At times, life takes us through those unknown realms, where, we wake up to witness new experiences. Suddenly, that very life, leaves us in the midst of a junction, without leaving a sign, and challenges us to find the way forward.
* * * * *
Today, I have logged into my Yahoo mail, which, I have long forgotten to operate. I was little curious to read old mails and went straight to the last page.
When I saw that name, I was surrounded by those original feelings which I have undergone during those days.
I must say that it is always wonderful to relive certain moments, with the same fervor and flavour, though they have withered away along the course of struggle-for-existence.
The name that got my attention and thereby made to write this piece is “Jurate” (to be pronounced as Yuraate. యురాటె).
Jurate, a well educated and spiritualist woman, was born in Lithuania.
* * * * *
Sometime in June of 2003, I have got registered with MyLanguageExchange.com to learn French as I was working for a French multinational and thought of speaking to our Corporate office staff in French. It was quite an adventure for me, at that time, to think of learning a language online! (Can someone teach me French now!?!)
Jurate contacted me on 08/06/2003 through mylanguageexchange.com, expressing her interest to learn Telugu & it was a surprise to me, naturally!
I gave my yahoo id to her to communicate and started worrying about this a while later! (Having read internet security policy circulated by our HO)
But what followed, post my sharing the mail id with Jurate, is something that I can never forget but keep cherishing.
I might be violating the ethical code by publishing the private mails in a public forum. But I am sure that the readers would get to know the extended meaning of life, trust, friendship and finally of being a fine personality.
(Mails of Jurate’s & mine are arranged in the chronological order)
From: Jurate
To: raghu_cdp@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 11:43 PM
Subject: confirmation
Namasthe..
Dear Raghu,
Thank you so much for your replay!
Here is my confirmation about my willingness to learn Telugu.
Indeed, it can look strange for you my wish to learn this language, but this is true.
I have searched in Internet and have found a Telugu-English vocabulary and later I found Telugu alphabets and can write “amma”. This is quite an achievement for me 🙂
I don’t know if you know Sri Somanatha Maharishi – he is self-realized Yogi, who has created the unique technique of Manoyoga Sadhana, which I am practicing for 6 month now. In March I went to India for the first time in my life and spend a week in Somatha Kshetram in Hyderabad (after that I traveled in south India for two weeks). Don’t want to be too long, so won’t tell you a long story. Swamiji doesn’t speak English and I have communicated through a mediator. It is better than nothing, but no mediators would be even better. It is hardly possible to learn Telugu so well, but I am bound to learn a minimum, so that I can understand at least simple things and to be able to read too.
Swamiji has written many books, but only two of them are translated in English. Rest is written in Telugu.
Maybe one day I would go to India again and stay longer. I would look for a teacher to improve Telugu.
Time will tell if it is possible.
My yahoo ID is jurate40.
I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Best wishes-
Jurate
Re: Fw: confirmation
Wednesday, June 11, 2003 3:14 PM
From:”Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
To:”Jurate” <juv@takas.lt>
Dear Jurate,
How do you do ! Great to see your quick response.
Let what may be the reason to learn Telugu, I can tell you that you are learning a beautiful language. Why I am telling so confidently is that I am also not a native of Telugu. My mother tongue is Kannada (spoken by 40 million people). But Telugu has become my mother tongue. I love that language so much. Now I am a Content Editor for a Telugu portal.
I am working for a Multinational Company as Executive Assistant to the Managing Director. This Editor’s job is freelancer sort of thing.
Coming to Telugu fonts. You please visit www.sirigina.com and download a free trial version of Telugu Lipi Editor. It is a Telugu word processor which works on phonetic keyboard i.e. if you type “amma” in english it converts the same into Telugu script. Try with this software to write Telugu. I tried to attach zip file of this s/w but it failed.
I do not know the time zone difference between you and me. Lets hope that we talk to each other soon.
Best regards
Raghu
Clarifications
Tuesday, June 17, 2003 1:09 PM
From:”Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
To:”Jurate Telugu Learner” <juv@takas.lt>
Dear Jurate,
Telugu, unlike English, won’t have capital letters and small letters. It has just got alphabets. In English, you will place alphabets next to each other to frame meaningful words, but in Telugu we have got “samyuktaaksharaalu” i.e. compound alphabets. For e.g. take the word “MAHARSHI”. In this “RSHI” is a compound alphabet. It has been arrived after combing RI and SHI. The alphabet which comes last will be denoted by a “code” or “short form” and will be placed below or very close to the previous alphabet.
Coming to your queries, what you saw as capital letters are to differentiate certain alphabets. For e.g. observe the following words
English Telugu
Meter – meeTer
Method – methaD
Here capital T indicates Ta sound of the word meter. Likewise capital D indicates the “D” sound of the word method.
The above have been made while preparing the phonetic keyboard for Telugu language. This phonetic keyboard, you might be aware, is the tool through which you can convert the native words typed in English into the native language.
You have also asked a query about capital vowels. capital A will be used to type words like ATE, ATHENES where the stress on A is more. Similarly E. Like EDEN, EATING where the stress is more on E. small e is used to indicate words like ELEPHENT, ENVELOP.
What I suggest you is please go to our website www.telugupeople.com where we have just introduced Telugu typing software. Please visit the site and start typing there. You will understand the above things easily.
About myself will be followed in another mail.
Regards
Raghu
[ No Subject ]
Tuesday, June 17, 2003 3:20 PM
From:”Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
To:”Jurate Telugu Learner” <juv@takas.lt>
Dear Jurate,
My full name is C. Raghothama Rao. I have been born and brought up in Andhra Pradesh and am 31 years old. I am married one and half years ago to Subha. I am living in Bangalore for the past five years and my parents are also with me.
I did my post graduation in Literature (English). But do not curse me if my English is worst. I could never master grammar and phonetics.
Currently I am working for a MNC in Bangalore as an Executive Assistant to the Managing Director and also handle Human Resources.
I do write poetry, articles and essays and some of them have been broadcast in local radio stations. Before coming to Bangalore, I worked as sub-editor for one of the Telugu leading newspapers and also for a local TV channel. Both the job were placed in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
Apart from my official job, as you know, I am the content editor for a web site called telugupeople.com . There I edit the articles, paintings and cartoons posted by the members. And also do some administration jobs. I also work as a visualiser for the web site. We are a small team of 8 members who are running this site with our money invested for no returns. The satisfaction what we are getting by uniting more than 100,000 Telugu people who spread across the globe is much more than than earning $100,000.
My residence phone number is +91 80 650 7337. I am available at home before 7:00 AM Indian time and after 9:00PM Indian time. Feel free to call me at any time.
Thats all about this drop in the ocean of life.
Best regards
Raghu
Learning Telugu
Friday, June 20, 2003 5:25 PM
From: “Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
To: “Jurate Telugu Learner” <juv@takas.lt>
Dear Jurate,
As I was busy in some recruitment process, I could not reply to you immediately.
Coming to learning Telugu through web is ok. But you cannot master it. That too sahiti.org training is too tough for a foreigner to understand. The better way of learning is try to listen and talk. You try to find Telugu Association near to your place, if any. Get in touch with them and try to pick up the language from their speaking.
I have learnt another Indian language called as Bengali by listening to the persons, talking. I think the same may workout for you as well.
I will suggest you one more way of learning Telugu. You visit www.ragalahari.com or www.manoranjani.com These are the websites beaming Telugu songs. You just listen to them every now and then and come back to me about the meanings. From this at least, you could be able to pick up some routine words with proper accent. In these sites you can find both old and new songs. Go to old songs as they are rich in vocabulary. New songs are half English, anothe quarter Hindi and another 1/4th cries and moans and remaining is Telugu (hahahahaha)
Or else as I proposed earlier, if we can fix up a date and time, we can have a voice chat through yahoo or msn. I got a system at home and normally I work on my web site in late evening/night. In your earlier mail you have mentioned that the time zone difference is 2.5 hours. Are you ahead of our time by 2.5 hrs or behind?If you are behind us then it may not be a problem as I normally come online after 10:30pm Indian time.
Thats all for now.
Best regards
Raghu
Its me !!!!!
Monday, June 23, 2003 8:34 AM
From: “Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
To: “Jurate Telugu Learner” <juv@takas.lt>
Dear Jurate,
It was nice to chat with you but at the same time it was sad that the net connection got disconnected abruptly.
I am attaching my pic which has been taken on May 18th during our website staff meeting at Hyderabad. Do not get scared by seeing me 🙂
Regards
Raghu
Monday, June 23, 2003 10:41 PM
From:”Jurate” <juv@takas.lt>
To:”Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
Dear Raghu,
thanks for sending the picture, don’t really understand, why I should get scared by seeing a young intelligent and handsome man.
Indeed for me it is really tough to learn Telugu. Anyway, by a certain steadiness I hope for at least a little constant progress. There is no Telugu Association around in the radius at about 3,5 thousand km or more (London?). So, I am really lucky to find you and get valuable explanations and advises.
I enjoy your English very much, which is very good indeed and understandable. Sometimes I have problem to understand abbreviations.
When it is 10:30p.m. in India, here is 8p.m. We can a voice chat one day.
As you were so kind and told me about yourself, here some facts about me in case you would be interested to know.
I am 41! (1962). Married in 1984 and divorced in 1992, which is long ago and things have turned into good since long time ago, so I lead single but purposeful life now. My daughter will be 18 in July. She is a student and has lived with me.
I was involved in sports since my childhood (swimming and diving). Finished Pedagogical University and worked as a swimming teacher and diving coach for many years. After the political (Soviet Union collapsed) and personal life’s changes (husband left, I lost my job, and other difficulties) I had some tough time, but did withstand the test of life and managed to progressed in all aspects.
I have been working for a German company for 10 years. My boss (the owner) is in Germany. He comes 5-6 times a year. I am responsible for pallet wood supply from Lithuania, Belarus and Russia to their factory in Germany, where they produce wooden pallets. I also arrange delivering wood to other companies, who are clients of our company. There is some other interesting projects, that we are working on – privatising a big sawmill and investing into production and other businesses.
I am still involved in sports as a diving judge – sometimes judging in International diving competitions and I am also member of the European technical diving committee till 2005, then I will probably resign.
My spiritual life is quite intensive. I am interested in Vedanta and I am practicing yoga. In March of this year I visited India.
I think this makes some clearer picture of me and if you want to know more, you can ask anything you want to.
Hope to chat with you soon.
Best regards-
Jurate
Re: Its me !!!!!
Tuesday, June 24, 2003 3:14 PM
From:”Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
To: juv@takas.lt
Dear Jurate,
Life, as it unfolds, brings fresh feelings, new relations which loom large around you. I feel you have seen the full circle of life. I am also happy that you are leading a purposeful life.
When I have gon through your mails and when I saw you over webcam, I figuered out you as a lady who saw the life at close quarters. One more reason for my guessing is your spiritual pursuit.
India, for the generations unknown, has been the culminating point of all spiritual pursuits.
I guess that you are a soft, calm going yet aggressive in terms of emotional relations and self confident (bit proud about yourself?!?!?). Please excuse me if I guessed you wrong.
I have been born and brought up in a spiritual environment. Hence I also got a great deal of interest in philosophy. I belong to the “Brahmin” community which is supposed to be the treasurers of vedic knowledge!
I am very fond of literature, particularly poetry. Travelling, making friends and photography (not like a professional) are my other interests.
As we share one interest in common i.e. philosophy and going to share one language (Telugu), I feel that I too got a good opportunity to learn more about life.
From now on, I would like to call you as “sister”, if you don’t mind.
Bye for now
Raghu
Tuesday, June 24, 2003 9:05 PM
From: “Jurate” <juv@takas.lt>
Dear Raghu,
Thank you for your amazing letter, which I enjoyed so much.
Your guessing is very well. I like your honesty. I like when people are frankly – say what they think and do what they say.
A treasure of Vedic knowledge probably knows that good and bad is the same quality. As far as I know it is a question of degree only. Someone who is too much satisfied can develop pride. Same with other qualities: not enough self-confident/too shy, too much self-confident/proud.
Anyway, someone who does not feel sad, may look happy. On the other hand s/he may be neither sad nor glad. No happiness (and no sadness of course) is even greater than happiness. An insightful person accepts experience in life as it comes. S/he avoids being proud about himself. What for should be this excitement (pride)? It is childish. Still there is truth in your words…
Since my country (Lithuania) had belonged to the former Soviet Union, I was brought up in an atheistic environment. It was quite a spiritual adventure for spiritual seekers, who lived there and were questioning themselves and had to find answers themselves (using their intelligence) because there was nobody to answer and there were no scriptures or books available. Hence I am even more the lucky to meet you, who comes from Brahmin community and have had an access to the spiritual treasures since you were aware of yourself.
I am glad you have been listed in MyLanguageExchange.com, which helped me to come across you.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes to my “new brother”-
Jurate
P.s. skin J : strange that dark-skin people think that white-skin people should be scared of them, while, white-skin people try to get suntan and even go to solariums for an artificial suntan, maybe they try to avoid looking like ghosts and not scaring others?
From: Raghothama Rao
To: juv@takas.lt
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 2:50 PM
Subject: Ref: new born brotherhood
Dear Sister,
I hope I haven’t hurt your feelings with my wild guessing. If I did it, please feel free to express.
Good and bad qualities are two different qualities. But as you rightly said, depending upon the extent of the degree of the quality humans are being classified.
“An insightful man accepts experience life as it comes”. I like this line a lot. It is true. But insightfulness is difficult to get. To get this, person should be able to accept his/her mistakes and misdeeds gracefully. Not only the acceptance but he/she has to pledge not to repeat those mistakes/misdeeds. Normally, with the humanbeings burried under ego, it is very difficult to accept their mistakes. Hence there is no question arising on taking a pledge.
Once upon a time I was also an atheist (but only for a very short period). When I was just joined college, I read books written by some atheist movement leaders and got influenced. But initially it was my mother and later by my brother-in-law who is my guru who changed me and influenced me a lot. Spiritualism is not a blind belief. Since the inception of my spiritual pursuit I had a doubt in my mind which still unresolved. According to Big Bang theory this universe came into existence by the collision of big astronomical bodies. If that is correct then how the collision two lifeless things could result in getting a living object. This thought has changed me to pursue about the spiritual reasoning behind the existence of ME.
My listing in MyLanguageExchange.com is a mere accident. Once I was asked to type and translate a document written in French. When I was searching the net for translation software, I fumbled upon this site and found interesting. I am also glad to have your friendship through that website.
Poetry and philosophy are my weakness. I normally talk less about these two things. Because people may not be feeling as impulsive as I do. I have got few friends with whom I discuss only literature and nothing else. And with my wife (Subha – means bringing good) I discuss about philosophy and human relationships. Now I have got one more friend with whom I can share and discuss spiritualism.
Once again, I am sorry if I hurt you with my comments in the previous mail.
Best regards
Raghu
Re: new born brotherhood
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 5:02 PM
From: “Jurate” <juv@takas.lt>
To: “Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
Dear Raghu,
There is nothing to be sorry! You have not hurt me at all! On the contrary – I enjoyed your letter very much because as I said I like when people speak frankly. I know you are honest, so please, be frank and tell me always what you think. We are from different worlds, cultures and are of different mentalities, hence there is so much to share and we still have much in common to be able to understand each other! I admire your insight indeed and your english is so perfect, hence I look forward to getting emails for you!
I will write later –
Best wishes!
:))
Jurate
Following mail is the most liked one by me of Jurates’
Re:
Sunday, June 29, 2003 9:43 PM
From: “Jurate” <juv@takas.lt>
To: “Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
Dera Raghu,
It took some time before I managed to come back to your email. My work and studies kept me busy and today I had some stress because of my daughter’s health, but now she is o.k., resting (sleeping) after her 3rd epileptic fit today, (she had the 1st in 1998 and the 2nd in 2000).
I am glad our e-mails have awakened some ideas, which are interesting for you and me to discuss about. And it is nice to know that you can talk to your wife about philosophical and other issues. It is great indeed.
As I said you didn’t hurt my feelings by seeing what you saw. It is correct to say what you see. I am fine with the fact that I may give an impression of being proud even if I am not very much proud. Even in western countries women are often traditionally perceived as obeying and dependent persons who supposed to cook, do laundry, rise children et. A woman who is active and independent in all aspects of her life (rising child alone, material, social, leisure, educational, spiritual etc) looks a bit abnormal and makes herself conspicuous. But I am o.k. with that. I don’t think about it much and really don’t mind different opinions about me because it doesn’t change anything. Important for us is what we think about ourselves and what we do to improve ourselves, which is our duty as you said to realize mistakes, to accept them as the lectures and opportunity to learn and avoid in the future. Anyway, it is also useful to hear what people say about you.
About Atheism. Atheist, one who doesn’t believe in God (or we can say that atheist is one who believes that there is no God). The greatest atheist of these days is Stephen Hawking who denies the existence of God. I have his last book “The Universe in a Nutshell”, which still is waiting till I find time to read it. I am sure you have heard about this man. What I wanted to tell is that the atheism can play an important role in developing of a person’s fundamental views. Because it is impossible that an intelligent person would accept theories and ideas without any doubts. If he does – whether he is a child or an unformed undeveloped person, who can live only depending on others.
In my early years atheism was an official doctrine in my country while religion was a story for “for grandmas in the villages”. So, as a growing person I wanted to understand the life and the Universe and where from and what for we come to existence and what happens when we are gone. So I directed my doubts to both – the atheism and religion trying to understand whether there is God or not. Alone the questioning is already great step in thinking. I have to admit that neither atheism (materialism) nor Christianity has answered my questions. Therefore I have pointed my attention to the East and since then have been discovering unmeasured wisdom.
I will be glad if you share your views.
I am not strong at poetry and literature. My English vocabulary is too poor. I love essays. I haven’t read many novels, but reading is one of my favorite ways of spending my time.
Well, I hope we will find some time for my Telugu studies.
Still need to practice a lot but at least I understand consonant + vowel morphing, but I got stuck with consonant + consonant morphing. Like t + ri (like in ratri) j + na and n+bu (in jnananbu) j +yo and sh + ya (jyotishyashastrambu) or g+hu (in Raghu :))). I will work on the sahiti.org site, but if you know a better way, let me know.
Of course I need to know how to pronounce and where there is stress in a word.
Are there good tutorials (books, cassettes or CD’s) for English speakers who want to learn Telugu available, which you could recommend me? I could send some money to pay for it and for shipping costs too, if you say how much it may cost. I trust your choice and recommendations. Maybe one day you have time to look in a bookstore and check prices? I could transfer by Western Union. A dictionary (English-Telugu, Telugu-English) would be useful too.
I feel a bit confused asking you for this. If you are busy, can leave it or do when you have time.
I will finish my long writing here.
My best wishes –
Jurate
From: Raghothama Rao
To: Jurate Telugu Learner
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 1:58 PM
Subject: Hi
Dear Sister,
Hope this mail finds you and Leena in good health.
Best reagrds
Raghu
Re: Hi
Friday, October 3, 2003 11:20 AM
From: “juv” <juv@takas.lt>
To: “Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
Dear Raghu,
It has been long time..
I had severe problems with my computer since August after upgrading windows. Lost many files and all emials and even addresses. Now I have a new computer with new windows xp and everything goes well again. Good that you emailed to me, so I have your address again.
The work keeps me very busy and the house as well. Still unfinished. Look forward to moving soon there.
Hope everything fine with you and your family.
Attaching pictures one of my house and one with me-
Take care.
Jurate
This was the last mail that I have received from Jurate.
With a hope to hear from her again and to continue the linguistically originated and spiritually bound brotherhood, I wrote a mail in 2004.
Hi
Saturday, February 7, 2004 3:20 PM
From:”Raghothama Rao” <raghu_cdp@yahoo.com>
To: juv@takas.lt
Dear Sister,
Just wondering about you and Leena. Would be just overjoyed if I can receive a mail from you.
Best regards
Raghu
But this mail has bounced back with a message “Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:“
I hope that wherever she is, would be doing fine, be hail and healthy. I also hope that one day in future she would call on me, speaking in fluent Telugu!
Every now and then, each one of us would be coming across with enticing personality, who come and go like a falling star. Jurate is one such person in my life.
*****