Learning Telugu through maids: IAS

Hyderabad: Domestic helpers do not only help their women employees with household chores but most of the times end up teaching their women employees the basics of Telugu language.

Only a few tend to get coaching classes for the language.

Most of the women trainee AIS officers, specially the IAS trainees clear the proficiency test with ease and they say their domestic helpers helped them learn it.

One of the Senior IAS officer Sumita Dawra, currently AP cadre tells she had no other choice than learning the language through her maid.

“Slowly but steadily we got to understand what the maids conveyed to us. In fact, I know wives of senior IAS officers hailing from North India who speak very good Telugu, on par with their husbands, because of their regular communication with house maids in Telugu,” she said.

Those unfortunate at learning the language take coaching classes for the same. Valasi Pydi, a Telugu school assistant in a government school in Warangal, says she used to give home tuitions to trainee IAS officers from Bihar as they had to clear the test.

“I used to teach them early in the morning (6 am to 7 am) for a few weeks every day. They had book material (which they got during probation at Mussoorie) and some knowledge about the language. I helped them to master it a little bit and they cleared the proficiency test easily,” he said, as reported in DC.