Pronoti Datta | TNN
Mumbai: It’s a common lament among Indian language teachers in the city. As English has become the unequivocal language of progress, regional languages are being consigned to the attic of anachronisms along with letter writing and safari suits. It’s a sorry state of affairs if finding an individual below the age of 40 who can read Bankim Chandra in Bengali is about as hard as locating an honest man in the BMC. However, staving off imminent endangerment are a bunch of valiant language schools that entice students with the offer of free classes.
Suhasini Kirtikar has been teaching Marathi at Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh (MMSS) for the past 34 years. Apart from the MMSS headquarter at Girgaum, classes are held at branches of the Bombay Tamil Sangham in Chembur and Sion, which also has free classes in Tamil. “We teach there just for our pleasure,’’ Kirtikar says.
It was a keenness for languages that led 23-year-old singer Sagar Sawarkar to Pratima Goswami’s Bengali class in Goregaon. It was a good experience, he says.
Goswami rues the fact that there are few youngsters in the despairingly small class she conducts. A teacher for the past 29 years, she runs one of the three centres of Kolkata’s Banga Bhasha Prachar Samiti (BBPS)—the other centres are in Thane and Powai—where she instructs a class of about eight students. “Bengalis in Mumbai are not interested in learning the language,’’ she says angrily.
The Bengali teacher would find a sympathiser in Satram Makhija, a retired ayurvedic doctor who runs a month-long Sindhi class in Thane every May. Makhija began his summer class in 1991 in an attempt to teach his language to as many youngsters as he could. He says he used to have nearly 80 students a few years ago. These days, attendance is down by half.
On the other hand, Zuber Azmi will be starting free Urdu classes to remind Mumbaikars that the Hindi they speak is full of the lofty north Indian tongue. “Urdu is the common minimum language,’’ he points out. Azmi’s dream is to restore to the language the glory of the early twentieth century when the tea shops of Nagpada and Mohammed Ali Road resounded with Urdu verse by poets and writers such as Kaifi Azmi and Sadat Hasan Manto.
For details of classes, call Banga Bhasha Prachar Samiti (Bengali) 2877-4261, Bombay Tamil Sangham (Tamil) 2409-4021, Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh (Marathi) 2385-6303, Satram Makhija (Sindhi) 99204-69040, Zuber Azmi (Urdu) 93226-95208
Suhasini Kirtikar has been teaching Marathi at Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh (MMSS) for the past 34 years. Apart from the MMSS headquarter at Girgaum, classes are held at branches of the Bombay Tamil Sangham in Chembur and Sion, which also has free classes in Tamil. “We teach there just for our pleasure,’’ Kirtikar says.
It was a keenness for languages that led 23-year-old singer Sagar Sawarkar to Pratima Goswami’s Bengali class in Goregaon. It was a good experience, he says.
Goswami rues the fact that there are few youngsters in the despairingly small class she conducts. A teacher for the past 29 years, she runs one of the three centres of Kolkata’s Banga Bhasha Prachar Samiti (BBPS)—the other centres are in Thane and Powai—where she instructs a class of about eight students. “Bengalis in Mumbai are not interested in learning the language,’’ she says angrily.
The Bengali teacher would find a sympathiser in Satram Makhija, a retired ayurvedic doctor who runs a month-long Sindhi class in Thane every May. Makhija began his summer class in 1991 in an attempt to teach his language to as many youngsters as he could. He says he used to have nearly 80 students a few years ago. These days, attendance is down by half.
On the other hand, Zuber Azmi will be starting free Urdu classes to remind Mumbaikars that the Hindi they speak is full of the lofty north Indian tongue. “Urdu is the common minimum language,’’ he points out. Azmi’s dream is to restore to the language the glory of the early twentieth century when the tea shops of Nagpada and Mohammed Ali Road resounded with Urdu verse by poets and writers such as Kaifi Azmi and Sadat Hasan Manto.
For details of classes, call Banga Bhasha Prachar Samiti (Bengali) 2877-4261, Bombay Tamil Sangham (Tamil) 2409-4021, Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh (Marathi) 2385-6303, Satram Makhija (Sindhi) 99204-69040, Zuber Azmi (Urdu) 93226-95208
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