World Telugu Writers meet takes off in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: The 5th Edition of World Telugu Writers Conference got off to a good start at PB Siddhartha College in Mogalrajapuram here on Friday. Writers and poets not only from across the country but also from abroad are attending the two-day conference which will continue on Saturday too.

The theme of this year's conference is 'Let's protect our mother tongue! Let's build self esteem'. The World Telugu Writers Association has been organising the conference since 2007. So far, four conferences have been held; in 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 and the present conference is the 5th. and continued two days from 23 December to 24.

Krishna District Writers Association, Telugu Association of North America (TANA), Siliconandhra, TANA World Literature Platform and Siddartha Academy, Vijayawda, are jointly conducting the conference.

Former Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the conference along with the president of World Telugu Association and former Deputy Speaker Mandali Buddha Prasad, Siliconandhra founder Kuchibotla Anand and other prominent activists.

The dignitaries garlanded the statues of Adikavi Nannaya, former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nandamuri Tarak Rama Rao. Later, addressing the gathering, Venkaiah Naidu said that primary education must be in mother tongue only, and the administration also should be in that language. Judgments by courts too need to be in mother tongue, he asserted.

The responsibility of preservation, promotion and expansion of a language lies on writers, he said. "I believe that language and breathing are same (Basha-Swasa). Mother tongue is as important as breathing. If breathing stops, we will die. Likewise, if we stopped the usage of mother tongue, it would definitely die. Make efforts to protect and encourage mother tongue. Our linguistic cultures are passed on to future generations through the writings. Special efforts should be made for the development of the language in the modern way," he added.

Venkaiaha further said that the language preservation should be turned into a mass movement and it must start from our homes and added that there should also be changes in literature to suit the modern needs.

He appealed to the poets, writers, intellectuals and journalists to write with social consciousness and responsibility. He also suggested that the writers and teachers should devise new ways to spread Telugu language. A total of 20 seminars, dance programmes, poetry recitals, and many other cultural events are lined up during the two-day conference.