marO cATuvu - maa maMci telugulO!

Rao Veluri (rveluri@smtpgate.anl.gov)
Thu, 27 Jun 96 17:22:05 CST


O! cATu lovers (pun & fun intended):

Here is one in telugu that has acquired a good bit of padding(pun not
intended) over the years!

First the story. One day, krishnadEvaraayalu and his daughter mOhanaaMgi
were playing a game of chess. A pawn(soldier) of mOhanaMgi got into
a position in between the rook(elephant) and the queen (maMtri in our
macho tradition!) She was looking for a move to save the pawn, and sang
slighly aloud in lilting voice (actually in telugu we say kooni raagaM) the
last line from a poem she bought from a poet by name nRsiMha kavi(I may be
off here!) for four thousand varahaas(I wish such mOhanaaMgees are around
us now a days!). His Highness kRshNadEvaraayalu gaaru asked her:

"My dearest daughter! Where from did you get that beautiful line?
Which poem? How come I have never heard it before?"

It was told that she was a little shy at first, but recited the entire poem
to daddy. He being a poet himself, was not angry at her, nor he punished
(I mean grounded) her for 'aucityaM' and all that silly nonsense. He was
happy to get the palm leaf on which the original was written! After all, in
the first place, it was tax payers' money that mOhanaaMgi lavished for one
single poem!

Here it is, as I remember(I might have goofed, a word or two!)it:

tE. gee. ottukoni vaccu kaTi kucO dvRtti cooci
taruNi tanu madhya mecaTikO talagi pOye
uMDenEniyu kanabaDa kuMDe? ahaha!
uddhatula madhya pEdala kuMDataramE?

This is not dEvabhaasha. And, the telugu in it is sweet and simple!!


Home work: What is the alaMkaaraM (figure of speech) in the poem?
Do not cheat. If you want to know, send me email. I will send you the
the right answer. But, promise that you would send a tax deductible
donation of $10.00 (Ten dollars only) to:

India Literacy Project
P. O. Box 2137, Hines, IL 60141-2137

I know you have a big heart and do not want to be cheap and get the
answer freely from your chandO guroos on the net. Do you?

Hoping to hear from a lot of TELUSAers and SCITers!!

Regards.


-- Venkateswara Rao Veluri