Misc. from Telugu blogs and such

Jajimalli makes a trip to Madigagudem నా మాదిగ గూడెం యాత్రా విశేషాలు and finds that in many cases men drink and play cards whereas women take care of themselves, children and also feed husbands. That is when there is some work to do. She enquires about what they do when there is no work, They go the dabha near the road; presumably for prostitution. Jajimalli is skocked and exclaims that they will get all sorts of diseases and die. The reply is that they have to each day to surive.
From Inclusive Growth in Andhra Pradesh: Challenges in Agriculture, Poverty, Social Sector and
Regional Disparities :
"Most of the problems of the farmers relate to credit and debt. The 59th Round Survey of NSS provides information on outstanding debt of farmers. Table 6 provides percentage of indebtedness households and by source of loan. At the all India level around 49% of the farmer hhs. were indebted (col.2 in Table 6). The levels of indebtedness vary from state to state. Andhra Pradesh has the highest percentage of indebtedness (82%) while Meghalaya has the lowest percentage (only 4% are indebted). However, we are more interested in the source of loan because institutional credit is important for farmers.

The percentage of indebted farmer hhs. by source of loan (cols.3 and 4 in Table 6) shows 56% of indebted farmer hhs. obtain loan from formal sources and 64% from
informal sources. The total percentage is more than 100 (120%) because farmers take loans from multiple sources. The shares in formal and informal sources vary from state to state. In Andhra Pradesh, 54% of the indebted farmer hhs obtain loans from formal and 77% from informal sources (total is 130%)"

Many shift to towns to educate their children so they can get jobs. During marriage discussions, they are comments like "The salary is about 5,000 rupees a month but he can make another 20,000 (presumably from bribes)". That must be from govt. jobs. Salaries of private school teachers tend be low; a couple of years ago I have known of teachers getting about 1100 rupees a month. Middle class farmers sometimes sell lands to educate the children. That shifts the problem to another group of farmers, sometimes from lower castes. In any case, there are only so many jobs. This may be the root of some of the current agitations.

In ఆంధ్ర ప్రదేశ్ లో ఆంగ్ల భాష Rehamtullah says that there is a reluctance of including English words in Telugu dictionaries eventhough they are frequently used in everyday conversations and official work.
P.S. From Mosquito Noses and Baby BrainsFindings Log /, seems to be a preliminary report:
"The Basis for Bilingual Babies
A study published last week in Psychological Science looked at the effect a mother’s bilingualism has on her unborn child’s language abilities. The researchers followed three groups of mothers: those who spoke English and Tagalog, those who spoke English and Chinese, and those who only spoke English. Comparing the language abilities of these mothers’ newborns, the researchers found that, just as babies with monolingual mothers are capable at birth of identifying their native language, babies with bilingual mothers are capable of identifying both of their native languages. What is most compelling about this finding is that it suggests we may not be evolutionarily wired to have only one native language. Instead, we may have an innate ability to recognize fundamental distinctions between languages like English and Tagalog. While still in the womb, we could be developing a sensitivity to the rhythm of the words being spoken around us. It makes you wonder what else we learn in there."
Reprt in Sciencedaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216142330.htm