by Benigna Menezes*

Gidugu Venkata Ramamoorty, a writer and linguist, straddled the 19th and 20th centuries. Students at Maris Stella College recognise the need to "be proud of our ethnicity expressed through our mother tongue."

Vijayawada (AsiaNews) - The Telugu Department at the Maris Stella College organised a meeting to honour the birth of Gidugu Venkata Ramamoorty, a writer and linguist who devoted his life to the promotion of the Telugu language and literature.

In this spirit, more than 500 students from the Telugu Department came together on 27 August at the Maris Stella College to celebrate the birth of the "mentor" of the Telugu language and culture, whose life straddled the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Acharya Krishna Murthy from Nagarjuna University chaired the meeting.

Calling the Telugu language as "the music of the heart", Krishna Murthy chanted a few slokas and ragas in Telugu to impress the audience about the "musical versatility of Telugu language" and stressed "the importance of the native language to build up a healthy and harmonious society".

He also opened the first Telugu Club at the Stella Maris College whose goal is to improve students' communication and literacy skills in Andhra Pradesh's indigenous language.

Some young people also recognised the need to "support our local culture and our symbols." At a time when English is used as the standard language to follow and vernacular languages ​​are undermined, students said that "we must be proud of our ethnicity expressed through our mother tongue".

* Missionary with the Immaculate Conception, the women's congregation associated with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME).

• india
• telugu
• andhra
• pradesh
• department
• maris
• stella
• college
• gidugu
• venkata
• ramamoorty
• anniversary