How to speak in Telugu

PS: Before I start my new blog, a small token of appreciation for my friend Akhilesh Ladha . He has been very enthusiastic about my previous post "Are we truly IITians" and has been trying to forward this message of resource conservation across as many people as possible. It includes posting the post on our Mtech newsgroup, orkut community and also to his hostel mailing list. Really appreciate your effort my friend.

How to speak in Telugu
-------------------------

There are lots of side effects of having a guy from a different region, talking a completely strange language, as one's roommate. The main (dis)advantage is that you get to learn (or maybe forced to learn) a whole new language. Well, mine case is no different either. And after around 8 months of sharing the same room with my roomie Sheiku, here I am , equipped with an entirely new language...Telugu.

My roomie is from a place called Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. So most of his calls are either from his home town or from his Telugu friends in the campus. So how did I get my advanced knowledge of Telugu? Well here's how...

Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggg....
(his mobile ringing)
He picks up the phone

"Endi"...
......
"Cheppu"...
...
...
"Endi..."
..
...
...
"hahahha endi endi"
"Cheppu"....

You guys might be thinking he speaks only 2 words. Nope absolutely not. The thing is, I can make out only these 2 words clearly out of all the of "akada" "chakada" "makada" "pakoda" that he shouts into his mobile.

Thus my 8 months stay with him enriched me with 2 words - "Endi" and "Cheppu". Now what this actually means, my guess is as good as yours. But the thing was I never had got a chance to use my "advanced" knowledge of Telugu with anyone. My roomie wud rather hang himself than hear me kill his mother toungue. But I soon got my chance.

One day my roomie had gone to his lab in the evening. But he had forgotten to logout from his Gtalk google messenger. After he had gone to the lab, I started using his system. After 5 minutes or so I suddenly got a message

"areyy meku firebird assignmet echara?"

The message was from Krishna, my classmate, and he too is from Andhra. He actually meant to ask this to Sheiku. But, as Sheiku was in the lab and since I received the message, my evil mind started thinking of many infinite possibilities. Oppurtunities knock your door when you least expect it. This was my best chance to test my Telugu.

The only thing I could make out from Krishna's message was the term firebird. It was an equipment in our lab on which we do our embedded design assignments. The other words were as good as Greek to me. So what to do now? I need to give this guy a good reply if he had to believe that it was indeed Sheiku who was replying. And that means some proper Telugu words needs to be typed in. Well, that's not a big problem. I have 2 good Telugu words at my disposal. And I decided to one of them.

Me : "Endi"

I waited anxiously. Did this work?....
After some 30 seconds of anxiously waiting, prompt came the reply

"maku assgn 2 echaru ra saying tht we need to complete in 4 hrs anta"

Aha first hurdle crossed. I got a reply. But now what? Well what else other than using my 2nd and last word of my Telugu dictionary.

Me : "Cheppu"

Now what will this guy reply now. And if at all he replies, what do I reply back. My quota of words were over.

Krishna: "see the message i typed above lab loo vunnava?"

Hmm some words english, some words telugu. Is this guy trying to say that he wants to go to the loo? Na it can't be. If he wants to go to the loo why would he want to tell Sheiku that.

But now what to reply. Suddenly I got a brillant idea. Krishna was typing lots of Telugu words right. So all I need to do is select some words from his own sentences and fire it back at him. Hmm so which one to choose. "Vunnava" looks like a very cute word. It reminded me of my Lonavala trip. So fine, "Vunnava" it is.

Me: "Vunnava"

Well no reply for sometime. I guess the game was up.

After 5 minutes or so...

Krishna: "anna sumairuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu kathalu paduthunava ra?"

Wow, game not over yet.

Me : "endi endi"

krishna : "hmmm"

His "Hmm" didn't feel like a good sign. Does he smell a rat? I have to do something...fast!!! That means my reply should contains lots of telugu words. So what's the way out. Simple. Ask him the same question he asked.

Me : "maku assgn 2 echaru ra we need to complete in 4 hrs"

Krishna : "areyyy repaye lab ra evalla epodo mail cheysaydu ra i think chadevayedhi challa vundhi".

Whoa whoa lots of telugu words in return. Well I just need to choose one or 2 and reply back.

Me : "challa vundhi vundhi"

Krishna : "abeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"

Me : "endi endi"

But this time the game was really up. No more replies.
Later I came to know poor Krishna, on the verge of going mad, called up Sheiku to ask for an "explanation". But seeing the amount of time I held on during those "tense" moments, I guess I am prepared for a even more advanced course of Telugu.