From mathematics to anthropology and then to teaching Telugu to Europeans, there are many leaps that Paris-based Anuradha Kanniganti has taken. “Actually, the biggest leap has been my marriage to a westerner,” she laughs. “All NRIs face cultural issues but when one is married to a foreigner, cultural challenges are more frequent!”
Schooled in Hyderabad, Anuradha got her degree in the West Indies when her parents moved there. Alongside, she was also imbibing Carnatic music and Telugu literature at home from her mother. Anuradha acquired two masters degrees –– in Mathematics and Industrial Engineering –– from the University of Toronto and later, a Phd in Statistics from Purdue University.
She met a Frenchman, married him, moved to Paris and began working in a bank. “I got interested in developmental issues under the influence of Dr VBJ Rao Chelikani of UNESCO, and started studying anthropology at the Higher Institute for Social Sciences, Paris. For a research topic, I chose language and development and came to work on the modernisation of Telugu within linguistic anthropology. Later, I was asked to teach in the Telugu programme at the National Institute of Oriental Languages, Paris. Now, the language has become my passion. I have built my life around Telugu studies though I work on other topics as well within Indian studies.”
Giving up a lucrative job to follow one’s heart is not exactly an NRI thing to do. She agrees: “Teaching Telugu to Europeans has been an intellectually rich learning experience. However, many are baffled at my shift from the ‘lucrative, high-status maths to a lower-status language-teaching’! Most Indians take up STEM subjects when they study and work abroad because this offers socio-economic upward mobility. Sadly, few opt for Indian languages.”
Anuradha avidly reads Telugu classics and watches Telugu films. On her frequent visits home, she soaks in Kuchipudi, Andhra Natyam, Carnatic music and Telugu folk-arts.
She is studying Telugu films of the 1980s and 90s––“the small-town/village-based films with ordinary people, their everyday issues and ethical dilemmas, and how they make their way through life. These were made by directors like Jandhyala, Vamsi, Relangi, EVV, etc. They paint a wonderfully nuanced picture of the social milieu of their times. It’s like ethnography. This is very fine cinema. I find a parallel in the human comedy of France’s Emile Zola. Actor Rajendra Prasad’s roles especially epitomise the dilemmas of ordinary people’s lives. I want to produce pedagogical material for Telugu studies abroad using this class of films. The small-town cinema of Naresh and Rajendra Prasad can be presented as a Telugu microcosm. Also, I believe Indian cinema plays a big role in keeping language and culture alive for NRIs.”
Anuradha translates Telugu literature and has just completed translating Satyam Sankaramanchi’s Amaravathi Kadhalu . She dreams of curating a Telugu arts festival in Paris. “The extremely rich Telugu cultural forms deserve wider exposure and recognition. We have to help them become living practices rather than museum pieces by finding new forms of relevance.”
