Thursday, May 24, 2007

Telugu PunTulu

If you cannot speak and read Telugu, sorry, this blog post will not make any sense to you.

While I was enjoying the Pun-off, I was wondering if we have the concept of puns in Telugu. Then I had a recollection of this అష్టావధానమ్ program that I attended at A.U. Assembly Hall in my previous life.

I very well remember the name of the అష్టావధాని (who was a Telugu teacher, I heard) - శ్రీ మేడసాని మొహన్. At one point in this event, while Sri. Mohan was busy counting the bell rings and the drums beats (as a part of the eight tasks that he was supposed to be performing), one of the judges asked him to describe a Brahmin meal, using the words పంది and కోడి!! As his response on pondering for a few minutes, Sri. Mohan started narrating decoration of the hall and the feast of a marriage ceremony by "ఆకాశమంత పందిరి వేసి, వేడి వేడి పకోడి పెట్ట..." (meaning: they built a sky-high mandapam for marriage, and during the feast, they served gharam gharam pakodi). I was impressed!

1 comment:

ShastriX said...

That was too much, Gopa. Still chortling.

Puns in Telugu? Well, i remember the double entendres in movies:

* Kishtigaadu calling out to a guy wearing a red shirt: "ఓరెయ్, ఎరుపు"
* Someone refering to a nice breeze: "చల్లగాలేస్తొన్ది"