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. "