ATA Conference, 2-4 July 2004 news:

On July 4th 2004, at the 8th bi-annual conference of ATA, the America Telugu Association, the Vamsee Cultural and Educational Foundation, and Sri Annamacharya Project North America (SAPNA) honored 25 prominent Telugu men and women for their valuable contribution in the fields of literature, fine arts, business and community service. Nidadavolu Malathi was one of the awardees. The honor belongs to all the writers, translators and zealous readers of Thulika, who are a major part of this success.

I am grateful to you all for your support and encouragement.

At first, I was planning to write a report on the Conference. However, after attending the 3-day  Conference covering topics enough for 5 days, I decided to leave it to the ATA2004.org website who might give a better perspective. Personally, I was reminded of a famous line of Shaw - the topics were not exhausted but the audience were.

I am going to mention a few programs I attended and my opinions are subjective. Having said that, I stayed almost the entire two days with literature panels. Several stalwarts from India, Canada, and U.S., such as Dr. C. Narayana Reddy, Jnanapeeth awardee, Prof. G. V. Subrahmanyam, Vice-Chancellor, Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Prof. Tirumala Krishna Desikacharyulu, Dr. Viswanatha Achyutarayalu, Prof. K. Malayavasini, and Prof.. Vemuri Ramanatham, spoke on topics from classical literature; and, on modern literature, Dr. Vallampati Venkata Subbaiah, Dr. Kasireddy Venkata Reddy, Dr. J. L. Reddy, and Malathi spoke. I missed Dr. Afsar's speech due to scheduling conflict.

Dr. Saradapurna Sonty, Chair of the Literary Committee and poet, promised to bring all these speeches in a book form. I am looking forward to the book since the speeches were packed with viewpoints and quotes from original texts, which are impossible to grasp at a conference of this nature.

One of the highlights was ashTaavadhaanam by renowned virtuoso performer, Madugula Naga Phani Sarma. Ashtavadhaanam is a literary genre, peculiar to Telugu literature, in which a poet, constructs 8 poems extempore on the stage on 8 diverse topics suggested by 8 equally talented poets, while a couple of others create distractions for the performer. Each poem, comprised of 4 lines, is recited, one line at a time, in the order the topics were given to him and incorporating additional features given by the challengers. It was impressive.

A second event was the book release of the complete works (library edition) of late Viswanatha Satyanarayana, who was a Jnanapeeth awardee (the highest honor India government confers on writers) by his son, Pavani Sastry; Sri Satyanarayana also earned the title kavisamrat [Emporer of poets]. Please contact Saradapurna Sonty, saradapurna@yahoo.com for details regarding this set.

The souvenir magazine, entitled pravaasaaraamam [home of the non-resident Indians], includes writers of repute as well as young promising writers. I've read a couple of stories and a few poems and found them very interesting. Being an editor myself, I couldn't help noticing the editorial work that went into the book. For instance, I used two names for one character, Varija, inadvertently. Certainly it was my mistake and the editors corrected it. Considering the massive task they'd undertaken and the short time they had, I would say it was an excellent editorial work.

Secondly, there was short dialogue between the host, Giri, and the guests who'd just arrived. Giri tells them he would take care of the luggage, as is custom in our country, but without any intent of doing so. The editors changed the line to read, "my brother will bring in the luggage." My intent was to highlight the kind of people who would say they would do it but make others do it. I've seen such people in real life. I am not saying the editors were wrong.

It just made me think of the changes I make sometimes in the translations of others, submitted to Thulika. The point is, if the author/translator does not pay close attention to the author's intentions in the original, the lines can be misread. In the story in question, I should have added another line about Giri's behavior, which is saying I'll do it without meaning to do so.

Another incident: Two young women, walked up to me with big smiles and asking whether I remembered them. I taught them Telugu at the University of Wisconsin long time ago. We were talking in English, and one of them said, suddenly, naaku telusu [I know]. That was a charming moment.

Earlier the organizers suggested "How to think in Telugu" as one of my topics. Until I met these two young women, I didn't realize that my teaching did make some impression on their minds! There's one answer to the question, I thought.

I am thankful to all the writers who were kind enough to give me complimentary copies of their books and magazines. I will review them in the next issue.

Hearty congratulations to the organizers for all their effort and the endless hours they had put in to make this conference a success. Personally, I would have liked it if there was more time for the speakers to speak and listeners to absorb.

NM