Meeting with Garikapati Narasimha Rao and Telugu community

I was delighted to host an event in Parliament on Thursday 16 October 2025 with Garikapati Narasimha Rao, the spiritual scholar and speaker, renowned in the Telugu-speaking communities for his discourses on Hindu epics, scriptures, and philosophy. 

He has spent over 50 years of his life meditating, memorising a large number of poems that reflect on common areas of life, and shared his thoughts on the common themes between Telugu poetry and Shakespeare, commenting on how poetry builds bridges across languages and cultures, helping us to communicate across divides more compassionately: “Thinking bad but expressing good is great karma”. 

It was interesting to witness how the stories of a community can be preserved through song and poetry. The Committee Room was filled with the words and music of his discourse.  Later on a tour of Parliament I was pleased to show Sri Narasimha Rao the mural in St Stephen’s Hall depicting the meeting in 1614 of Sir Thomas Roe with the Mughal Emperor Jahangir –  the beginning of British diplomatic relations with India.

(Main photo L-R: Garikapati Narasimha Rao; Rt Hon Valerie Vaz MP; Narasimha Rao’s wife, Sarada; Virendra Sharma, former MP for Ealing Southall)