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Silicon Valley lo Andhra- Interview with Kiran Prabha

by Bhaskar Teegela
 

Bhaskar: How important is maintaining of Telugu culture to the first and second generation US Telugus? 

Kiran Prabha: Maintenance of our culture and tradition becomes important in a situation where our value system is highly regarded by the Americans. This includes from things like how we bring up the children to the way we conduct ourselves with public at large in our daily life. It is important to the second generation to imbibe these value systems and carry forward to their subsequent generations but how far it reaches the minds of the youth depends on various other factors beyond these cultural activities. Hence, it is not promotion or propagation, but an attempt to inculcate these ideas. 

B: If so, what role is played by the second generation in the activities that aim to promote the culture and value systems and what are these factors that you were referring to in the above viewpoint?

KP: (speaks ref to Silicon Andhra). The main factor is the parent's communication with their children. If parents can emphasis the importance our culture and tradition, which are markers of Telugu identity, in an amicable way so as to make children realize their role. The participation
by the second generation is very encouraging and optimistic. To refer an example, in the Ugadi Kavi Sammelanam, first of its kind on the West Coast, 40% of the attendees were aged 20-30. The second generation plays an invaluable role by showing interest in, not only knowing the 
issues related to Telugu culture, but also attempting to participate in the programmes actively staged. One of the attendees, a girl aged 18-19 from Seattle who stayed through out the programme, congratulated the Silicon Andhra team after the Kavi Sammelanam. It is not just for showing the essence, richness and sweetness of Telugu culture but also making her to decide to visit their parent's land of origin to learn more about the culture. As I referred already, the attempt is to inculcate and motivate to learn than mere promotion by staging programmes. 

B: Is there a section of Second generation that actively participates in the cultural activities?

KP: We have two kinds of second generation in two different contexts. In the first context, there are children who are born in India and came to the US at 5-10 years of age, and those who are born and brought up in the US. In the second case, there are second generation coming from families that have the Telugu cultural ambience at home and vice versa. In my own experience and from many that I have seen personally, I would say, without hesitation, the children who are exposed to the Telugu culture and tradition at home by the parents participate in the cultural activities and I can say nearly 60% of the Telugu families still stress on their children to adhere to the Telugu way of culture and values in daily life.

B: How do you respond to the observation that the second generation lives in a clash of cultures at home and away from home?

KP: I do not agree with the observation. When the parents are able to communicate with the children effectively, explaining them about the rights and wrongs of the two cultures, there is no point in the confusion. It is a general impression among many outsiders that the second generation lives in a clash of ideas and perceptions. But let me tell you it is not so as they have a chance to observe different sets of cultures at home and away from home. In a way, it helps to realise which is better for their lives. In most cases, the second generation appreciates our Telugu way of life and value systems. But let me also tell you that the American value system is far better than the way many of us perceive about it here in our motherland.

B: What is the reaction of the local government in the US towards your efforts? 

KP: The US Government is always supportive and encouraging. I can refer to the Andhra Cultural Festival which we conduct every year in October. When we conducted it last year (2002 in Cupertino), we approached the Mayors of two cities- Cupertino and Sunnyvale to invite them to our festival. They were very curious to know about our culture, and more so when we informed about the festival being organized at the Flint Centre with a capacity of 2700 audience. When they attended, they have witnessed how we are promoting, on what scale, and how our fellow Telugu community members are appreciating it. Nearly 2200 Telugus attended the cultural festival and made it a grand success. Later the mayor of Cupertino invited our cultural group to participate in the multi cultural programmes they have conducted as they valued our efforts.

B: What kind of linkages Silicon Andhra maintains with the Government of Andhra Pradesh?

KP: As of now, we have not yet approached the government in A.P for support of any kind. We are a two-year-old organisation and now we are focussing on how best we can contribute to our motherland. It is on our agenda to maintain sustainable and consistent linkages with the government at home and its development oriented programmes.

B: Silicon Andhra focuses on the traditional literary and folk-arts and performances as part of your Andhra Cultural Festival. How does the organisation manages training of participants. Or does the organisation arrange performances by cultural troupes from Government of Andhra Pradesh as it happens in case of other overseas Telugu cultural organisations?

KP: So far, we have not approached the government of Andhra Pradesh for the cultural troupes to perform in our yearly festival. But the government of Andhra Pradesh is definitely sending cultural troupes to perform in the US and it happened with the recently concluded Telugu Association of North America (TANA) 2003. As our motto is to promote the Telugu Sahiti Samskritika Sampradaya Spurti in the Telugu Diaspora. Hence, the aim is to pass the techniques of performance to our next generation. Thus, we invited experts from Nrityanjali (Secunderabad) and get the first and second-generation Telugu youth trained. We value training and preserving of the Telugu folk art forms like (to quote) Kolatam, Bonalu, Dhimsa, Burrakatha, Harikatha etc., and literary tradition among the successive generations than mere performances on stage. This is a unique methodology we follow, and we are successful in attracting nearly 250 members, including the youth between 19-25 who participating in the six- week programme. This helps the Telugu community in retaining the Telugu culture and identity away from motherland. The key factors to the success of our cultural programmes- content of the programme (as we refrain ourselves from any movie based performances), and the way we conduct the programme reflecting what we term as Telugudanamu. 

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