ePADAM (ఇ పదం) is a weblog. This blog complements and contributes to the regular feature in Andhrajyothy, a Telugu daily news paper.
Andhrajyoti publishes this column every Tuesday in it’s magazine supplement (a book format). It is called Diksoochi (దికà±à°¸à±‚à°šà°¿).
Post liberalization era brought in IT revolution in India with great speed. This industry in India works with English language.
Therefore the need for this language has been quite acute. Though the educational institutions like schools, colleges and other organizations are addressing the issue of teaching English..that is aimed at getting through the exams and more to do about their marks, scores and grade and the like.
They are unable to get out of the class rooms and address and help fill the needs of the industries that are absorbing the youth (the data says is something like 40 per cent of the Indian population).
During his visits to colleges and universities and corporates other private enterprises to deliver his guest lectures, there were many this author had come across who were desperate to learn the language but were not attempting to learn it because they are filled with despair.
Andhrajyothi has a vast readership. Andhrajyothi reaches even the remotest village and thus the student there.
Now how does one help these students of English language using Andhrajyothi? Through a dedicated column, of course. Introduce them to the words. Make learning a word fun. Play with it. And understand the word and then start using it. Begin to make small sentences. This is an ‘interactive’ or a ‘activity’ column. For there is nothing there that cannot be played with.
ePadam introduces the reader to the etymology of the English word. That is the origin of the word in English language.
Phrases, idioms, sayings. anagrams, crosswords, synonyms,antonyms, acronyms, acrostics etc. And all these words are illustrated and they are in color. It is spread over two pages. And it has been more than a few years since it is being published. And needless to say the readers response has been tremendous.
This is the only column and quite unique in its present form that had introduced English to the Telugu reader for the first time. There have been and there are many columns but most of them deal with the so called ‘Spoken English’ and English Grammar.
Though this weblog rather blog began appearing since sometime January 2006, the column began appearing way back in 2005.