THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Learning a new language is always advantageous. But what if you could save a rupee for learning a new word? A six-decade-old tea shop at Karamana is offering a unique discount to customers who give Sanskrit a try. At GK’s Tea Shop situated in Karamana Gramam, you will get an uzhunnu vada for Rs 4 if you order it by the name ‘Masha Vadakam’. The original price of the vada is Rs 5. The owner K Mani, aged 53, says he wanted to do his bit to help the ancient language regain its glory. Mani is a matriculate and could not study more due to financial difficulties. He has not studied Sanskrit either. “But I know a little and I’m eager to learn.
My respect for the language grew more when my children started learning it. They help me learn,” he said. The discount is helping his sales, Mani said. “Business was dim after the lockdown. The prices of snacks were decreased after my staff agreed to a pay cut. Now the discount’s rarity is increasing the shop’s popularity,” he said. Mani plans to expand the discount to other items after assessing the response for ‘Masha Vadakam’.
Mani’s initiative is supported by the Viswa Samskritha Prathishtanam, a unit of Samskritha Bharathi. The Samskritha Bharathi which has been active in Karamana for the past two decades, aims to make it the first Sanskrit village in the state. It has organised scores of camps to help people learn the language. “Already more than 600 people have picked up rudiments of the language here. We want the language to be popularised and used daily,” said Santosh Kumar, district secretary of the Viswa Samskritha Prathishtanam, a unit of Samskritha Bharathi. According to Santosh, initiatives like that of Mani’s will help Sanskrit to become a conversational language.
Government Sanskrit College principal, K Unnikrishnan Namboothiri and wife Dr C N Vijayakumari, director of Centre of Vedanta Studies, are among the mentors of the programme. “We chose Karamana for this project because the village has had a long line of Sanskrit pundits. No one in my generation can forget the great grammarian Prof Dr M H Sasthrigal who was a resident of this village,” said Unnikrishnan. The most recent part of the campaign to train laymen, is supported by Prof Sasthrigal’s technocrat son Mahadevan.
“The Viswa Samskritha Pratishtanan is our guiding spirit. People from all over the city come here to attend sessions. We are also proud that each street of this Gramam had a Sanskrit scholar,” said Mahadevan. The late scholars of the gramam include Ananthakrishna Sastrigal (SS Street), Kesava Sastry (Single Street), Rama Iyer, Dr. S. Venkatasubramonia Iyer (Sivan Koil Street), Parasurama Sastry (founder of Bharati Sarada Matom), Subramonia Vadhyar (KK Street) and Rama Iyer.