In the modern competitive world, children are often sent to convents to learn about the challenges of life.
But home is school and parents are teachers for eight-year-old Abhigya who learns fifth standard books at home and can read and write Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada and English. To top it all, he even speaks a little German!
Abhigya has an amazing memory as well. He can chant 14 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita comprising 570 shlokas at a stretch. And he took less than nine months to learn them all! He says he hopes to chant all 18 chapters on Gita Jayanthi day.
When aged just two-and-a-half years, Abhigya was able to identify 40 different national flags and more than 50 car models. Today, he can identify more than 100 car models and around 125 plant herbs. He also attends the MCF government school at Belagola daily for two hours. His parents Anand and Annu don’t believe in the “boxed system of education”. “We will enroll our children in any school that will allow self-paced education and let children learn at their comfort zone,” they said.
‘Love Bhagavad Gita’
He loves wearing a thulsi mala and a tilak. As he prepares to chant the Bhagavad Gita, he says: “I love to teach Bhagavad Gita verses to other children and read Amar Chitrakatha books”.
He has read more than 500 Amar Chitrakatha stories till date and has chanted 6 chapters of Bhagavad Gita at temples in Melbourne, Mysore and Bangalore. He enjoys reading newspapers and books, and even has an interest in learning ‘kalaripayattu’! He learnt the Japanese martial art ‘Jiu jitsu’ during his stay in Melbourne. His parents say he even rightly suggested a herb to cure his sister Abhidheya of dengue.