I have found that telugu is not among the TOMA (for non-MBAs, TOMA=Top of the Mind Awareness) set of languages. The first time I meet someone, I can see them think with real focus...where is this guy from?...looks a lil like a northie...but hindi accent is different.. Can't be a tamilian or Mallu.. where else can he be from. And most of them would eventually ask me...Which place do you belong to? And only when I say Andhra..the land of Chandra Babu Naidu strikes their mind. Earlier it used to be called the land of Balaji (Tirupathi fame). Now it is identified with the big boss who rules the land. Most of them would then talk about Andhra pickles.. and Andhra food. At least there we are present in the TOMA set. Unfortunately most people don't know that Telugu is supposed to be the Italian of the East being a mellifluous language.
After Hindi, Telugu is spoken by most people in India. This reminds me of my tamilian friend who would argue that Hindi cannot be the national language just because it is spoken by the most..that way crow has to be the national bird. Very nice argument but that doesn't qualify Tamil to be the national language...it is far from peacock.... ;-)
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