The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : VCD takes richness of Telugu across the seas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 07, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

VCD takes richness of Telugu across the seas

Suresh Krishnamoorthy

The CD is aimed at instilling a love for the language among children born and brought up abroad

Indira Vishwanath, who along with her sister Uma, conceptualised and scripted a VCD for NRI children. — PHOTO: K. Ramesh Babu

HYDERABAD: "Desamante matti kadoi, desamante manushuloi," recites an NRI mother in the US as her child, born and being raised in the land of opportunity, watches wide-eyed.

"Mom, what's that?" the child asks and is told that it means that a nation comprised of people and was not a brick and mortar construction. The child continues, "Who said that?" and comes up with "Who's that?" when told of Gurazada Appa Rao. NRI parents always worry about how to instil the richness of Telugu in the hearts of their US-born children. In such a scenario was born a 45-minute animated audio visual CD titled `Chinnari Balashiksha.'

An NRI doctor, Uma Eyyunni of Florida, and her sister, Indira Mandadi, here conceptualised and penned the lyrics. Indira says, "I was hunting for CDs of Telugu rhymes for my school when I found `Chinnari Chitti Geetalu' by Tooni Arks, a Hyderabad-based company. I contacted the company and months down the line I am satisfied with the end result."

Animation

Considered an animated version of the `Pedda Balashiksha,' it was released at the American Telugu Association meeting in Los Angeles recently and a few weeks later copies crossed the seven seas to land here. The CD contains 26 songs with supporting animation broadly encompassing all that a child needs to know about the richness of Telugu.

The credit for taking the CD from the drawing board to the recording factory goes to California-based Sunil Sanku and Pradeep Jacob Nair, among others.

More to come from Tooni Arks are `Pedaraasi Peddamma Kathalu' and `Chinnari Satyanarayana Vratam.'

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