Telugu Maatlaata ® is a program of SiliconAndhra ManaBadi which aims to promote interest in and love for Telugu language among children of the diaspora by sparking their spirit of friendly competition through exciting, fun, popular games with a Telugu language twist!
 

We strongly believe that multiple co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, along with classroom teaching, will improve the love for a language among students. Telugu Maatlaata has established itself as one of the most successful extra-curricular activities for Telugu children. A quick look at Telugu Maatlaata over the years (see: History) shows its popularity!
 

We all know that, given a choice between learning a lessons and playing a game, kids will always choose a game! Telugu Maatlaata is our way of incorporating learning in the form of a game contest. We are confident that, just by participating in Telugu Maatlaata games, kids will improve their Telugu vocabulary and knowledge. We are convinced that kids who prepare for the games contest will develop a love for the language and improve their skill levels in reading, writing, speaking and understanding.
 

• Registration is FREE for Telugu Maatlaata 2025!
• However, all participants MUST register at https://telugumaatlaata.com/register/. No WALK-INS allowed!
• During registration, players may choose which games they would like to play.
• Players are expected to sign up for the Center closest to them while registering for the Games
• Players can register and play at only one Center. If a player does not advance to the International Finals at one Center, they are not eligible to participate in the same year at a different Center.
• Contestants and their parents must accept the General Rules and Technology Rules of the games when they register. These rules are meant to ensure that the games are held in the spirit of friendly fairness and friendly competition.

Program

The following games are part of Telugu Maatlaata program.

• Padarangam: In this game, players hear a pre-recorded word and have to write it in Telugu on a board. For full details about Padarangam, please visit Padarangam: Rules and Guidelines. Please note: This game is not played by Budatalu (5-7 yrs.) age group participants.
• Tirakaatam: This is a quiz game, with questions and answers in Telugu language on a variety of topics. For full details about Tirakaatam, please visit Tirakaatam: Rules and Guidelines.
• ONiMa: In this game, players are expected to speak exclusively in Telugu on a given topic. For full details about ONiMa (ఒక్క నిమిషం మాత్రమే), please visit ONiMa: Rules and Guidelines.

Format

Telugu Maatlaata 2025 will have two levels, namely, Prelims and Internationals:

• Prelims
  • Prelims centers are determined based on commitment from the local teams to conduct in-person Telugu Maatlaata games, following all the rules and policies. The full list of Telugu Maatlaata Prelims centers can be found here. The primary criteria is to ensure a minimum of 10 participants per age group.
  • From each Telugu Maatlaata center that follows the above guidelines, the number of Finalists per game, per age group will be based on the number of Participants in the Prelims. Specifically:
    • 0 - 9 Participants: Number of Finalists = 0
    • 10 - 24  Participants: Number of Finalists = 1
    • 25 - 49  Participants: Number of Finalists = 2
    • 50 and above Participants: Number of Finalists = 3
  • In case of a tie for Finalists from a Center, there will be a tie-breaker at this level of the game.
  • If the Winner at a Center is unable to attend the Internationals for any reason, then the opportunity goes to the Runner-up. If the Runner-up also cannot attend, then the opportunity goes to the Second Runner-up. If the Second Runner-up also cannot attend, then the Center will not be represented in that particular age group.
• Internationals
  • Finalists from each age group from various Centers will play against each other in the Internationals.
  • There will be 1 Winner and 1 Runner-up for each game per age group.
  • In case of a tie for a Winner or Runner-up, there will be a tie-breaker at this level of the game.

Dates

• Prelims will be held during the months of January - March, 2025.
• Internationals are planned for August 30 & 31, 2025. Venue for the Internationals is Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Prizes

• All players receive certificates of participation!
• Regional winners get Certificates of Achievement!
• The best reward will be the Entry to the International Finals, a phenomenal opportunity to play against the best across all participating regions, and possibility of creating history!
• Win or not, every participant will find a huge improvement in vocabulary and reading/writing/speaking/comprehension skills in Telugu!
• We strongly encourage all eligible participants to come forward and register for playing Telugu Maatlaata games! It is a fun way to learn Telugu!

Telugu Maatlaata Locations - 2025 (Work in Progress)

Philosophy

Telugu Maatlaata's primary purpose is to promote the learning of Telugu language and vocabulary! To encourage kids to learn the language through this process, we have published the FULL SET of topics and questions that will be used within the initial rounds of Telugu Maatlaata in the Prelims stage of the game. In other words, if players are well-versed with the content published below, they would have mastered 80% of the questions/words/topics used in the game. The remaining 20% would be unpublished content that will be used in the deciding rounds of the Prelims stages.
 

Published Content

The following is the content that will be used for Telugu Maatlaata Prelims this year.

• Tirakaatam - full list of questions (తిరకాటం ప్రశ్నలు మొత్తం)
• Padarangam - full list of words (పదరంగం పదాలు మొత్తం)
• ONiMa - full list of topics (ఒనిమా విషయాలు మొత్తం)

Practice

The Objective of Padarangam is to improve the Telugu vocabulary of students learning Telugu. Just by practicing and playing this game, students will be able to read, write and pronounce better in Telugu. The game is also an excellent tool for students to gauge their current skill level in Telugu writing, as well as demonstrate improvement in a scaled manner through regular practice.
 

Padarangam Rules by Level

In order to scale the game for a large number of players, Padarangam will be played differently at various Levels of the game. The following rules apply to Padarangam games at various levels:
 

• Prelims
• Finals: Details will be shared at the appropriate time

At this level of the game, players will play one or more practice rounds for familiarity. Then, players will play against each other in multiple rounds. Players will advance if they write the given word correctly; otherwise, they will be eliminated. International Finalists will be determined based on their position relative to others.
 

Overview

• In Padarangam, pre-recorded audio of a word will be played using an audio system and contestant needs to write it on the white board. All words will be in Telugu only.
• There will be three Rounds in the game: Green, Orange and Red.
• Green
  • Simple words.
  • No గుణింతాలు except అం.
  • No ఒత్తులు.
  • E.g. కమల, జలజ, సంపద, భయంకరం, మంగళం.
  • 2 Minutes (120 seconds) time allotted for writing words.
  • No Elimination. Players will continue to the next Level even if they write their given word incorrectly in practice round only.
• Orange
  • Slightly Complex words.
  • Will have గుణింతాలు & a few ఒత్తులు.
  • E.g. అడవి, దేవత, ముద్రణ, పుస్తకము, చంద్రుడు, అంతః పురము.
  • 1.5 Minutes (90 seconds) time allotted for writing words.
  • Players will be eliminated from the game if they write their word incorrectly.
• Red
  • Complex words.
  • Unrestricted.
  • E.g. అక్కయ్య, బొమ్మరిల్లు, గ్రామలక్ష్మి, శాస్త్రవేత్త, భర్తృహరి, ధృతరాష్ట్రుడు.
  • 1 Minute (60 seconds) time allotted for writing words.
  • Players will be eliminated from the game if they write their word incorrectly.
• Each Round will have multiple Levels.
• All words within a particular Level will be of similar degree of difficulty.
• Words in Level 1 will be more difficult than words in Level 2 and so on.
• The Game will be played in Cycle. Each Cycle is identified by the Round and Level. E.g. Green Level 2, Orange Level 5 and so on.
• The process for picking words in a Level is automated. That is, words are played one after the other in random order.

Game Flow

• Players will be called to play in random order.
• During a Player’s turn, they will hear a word through the audio system. The objective of the Player is to write the word they hear correctly on the White Board.
• Each Player gets a fixed amount of time to write their word. The allotted time is shown on a screen at the beginning of their turn, and counts down to zero.
• Judges / anchors will prompt the remaining time in the Player’s turn as the remaining time gets close to zero.
• A Player’s turn ends in one of two ways, whichever happens earlier:
  • Player puts their pen down, indicating that they don’t intend to make any further changes to the word as written by them on the White Board.
  • The time remaining is zero. No changes are allowed to the word as written by them on the White Board after this point. Whatever remains on the White Board at this point of time will be considered by the Judges.
• During their remaining time, Players can:
  • Write, erase, and re-write as many times as they choose.
  • Ask for the word audio clip to be stopped or started as many times as they choose.
  • Ask for the word audio clip to be changed from male voice to female voice or vice-versa, as many times as they choose.
• After a Player’s turn ends, the Judge will determine if the word is written correctly or not. If the word is written correctly, the Player moves to the next Level. Otherwise, the Player is eliminated.
• To encourage beginner players to warm-up and familiarize themselves with the games, there will be 1 Green Round played in each Center. At the discretion of the Center coordinators, additional Green rounds may be held, depending on the situation at the center.

Determining Winners

• At the end of a Cycle, all remaining Players will continue to the next Cycle.
• If there are enough words for ALL remaining players in a particular Level, then the next Cycle will continue in the current Level. Otherwise, the Game advances to the next Level (1,2,3 etc.) and/or the next Round (Green, Orange, Red) and so on.
• If ALL Players in a particular Cycle are eliminated in that Cycle, then ALL those players will play again in the next Cycle. For example, if a Cycle starts with 4 Players, and ALL 4 Players write their word incorrectly, then they will ALL play the next Cycle (that is, no one will be eliminated).
• If only one Player advances to the next Cycle, that Player will be declared Winner.
• If exactly two Players advance to the next Cycle, then the Winner will be determined when one of the write their word incorrectly AND the other writes their word correctly.
• When there are final three participants, we reserve to conduct a sentence round (Brahmastram) that entails each participant is required to write a sentence accurately instead of word.
• The Game will continue in this manner until only 1 Player remains, who will be declared Winner from that Center for that age group.
• After the Winner is determined, the game continues if needed until players are ranked relative to the other players, depending on when they were eliminated from the game.
• Organizers reserve the right to declare Joint Winners after a certain number of Cycles.
• Winner and Runners-up of Padarangam from a particular center will advance to the Internationals ONLY IF they have advanced past Orange Level 5. This is to ensure a minimum standard of competition at the International Finals. Therefore, it is not to be misunderstood that the Winner at a Center will automatically qualify for the International Finals.

Additional Information

• Play the game on the Telugu Matlaata Padarangam Practice Site to gain experience as well as improve your Telugu writing skills.
• This video provides some tips and guidance to players, parents and teachers on some of the more complex aspects of Telugu pronunciation: .
• These videos are good samples of how Padarangam is played in the International Finals: .

The Objective of Tirakaatam is to improve general knowledge, familiarity, fluency and vocabulary of students learning Telugu. Just by practicing and playing this game, students will vastly improve their general knowledge about all-things related to Telugu language, Telugu history, prominent Telugu personalities. Telugu regions etc.
 

Tirakaatam Rules by Level

In order to scale the game for a large number of players, Tirakaatam will be played differently at various Levels of the game. The following rules apply to Tirakaatam games at various levels:
 

• Prelims
• Finals: Details will be shared at the appropriate time

Tirakaatam Prelims will be played in-person. Players will be allocated to games boards with other players within their center, based on their age group.
 

Setup

• The Game Board consists of a board with a Grid of Boxes, arranged as Columns and Rows.
• Each Column pertains to a Category/topic (e.g. Telugu authors, Tourist places in Telugu states etc.) 
• Each Row has a certain number of Points associated with it, starting from Row 1 = 100 Points, up to Row 5 = 500 Points.
• Each game can be played with 3 to 6 Players, as determined by the Organizers.
• Participants will be randomly pre-assigned a sequence number, from 1 to the max number of participants.
• Starting with #1, each Player will pick a Box (referenced by its Column + Row numbers, or by its Category + Points) from among any of the Boxes that have not been answered yet.
• The Anchor will read out the question/clue on that Box, and display the question on the screen. In general, the question on a Box with higher number of points will have a higher level of difficulty than a Box in the same Category with lower Points.
• Players can choose to Answer the Question or Pass.
• Answer should be in Telugu language only!!
• The Judge’s will rule whether the given answer(s) are correct.
• Depending on the Player’s response, the following Points will be awarded:
  • For correct Answer(s), the participant will get the Points on the Box. Note: for multi-part questions, all parts of the question must be answered correctly. No partial Points.
  • For incorrect Answer(s), the participant will get negative Points equal to the Points on the Box. Note: for multi-part questions, if any of the parts is answered wrongly, it will lead to negative Points. No partial Points.
  • For a Pass: No Points. Players score will not change.
• Scores will be updated on the screen as the Game progresses.
• If a Player does a “Pass”, the Player with the next # in sequence will get the Question, until all Players get a chance for that question, or someone gets the right answer.
• This process continues until all the questions on the Game Board have been completed.
• Once the Game Board is completed, the scores of each player will be announced.
• In case of a Tie, all the Players involved in the Tie will be asked to play one row in a fresh Game Board; and the Player with the highest points is declared winner. If a tie still exists, we will go to a "Sudden Death" round where the player who answers the first question is declared Winner of the tie.
• Depending on their scores, players will be ranked as 1, 2, 3 etc.

The purpose of ONiMa (Okka Nimisham Maatrame) game is to encourage kids to speak well and improve their fluency and vocabulary, while also developing keen listening and comprehension skills in Telugu.
 

ONiMa Rules by Level

The following rules apply to ONiMa games at various levels:
 

• Prelims
• Finals: Details will be shared at the appropriate time

Setup

At the Prelims level, ONiMa will be conducted as follows:
 

• All Players of a particular age group at a center will assemble in a room in person.
• Players will be given a chance to speak for one minute, uninturrupted. The turn of each player is chosen at random.
• When a Player's turn comes up, the player will be given a box or bag containing folded chits of paper, each chit with a topic written on it.The player will be asked to choose a topic from this set of topics at random.
• Each player will be given about 30 seconds to gather their thoughts on the given topic. Then, players will be asked to speak on their given topic for 1 minute.
• While the player is speaking, the designated judge(s) will independently assess and score each player based on the parameters outlined in the next section.
• Once all the players complete their speeches, their average scores are calculated, and the players are ranked based on their scores.

Determining the Winners

• The The top scorers of the initial rounds will be selected to go to the Center Finals.
• A maximum of 6 players will advance to the Center Finals from the pool of Players in the intial rounds.
• Another round of ONiMa is held among the selected top scorers. The game follows the same rules and process as above; that is, each player gets 1 minute to speak on their chosen topic.
• The topics for this stage will be different from the topics in the Initial stage.
• The Winner and Runner-up are determined based on their cumulative score from the two rounds.

Parameters for Evaluation

The following parameters are used to score players based on their one-minute speech:
 

• Language (30 points): Marks will be cut for use of non-Telugu words
• Staying within Time (30 points): Marks will be cut for ending too early or crossing the time limit.
• Grammar and Pronunciation (20 points): Marks will be cut for vocabulary mistakes in gender, tense, singular/plural etc., mispronunciation of letters etc.
• Staying On Topic (10 points): Marks will be cut for deviating from the given topic.
• Body Language and Confidence (10 points): Marks can be granted for Good facial expressions, hand gestures, eye contact, vocal pitch, pace etc.

ONiMa Scoring

Players must avoid the following aspects of speech for scoring high:
 

• Use of Non-telugu words: Players should only use Telugu words unless Telugu equivalent do not exist. For example, “daddy” is used for “నాన్న”. However, English proper nouns, such as names of cities, people, things etc. are allowed (example: Chicago, Obama, Halloween).
  Note:
  • Dialects (మాండలీకాలు) and accents (యాసలు) are perfectly acceptable.
  • Commonly-used Telugu words borrowed from other languages (e.g. రోడ్డు, నకిలీ, ఖర్చు, పైసలు, ఓటు, కబురు, పేకాలు) are perfectly acceptable.
• Ponunciation Errors
  • “వాల్లు” instead of “వాళ్ళు”
  • “వీన” instead of “వీణ”
  • “కాసి” instead of “కాశి”
  • “బారత” instead of “భారత”
• Pause for a noticeable period of time (e.g. 3 seconds or more)
• Wasting time: If speaker tries to speak off-topic for 3 or more sentences to fill his/her time to score points. For example, if the topic is about a festival and speaker brings up a concept of how s/he celebrated festival with her/his brother but then continue to detail & describe his brother rather than speak on the topic.
• Reciting Prepared Content: If speaker simply recites prepared content. E.g. పద్యాలు, ఏకపాత్రాభినయాలు, సినిమా dialogues, పాటలు సంస్కృత శ్లోకాలు etc. These are just examples; any similar prepared content can be considered a valid objection. If the players are not aware of such content, the Judge/Anchor may step in and call it out as a technical objection. At the same time, players can use సామెతలు, జాతీయాలు as long as they are relevant to the topic. E.g. "కాకి పిల్ల కాకికి ముద్దు" (సామెత) or "చెప్పులోన రాయి" (జాతీయము). These will NOT be considered valid objections.
• Repetition: If speaker repeats same theme again and again, or repeats the idea of an earlier speaker without adding any new information related to the topic. For example: A Speaker talking about an animal continues to repeat that the same sentence or concept that the animal has four legs. Similarly, a subsequent speaker repeats the same sentence or concept.
• Errors in Telugu Grammar: Grammatical flaws beyond the areas listed below are not considered at this stage of the competition:
  • Gender / లింగాలు: E.g.; “కమల పాట పాడాడు".
  • Singular-Plural / వచనాలు: E.g.; “చాలా తేనెటీగ ఉన్నాయి"
  • Tenses / కాలాలు: E.g.; “మేము నిన్న ఆడుకుంటున్నాము"
  • Prepositions/విభక్తులు: “నేను ఆదివారం మీద వచ్చాను (I came on Sunday)”

Additional Information

• This video provides some tips and guidance to players, parents and teachers on some of the more complex aspects of Telugu pronunciation: .
• These videos are good samples of how ONiMa is played:

All Parents and Players registering to participate in Telugu Maatlaata agree to these Rules and Guidelines.

• General Rules & Guidelines
• Technology Rules & Guidelines

Players and their Parents

• Game will not stop if the Player takes a break during the Game! So, water, restroom and other needs should be addressed before the start of the game.
• We encourage parents to teach the right lessons to their children by avoiding cheating and malpractice during the games! Remember, you will be doing permanent damage to the self-confidence of your children by pushing them to short-cuts. Dishonesty/Cheating will lead to immediate disqualification and elimination from the Game. Dishonesty can include (but not limited to):
  • Prompting, hand gestures and other forms of hints and clues by parents or other persons during the game.
  • Using books, digital devices or any other source of information for obtaining answers during the game.
  • Other creative forms of cheating (Believe me, we have seen it all!)
• Don’t answer questions out of turn! Players may end up helping (or hurting, in case of a wrong answer) the Player who has the current Question.
• If you ask any questions, it will count against your time. The Anchor or Host may not answer it, unless it helps clarify for all other Players.

Spectators/Audience/All

• Cheering, clapping or any other expressions are allowed only after the judge declares whether any answer is right or wrong. Otherwise, audience should remain silent during other times throughout the game. 
• The decision of the Judge is final and binding. Please do not contest the decision during the game. You can register your complaint with the ManaBadi team by sending an email to maatlaata@manabadi.siliconandhra.org

Technology Requirements for Players

• Zoom account
• PC/Laptop with a big screen (at least 13 inch)
• Integrated video camera
• Integrated microphone and speakers (no headsets)
• Dedicated internet connection (50 Mbps or higher)
• Bright Light focused on the participant’s face and surroundings

 

Game Rules for Players and their Parents

• Player Video on at all times.
• Player microphone unmuted at all times.
• Should be in a quiet room with sufficient light to show the Player’s face as well as surroundings.
• No headphones, mobile devices, books or any other reference material.
• Game will not stop if the Player takes a break during the Game! So, water, bathroom and other needs should be addressed before the start of the game.
• Parents can help with technology setup but should leave the area before the Game can start.