudarSana Sarma (of tirupati Sanskrit
College, and currently in US) said the prefix is really "dwi" as in
dwi-paTi or duppaTi! And that SAluvA itself is not a sanskrit word.
>prasad "aDDu-pai aDDu-sharatu-pai sharatu-ivannI kAkapOtE kOTu" chodavarapu
Bridge doesn't have this many levels of challenges!
Ramakrishna "Sambasiva Rao gArini, aDDATa booth peTTincamanTU" Pillalamarri