For people who are as starved for some Telugu patriotism and nice Telugu songs we sang in school, here is a good site - Maa Telugu Talli Ki
This was one of my favorite songs in Telugu and actually inspired to me to write a song myself, that was sung in our Schoold-Day celebration, when I was in 9th-grade.
I know it probably comes as a shock to many people to see me so nostalgic for Telugu and Andhra and India. The other side of me has been this feminine girl, who loved Lata, Rafi (my absolute favorite), Jikki, Ghantasala, Susheela and others. My mom is a carnatic-music singer and played the Veena. My dad didn't train classically, but still sang pretty well.
It was that influence which got me interested in music very early in my life. I trained on-and-off in classical music and Veena - just never stuck to it long enough. I also loved "rangoli". I did the whole 30-day thing (nelagantu) before Sankranthi and my mom and I fasted every monday in the Karthikamasam. I even did the whole no-onion, no-garlic, no-non-veg, bathe in cold water every morning at 5:00 - thing for a whole month once.
All that is still part of me - I have never regretted it and I love that I had the chance to enjoy my childhood and adoloscence as fully as I got to back in India. It was a simple time - we led a simple life, and I feel all the richer for it. Oh well, just blame it all on the telugu songs I found, that put me in such a nostalgic mood.
Posted by shanti at March 7, 2003 2:33 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Oh a telugu belle ! Cool, I didn’t know that. My upbringing wasn’t that traditional, though my cousins and others had a pretty traditional upbringing.
Posted by: bungler at March 7, 2003 9:03 PM
LOL, bungler!I had a traditional upbringing in the sense that we were brought up immersed in the Telugu culture :-) It was fun growing up that way.
Posted by: Shanti at March 8, 2003 8:24 AM