Hyderabad, Dec 7 : World Telugu Meet to be held at Tirupati later this month has been attracting much support and criticism as well from many quarters.

On one hand, puritans are in the firm view that Telugu language should be promoted in order to retain the past glory and efforts are on to make Telugu compulsory in schools.

It was under the stewardship of Mandali Venkata Krishna Rao that the first World Telugu Meet was held in Hyderabad when Jalagam Vengal Rao was chief minister. Lal Bahadur stadium, the venue has witnessed all celebrities with Dr C Narayana Reddy giving melodious commentary. It was a time when there were no television channels.

Now the scenario has changed, but the guard remains the same, so it seems what with MV Krishna Rao’s son Mandali Budda Prasad taking active part in organising the function.

With corporatisation of education, the colleges are looking at easier way to get through languages and concentrating on main subjects instead of languages.

At least two generations have passed through this phase and many of them are on foreign shores and now they are feeling the pinch of ignoring mother tongue and many programmes have begun to safeguard the language.

The rich heritage of Telugu poetry and plays are once again coming to the fore and many linguists see the event as a new beginning for revival of Telugu which has many unique qualities.

One thing that is lacking is masters of the language in earlier days had all the knowledge and did not share it with others even family members. With changing times at least the old guard should take care that the many facets of the language should be properly passed on to the next generation.