HYDERABAD: It’s not until you attend a spoken Sanskrit class in Hyderabad that you realise that learning the ancient language is indeed a passion for many city youngsters. Techies, medicos, business school grads, corporate employees and more have recently attended the 10-day class at Habsiguda for their own reasons, despite their busy, hectic schdeules. Some to get away from the highly technical and impersonal work they do between 9 to 5, others to be able to fulfill their desire to understand the Vedic chants they regularly read, some to be able to learn more languages through Sanskrit.
“I am happy that Sanskrit is part of curriculum in many schools and colleges. But most students tend to just mug up the Rama, Raamah, Ramaaha kind of words to get through with the exams. Here we are trying to present the beautiful language in an easy-to-learn vocal format. As a teacher, I insist that they not jot down anything, but to just hear and converse,” says Sanskrit instructor Shiva Kumar. He believes speaking will help them understand many other languages including foreign ones. An MTech graduate who worked as a chip scientist with DRDO for 20 years, he opted for voluntary retirement to pursue his passion for Sanskrit. Now, he learns the language and teaches too.
The camp that began on January 21 ended on Sunday with the 28 students including retired employees and homemakers performing skits, narrating stories and poems and monologues to show their new found fluency in the language. “There is a lot to learn in the language and we hope the workshop will kindle interest in the language. We also conduct refresher classes for the students every Sunday so that they don’t forget it after the ten-day class,” the instructor says.
The next free ten-day camp of Spoken Sanskrit by Samskrita Bharathi starts on February 4 and ends on Feb 13. The classes are from 10 am to 12 noon at Sri Satya Sai Sivam Bhajan Hall in Vidya Nagar. Details: 9490933019 and 72076 64223. The classes are free and for anyone above ten years.