Tanzania

No, I didnt go on a trip to Tanzania! This was the source for the cover story for Eenadu's sunday special this week (Tanazaniaa ... Choosi Teeraalayaa ... ). There was a time when Eenadu sunday special was one of the reasons to look forward for a sunday morning. Though not the prime reason anymore it still stays on the list of reasons to look forward for a sunday. There is nothing to beat the feeling you get you complete all your house hold chores in the morning and slump down in the chair with a copy of that book. It is still one of my favorite pastimes for a sunday. The fervent interest that I used to exhibit waiting for the newspaper on a sunday morning has waned over the years but the feeling I gain from reading those articles has no match. The 'Telugu' you get when you read Eenadu is quite different from the other newspapers. No wonder when people get hooked onto it they want it wherever they are in this world. The literary quality and the number of pages on the sunday special was on the wane since the last few years - Barring a few volumes most of them were devoid of quality matter. The concentration was more on the 'novelty' factor. 'Tidbits' dominated the proceedings with the special being reduced to a tabloid. The stories being published in the short-story segment have become rather short :)) and most of them are endowed with a predictable story line. Perhaps this was also one of the reasons for the position of Eenadu sunday special dropping a few places on my sunday 'to-do list'.

The main reason I observe was that there was a dearth of good writers who used to contribute articles to this wonderful magazine. It has been ages since I have seen 'Ajay Santhi' (Who used to be a regular contributor and my favorite) on the book. I wonder what happened to him. Not that the stuff they are churning out these days is bad but I think these nexgen writers need some serious training in keeping up with old values that the magazine stood for. These new age articles carry the gen-x flavor in Telugu which I can get anywhere else (Other telugu mags). If Eenadu's Telugu wasn't what it was it would have lost its identity in this sea of mags long ago. Enough about the fall in quality now. I think today after a long long time Eenadu featured an article by famous writer and actor Gollapudi Maruthi Rao.

Gollapudi describes his journey into the heart of East Africa, to Tanzania. Unlike the cover stories these days which were either rich in illustrations or literary content, this article was rich in both. There were loads of beautiful pictures through out article. The content was pretty good too. It was interesting to read. The wasy it was written gave me the same exhilaration it used to get previously. The writer tees off the essay by quoting a conversation with his son who argued that it was perilous to visit Tanzania. On the contrary it turned out to be a delightful experience for the writer. As an icing on the cake it was refreshing to know that there were around 300 Telugu families living in Tanzania! He details his journey in chaste telugu that took him across Dar-U-Salem, Serengeti and the Khilamanjero. The encounter with the pride of lions in mountains of Khilamanjero was nothing short of hair-raising! (Incase you trash it as lies - there is photographic evidence to back it up!). It is nice to see someone breaking the mould and venturing out to tour an African destination unlike many who tour the US or Europe.