India as I see it.....

Story telling in my earliest memories was me huddling around my grand mother along with my cousins as she narrated to us incidents from the past. She had the undivided attention from her audience. As I grew older, thanks to my father and later my husband, I traveled the entire length and breadth of my country, India. During my travels, I explored the country and her people, listening to stories. Each time the story teller was different and so was the story, but the mode was the same - The narrator made a direct contact with the audience, thereby giving him or her the ability to feel the pulse of the moment.

Years later, I moved to the United States of America. Here I met people from various backgrounds and from different countries. Being in the United States gave me the experience of knowing more about the world. I was now ready to tell a story - My story. But by now, Story telling as I knew it, had changed. The narrator  no longer had any direct contact with the audience. Unlike in the past, where the audience were a homogenous group, I was faced with an audience who came from different backgrounds, had varied experiences and as a result different perceptions. Social media had taken over as the mode of delivery.

Like my mentors, I accepted the challenge and began reaching out to my audiences - You. Today, I present a story "India as I See It....." to an audience who have been always been forgiving and encouraging.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmaRsqxYYhg&list=UUUnFkT7BnCm_YMIzZSyNjVw&index=1

Sanskrit, Samskrit or something else

The language is neither Samskrit nor Sanskrit...The pronunciation is very difficult to get on Itrans. Like most of Indian traditions, samskritam also can be learnt in it's true spirit by directly interacting with the teacher. It is handed down by the teacher to the student. But, like everything else, samskritam too has to move on and so it's adaptation to technology.

Now, the interesting point in the spelling... One of the founders of Samskrita Bharati, Mr. Chamu Krishna Shastry is very simple and interesting man. It is fun listening to him. He delivers strong messages in simple sentences. In one of his interviews, he mentioned that he puts a "m" instead of a "n" - not because it gives the correct pronunciation, but because, when people notice something they are not used to, they think the other person has made a mistake and tries to point it to you. This gives you an opportunity to correct them....

Ref : Mr. Krishna Shastry, @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhpRKY4a3ds

My Experiments with truth

Language and culture are closely knitted. At least that is what I thought. When I started pursuing my Sanskrit education a couple of years ago, the immense insight that I got into my own culture motivated me to spread my new found knowledge around me.

Samskrita Bharati taught me how to teach a language. Just as a baby hears all that is there to be heard around him or her for nearly a year before uttering the first syllable, Samskrita bharati also believed in "conversing" in samskrit to teach samskrit. I too follow this method.When I moved to Baton Rouge a couple of years ago, I volunteered to teach at a local sunday school. I had hoped to teach the little ones the little I knew of Indian culture through this technique.

According to Indiansaga.com, India's schools teach 58 different languages.The nation has newspapers in 87 languages, radio programmes in 71, and films in 15.One of the challenges that I faced was to teach culture through one of these Indian languages for I strongly beieved that a custom or a belief can be better communicated through the local language.

I can fluently converse in a few of the Indian Languages, including Sanskrit and Hindi. I tried teaching culture in this sunday school through these Indian languages that I knew. Need I say there used to be a lot of opposition. My co teachers even took the sadistic pleasure of interrupting my classes each time I uttered something in Hindi. I went on bravely putting on a smile each time I was offended for I was trained to understand that the project that I was undertaking was a difficult one and that contempt and humiliation are a part of it.

I soon met some Indian families who "claimed" to be the upholders of Indian culture here in Baton Rouge. They organized various functions and parties to prove their point. One such family had a five year old, sweet little daughter. This little one always sat next to me whenever she was in class. I used to speak to her in Hindi and she used to respond by obeying my instructions. It was a soothing experience. One day one of my co-teachers asked her "hey, what language do you speak at home ?". The little one in all her innocence replied "I speak French, Spanish and English at home. "