Did you hear this?

[Lakshmi Srinivas]

--- Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vsundaresan at HOTMAIL.COM>
wrote:
> >it's not a major problem. We have it on
> Vidyasankar's
> >authority that they all end up in the US. There's
>
> :-)) It feels nice to be called an authority, but my
> view seems to be different from most others.

It was just a gentle aside on IIT alumni, of whom I
know a few on this list, representing a wide spectrum
ranging from Sanskrit to Tamil, Hindi etc :-))

> It only reveals a mental block
> against Sanskrit, as encoded in the schoolgoing
> child's
> phalam phale phalAnI, sansk.rt kabhI nA AnI.

You've omitted the next line of the doggerel: Ani to
bhi bhool jAni ("even if I get it I'm bound to forget
it"), a telling comment on the perceived
inapplicability/uselessness of Sanskrit.

> On the other hand, creating space for Sanskrit may
> be a good precedent for Tamil and modern Indian
> languages.

Surely this is somewhat hieratic? To be introduced in
the curriculum, why should modern Indian languages
need any kind of precedent? Isn't it enough that these
languages are mother tongues of students?

Thanks and Warm Regards,

LS


__________________________________________________
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35
a year!  http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/