--- 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 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Protect your PC from spy ware with award winning anti spy technology. It's free. http://us.click.yahoo.com/97bhrC/LGxNAA/yQLSAA/XUWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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