--- In Oppiliappan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "csdesikan" <csdesikan@...>
wrote:
> Adiyen Namaskaram to all who participated in this discussion of
> The recent controversial treatment of the First Tamil Naadu State
ranking.> There is no second thought about Kum.Kaavya to be
appreciated,honured and encoraged for her extrordinary achivement.
> We all forget one thing.> How many of our children living abroad
or in north india can boast of> speakingand writing in our mother
tongue i.e Tamil.Ihave seen children> coming to visit on holidays
not able to converse freeli with their> grand mothers,aunties(be it
chithies,atahi.They lose the closness with> elder genration which we
enjoyed,They get bored in couple of days and> want to go back.
> My job is such that makes me travel all around India.I have seen
> people from North India,Andhra,Kerala and Karnataka never come
across> a child who could not talk in their native language even
they stayed> in abroad or out of their respective state.This how
they are broughy> up and strictly they converse in thier own lanuage
in the house.> It is only we the Tamilians feel ashamed to converse
in our own mother> tongue.
>
> Imay have hurt some asthikas feelings.But this is my Athangam
which i> expressed in this group.
> Dasan
> desikan
*************
Dear SwAminah:,
Well spoken and courageously so! I too offer my congratulations to
Kum.Kaavya who deserves all the congratulatory support about to be
showered on her from all the SriVaishnava NRIs and PIOs the world
over, thanks to efforts of this cyber-list and others. But I would
like to add to and second devarir's very pertinent comments above
with a few more questions of my own which I venture to ask in this
forum:
(1) When it is unable to encourage even its own young children to
speak/write in the mother-tongue, Tamil, how is the Tamilian
SriVaishnava community at large going to promote the cause of the
Sanskrit language ("dEva-bhAsha" or "God-tongue") amongst its
fellowmen?
(2) How many of our children in India who take up Sanskrit
as "second language" in school do so out of genuine interest and
willingness? I take the example of many of the youngsters within my
own extended family. When I queried and complimented them on their
having chosen Sanskrit as second-language, they just shrugged it off
casually and then told me in rather hushed, conspiratorial
tones "Uncle, the real reason why I chose Sanskrit is because the
Board syllabus is relatively far easier than Tamil or Hindi and in
the final Board Exam I will stand a better chance to score marks.
That's all! Once I finish school, if I have to choose once again a
second-language to study, I'd rather choose French, German or
Spanish. That way I'll better my career-prospects in a way I know
Sanskrit never can".
Now what is one to make of such crass attitudes prevailing amongst
our own young ones in our so-called "Sanskrit-loving" brahmin
SriVaishnava community?
(3) The SriVaishnava diaspora worldwide is quite large. In the USA,
the SriVaishnava community is quite well-off and influential. What
have they done to promote the study of Sanskrit amongst their own
young in the USA? How many first and second generation American SVs
have taken up Sanskrit language as a secondary field of study in
their undergraduate programs? How many senior SV US-citizens who
have the means and willingness to do so have created faculty,
scholarships, funds or Chairs for Sanskrit studies in prestigious US
Universities such as, say, Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Berkeley or
even in second-rung Universities there?
(4) In SriVaishnava temples in India, how many "vEda pArAyANakars"
are found today? What is the kind of support they get? What is the
treatment meted out to them today?
(5) In Madras University, how financially strong and resourced is
the Department of Sanskrit?
(6) There is a private institution called Sanskrit College in
Mylapore, Chennai (otherwise also known as Kuppaswami Iyer Memorial
Institute). It is dedicated to the promotion of Sanskrit language.
How many SriVaishnavas know about it and extend support to the
institution? How many rich NRI/PIO SVs lend support to it?
(7) How many SVs or Brahmins in the past 30 years have written short-
stories or modern novels in Sanskrit? WHat has the Brahmin community
or the SV community done to encourage the transformation of Sanskrit
language from being a "dead language" to a living and vibrant one?
Why should Sanskrit always be equated only with heroes of the
previous millenia like Kalidasa, Venkatanathan or Appayya Dikshitar?
Why cannot we have young modern SV poets, novelists and playwrights
writing in Sanskrit about modern day-to-day life and problems
instead of writing and re-hashing age-old themes and fossilized
worlds?
(8)What have contemporary SV "achAryAs", both literary and
religious, done in concrete steps to free the Sanskrit language from
the shackles of brahminical academe, punditry and pedagogy and give
it new life as a language of a cultured people with cultured minds
and cultured values?
On the occasion of Kum.Kaavya's felicitation back home in Chennai,
let us, SVs and brahmins alike, ponder also deeply and long on the
above questions and what answers we can collectively offer.
The Sanskrit language is dead! Long live Sanskrit!
Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan
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