Andhra Pradesh: 'Hindi played a key role in the freedom struggle'

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:In a way i was quoting someone and not stating anything myself.

Thanks for summarizing the vast majority of your posts on all topics.

We all acquire knowledge from various sources.

That's the idea, but apparently not all of us get there.

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:In a way i was quoting someone and not stating anything myself.

Thanks for summarizing the vast majority of your posts on all topics.

We all acquire knowledge from various sources.

That's the idea, but apparently not all of us get there.

I know. Some of us prefer to throw mud at those more knowledgable than us.

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:In a way i was quoting someone and not stating anything myself.

Thanks for summarizing the vast majority of your posts on all topics.

We all acquire knowledge from various sources.

That's the idea, but apparently not all of us get there.

I know. Some of us prefer to throw mud at those more knowledgable than us.

I congratulate you on your newfound ability to introspect. Please hold onto it tight.

https://such.forumotion.com/t9895-hindi-prachar-sabha-teaches-hinglish-to-southern-indians

Here are some questions from an "exam paper" set by the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, established by a personage no less eminent than Gandhiji himself. Is there something black in the pulse here?

(A) Are the following statements True or False? 10X1 =10
1) “Thanking you in anticipation”, is an effecting ending for an enquiry letter.
2) A good ending for a reply to an enquiry would be, “We trust that you will find this useful.”
3) We have a good opportunity to make additional profit by offering your products in a special packing for the festival season, is a good opening sentence for requesting a favour.
5) Keeping in touch with customers help to retain them.

(C) Complete the sentence by choosing the correct answer.
1) An acceptable form of writing the complimentary close is ………
a) Yours Faithfully,
b) Your‟s faithfully,
c) Yours faithfully,
d) Your‟ faithfully,

2) When the salutation is Dear Mr. Chaturvedi, the correct complimentary close is – 5X1=5
a) Yours obediently
b) Yours faithfully
c) Yours affectionately
d) Yours sincerely

Are the following statements True or False ? Give reasons for your answer:
(iii) Variable cost per unit remains fixed .
(iv) Salaries paid to salesmen come under direct cost included in prime cost .

Q4. Why market segmentation is done?

Q5. „Package is a silent salesman‟. Supply arguments.


http://dbhpsdde.ac.in/images/gallery/1298617114.pdf

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:Thanks for summarizing the vast majority of your posts on all topics.

We all acquire knowledge from various sources.

That's the idea, but apparently not all of us get there.

I know. Some of us prefer to throw mud at those more knowledgable than us.

I congratulate you on your newfound ability to introspect. Please hold onto it tight.

i have always had the ability to introspect. in my opinion your post is another instance of you trying to throw mud at those more knowledgeable than you.

https://such.forumotion.com/t9893-cbi-to-investigate-dakshin-bharat-hindi-prachar-sabha

KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched a detailed a probe to ascertain whether the governing body of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS) here had rigged the elections held to choose for its new governing council.

The CBI decided to probe the functioning of DBHPS in detail after it conducted a surprise check at its office and seized documents for close verification. The raids were conducted on the basis of information that there were irregularities in the functioning of the Kochi office of DBHPS, and that the officials concerned had misappropriated funds worth Rs 1 crore. CBI said they were closely examining the bylaws of the institution, and that next course of action will be decided soon. in the coming days

The officials said they were also probing the nexus between certain DBHPS officials and anti-social elements.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-24/kochi/30438002_1_probe-cbi-officials-surprise-check

panini press wrote:https://such.forumotion.com/t9895-hindi-prachar-sabha-teaches-hinglish-to-southern-indians

Here are some questions from an "exam paper" set by the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, established by a personage no less eminent than Gandhiji himself. Is there something black in the pulse here?

(A) Are the following statements True or False? 10X1 =10
1) “Thanking you in anticipation”, is an effecting ending for an enquiry letter.
2) A good ending for a reply to an enquiry would be, “We trust that you will find this useful.”
3) We have a good opportunity to make additional profit by offering your products in a special packing for the festival season, is a good opening sentence for requesting a favour.
5) Keeping in touch with customers help to retain them.

(C) Complete the sentence by choosing the correct answer.
1) An acceptable form of writing the complimentary close is ………
a) Yours Faithfully,
b) Your‟s faithfully,
c) Yours faithfully,
d) Your‟ faithfully,

2) When the salutation is Dear Mr. Chaturvedi, the correct complimentary close is – 5X1=5
a) Yours obediently
b) Yours faithfully
c) Yours affectionately
d) Yours sincerely

Are the following statements True or False ? Give reasons for your answer:
(iii) Variable cost per unit remains fixed .
(iv) Salaries paid to salesmen come under direct cost included in prime cost .

Q4. Why market segmentation is done?

Q5. „Package is a silent salesman‟. Supply arguments.


http://dbhpsdde.ac.in/images/gallery/1298617114.pdf

Non-sequitur

panini press wrote:https://such.forumotion.com/t9893-cbi-to-investigate-dakshin-bharat-hindi-prachar-sabha

KOCHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched a detailed a probe to ascertain whether the governing body of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS) here had rigged the elections held to choose for its new governing council.

The CBI decided to probe the functioning of DBHPS in detail after it conducted a surprise check at its office and seized documents for close verification. The raids were conducted on the basis of information that there were irregularities in the functioning of the Kochi office of DBHPS, and that the officials concerned had misappropriated funds worth Rs 1 crore. CBI said they were closely examining the bylaws of the institution, and that next course of action will be decided soon. in the coming days

The officials said they were also probing the nexus between certain DBHPS officials and anti-social elements.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-24/kochi/30438002_1_probe-cbi-officials-surprise-check

In a city once bitterly opposed to the northerner’s tongue, Hindi is finding followers — private tutors give lessons in apartment complexes, and young enthusiasts gingerly try Kabir on their tongue. Even auto drivers will not snarl at you if you speak in Hindi

Fourteen-year-old Swati Ramanan has a new literary crush: Munshi Premchand. “The first story by Premchand that I read and loved was Idgah. That must have been six months ago,” she says in English, before self-consciously switching to somewhat accented Hindi. “Main ab unki ek aur kahani padh rahi hun, ‘Bade Bhaisahab’ (I am now reading another story of his, called ‘Elder Brother’),” she says shyly.

Swati lives on the seventh floor of a tall apartment complex in Kodambakkam, Chennai. Like any teenager, she likes Katy Perry, Harry Potter and skinny jeans. Of late, she has been scarfing up Hindi books that her parents — both work in the IT industry — buy her on their trips to Delhi and Mumbai. In her room is a green felt board with a few Hindi dohas pinned on it alongside cartoon cutouts. They flutter in the evening breeze as Swati talks about her passion for a language far removed from her native tongue Tamil. It all started with snatches of Hindi news overheard from her neighbour’s radio. “It sounded so elegant,” says Swati, pausing to rummage for the Hindi word for ‘elegant’. “I knew I had to learn to speak and write like that.”

Swati attends a reputed CBSE school not far from her home. Hindi is her third language of choice, after English and her mother tongue, Tamil. “My friends opted for Sanskrit and French because you can get better grades that way,” she says. But Swati’s mother, Ananya, takes a broader view. “I have lived in Mumbai for two years. Hindi is necessary if you want to move to other states. People living in south India are increasingly aware of this,” says the 44-year-old, who watches Star Plus and Zee TV to help polish her Hindi. “We enjoy watching Hindi stand-up comedy — there is no equivalent of this on Tamil TV,” she says.

It has been a full decade since the last anti-Hindi agitation in Chennai. The self-professed guardians of Tamil culture haven’t vanished. Indeed, not too long ago, English signboards on some railway routes were smudged off in an act of Tamil pride, says a resident of Tambaram suburb. S Doraiswamy, a retired executive who has lived in Thyagaraya Nagar, Chennai, for close to two decades, says common English words are increasingly being translated into forbidding Tamil — for instance, some bakeries call themselves veduppagam (literally, a cooking room). “There are two sets of people in Chennai today. Those who go out of their way to introduce new ways of asserting the Tamil spirit; and the middle and upper middle classes who want to learn Hindi and to make sure their children don’t miss the Hindi bus,” says Doraiswamy.

With the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act integrating state and matriculation boards, besides others, set to come into force, there is worry that the Hindi bus may no longer make a stop in Tamil Nadu. Till now, in schools following matriculation and other boards, Hindi had been an optional third language. “Under the new system, students can choose from Arabic, Urdu, Malayalam, Sanskrit, French and various Indian and foreign languages as their third language, but not Hindi. A majority of schools in Tamil Nadu will be forced to adopt this syllabus. To study Hindi, you’d have to go to a CBSE school now or turn to options outside the system,” says V Balakrishna, who runs Hindi Vidya Niketan, a centre for Hindi learning, in T Nagar.

Balakrishna sits in a small makeshift room on Dandapani Street. The signboard pointing up is in English and Tamil. “According to state law, the regional language font size should be bigger than the English font. And writing in Hindi is like inviting trouble,” says Balakrishna, seated in front of a blackboard crammed with Hindi verbs. A Hindi teacher in Chennai since 1988, Balakrishna coaches adults and children —for a nominal fee of Rs 150 a month — in written and spoken Hindi. He also prepares students for various certificate courses offered by the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, an institution that dates back to the pre-Independence era. The Sabha now has 18,000 certified pracharaks in Chennai alone, 6,000 of whom actively teach. Says Balakrishna, a Sabha member, “There is no overt political opposition to Hindi in Chennai anymore. Whatever indirect measures, such as samacheer kalvi (uniform education) and the two-language curriculum, are introduced, they are mere political stunts.”

Kevin and Manova Jacob, who are studying for the Sabha’s Hindi Parichaya (introductory course) exam at Balakrishna’s academy, agree. “It is important to know the national language,” says Kevin. For the mathematics graduate, Hindi is a conduit to north India, where he and his brother hope to find suitable jobs. They can’t speak fluent Hindi yet but hope to be able to preach the Bible in Hindi one day.

In February 2011, about 50,000 people in Tamil Nadu — 13,000 from Chennai alone — appeared for the Prathamik-level Sabha examinations, with over 95 per cent passing. Two years ago, the number was 43,000. Inter-state mobility and the trend of job-hopping are key reasons for the increase in interest in Hindi, says Balakrishnan. “The IT industry is partly responsible for this,” he says. Sreenivas, a 58-year-old student at Hindi Vidya Niketan, says he realised the importance of Hindi over a decade ago but could only find time to learn it closer to his retirement. “I have lived all my life in Chennai because I don’t know any other language. But I made sure my daughters studied for Hindi exams even though they couldn’t study the language in their school, which followed the state board curriculum,” he says.

There is a visible cultural dilation on Chennai streets, once famously protective of all things Tamil. Five years ago, Arumugam, a 55-year-old auto driver from Ambattur, would have told you off if you asked him for directions in Hindi. Today, he parks his auto on the bustling North Usman Road and calls out to people: Kahan jaana hai? (Where do you want to go?) “It helps to know basic Hindi — kitna (how much), kam (it’s not enough), dur (far), aa jao (come),” says Arumugam.

Hindi has helped not only autowallahs but also ministers clinch deals, says CNV Annamalai, general secretary of the Sabha in Chennai, and member of a central government advisory committee under the Ministry of Rural Development. “I have always said, Mr Karunanidhi would have been PM long ago if only he had known Hindi. His daughter does, though. She was a Sabha student,” says Annamalai, in faultless Hindi. “There is a lot of demand for Hindi in south India. In a year, six lakh people from the four southern states appear for Sabha exams,” he says, adding, “Studying Hindi does not mean ignoring Tamil.”

On Thanikachalam Road, R Krushnamurthy, a Hindi bookseller, says the demand for exam guides is slowly rising, but that of Hindi novels and reference books is not. “I started selling books in 1990. In 1996-97, I was selling 10,000 copies of exam guides, some of them self-published. Now the number has more than doubled,” he says, adding, “There is a Hindi teacher in every apartment complex in Chennai, seriously.” Balakrishnan laughs and nods. “Theruvellaam Hindi muzhakkam (the cries of Hindi in every street),” he jokes.

Those who cater to corporates believe there is a greater demand for spoken Hindi. Rajan Menon, of Language Tree in Virugambakkam, says, “With IT migration, there is interest in spoken Hindi like never before. We conduct 25-day workshops where we teach communication-based Hindi. There are many takers.” Knowledge of Hindi is no longer an unimportant qualification in the job market, says Anoop S., a senior manager with a pharmaceuticals company in Chennai. “Yes, English is the first language of industry, but what if you are posted in Lucknow?” says Anoop, who hired a private Hindi tutor for three months last year.

For Swati, the grounds for learning a new language are more poetic. She points to one of her favourite couplets by Kabir: Dheere dheere re mana, dheere sab kuchh hoye; Mali seenche sau ghara, ritu aaye phal hoye (Slowly slowly O mind, everything happens at its own pace; The gardener may water with a hundred buckets, the fruit only comes with the season). That pretty much sums up the Hindi wave in Chennai.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/chennai-says-it-in-hindi/830371/0

The other day, Shweta Narayan, an environmental activist, from Bihar, living in Chennai, said something that shows how Chennai has changed in recent years, both in character and composition. "When I first came here in 2003, I didn't know Tamil and that was a big problem, since people would basically not speak anything else. Even when I went to the beach in the evenings I would hear Tamil all around me, and the older people I met used to discuss news in the US, since their children had gone to study there."

A few years later, she got the shock of her life one day when travelling in an auto-rickshaw. "I was trying to speak to the driver in Tamil (she'd learnt since then), and he kept replying in Hindi." And to complete the picture, she says that when she goes to the beach now, she can hear more people speaking in Hindi than in Tamil.

As stories go, this is a random observation. But in another sense, it is deeply illustrative. Put simply, there are two trends at play here, and they could come to define Tamil Nadu for many years to come — Tamils going out and seeking better jobs for themselves and the flow of labour coming in from other states.

Expat Tamils
Apparently, Tamil Nadu has now overtaken Kerala as the state that sends the most number of workers overseas, both to the Middle East and to places like Malaysia. No systematic study has been done but there are indicators. Professor S Irudaya Rajan of the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, one of the country's foremost experts on migration, estimates that there at least 2 – 3 million Tamils living out of the country. The state is now second only to Kerala in terms of remittances received from abroad.

"Because they are moving to other parts of the world, there is going to be a scarcity of labour in Tamil Nadu. For instance, in some time, you'll find that there won't be electricians or welders who are local guys. You'll find that these are people coming in from the less prosperous districts of states like Orissa or West Bengal."

In Chennai, such changes are already evident. You need only look around to notice that most of the people who work in restaurants, beauty parlours or even the city's numerous construction sites are from out of town — from the Northeast or states like Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal.

Tamil Nadu is also witnessing a period of unprecedented economic growth, that's not confined to Chennai. A major concern, Rajan says, is falling fertility rates. As a state, so to speak, we're not getting any younger. People are living longer and having fewer children. "Today, about ten people out of a hundred are over the age of 60 and in 20 years time, that proportion could change dramatically. One out of three people could officially be classified as old."

Mimicking the West
Strangely enough, these are issues that are common to several, more developed regions like Europe and America. And like them, it's possible that the continued economic growth of Tamil Nadu could hinge on the continued inflow of labour, and crucially, on the state's ability to provide a conducive, welcoming environment for them to live and work in. For a state renowned, especially in the north, for linguistic chauvinism, this is a potentially tricky situation, but the attitude towards non-Tamils is already changing.

M Vijayabaskar, assistant professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, has worked on rural labour markets in the state, particularly in the Tiruppur region. He says that about 10 years ago, people said they preferred to hire workers from the south, especially women, because they were reliable. On a recent visit though, he found contractors and factory owners showing the same preference for labour from other states. Local labour is now seen as unreliable, because people come and go depending on the agricultural season, while migrant workers stay on.

Not many know this, but several traditional industrial centres in Tamil Nadu are already being run, in large part, through outside labour. This is evident, says K Pandia Rajan, MD of Ma Foi Randstad, when you look at the Sinhalese foremen in the garment factories of Tiruppur, or the large number of Oriya workers now employed by paper factories in places like Sivakasi.

Incoming labour
Professor Raman Mahadevan, of the Institute for Development Alternatives in Chennai, sees the flow of outside labour linked to other trends — of agrarian distress in other states and of the 'silent' social revolution that's taken place here. With the diversification of industry and the success of the public distribution system, the average Tamil worker can choose not to settle for the back-breaking labour that once may have been necessary to survive.

Along with the state's labour department, the IDA recently conducted two surveys in brick kilns around Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram. Their surveys showed that 50 per cent of the workers came from Andhra Pradesh, 20 per cent from Orissa and five to 10 per cent from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Contractors who have their own connections now do more than 50 per cent of the hiring. "But if you want to understand how labour comes in from these states, you just have to go to the train station and see what's happening on platforms where trains from the north and the east arrive," says Mahadevan.

The squeeze in local labour is by no means restricted to smaller towns and industrial centres. Padam Dugar, director of Dugar Housing, builders of flats and townships along the Old Mahabalipuram Road, says that a significant portion of the labour now coming in for construction is from out of town. "With the level of infrastructure development in the state, Chennai is no longer the commercial hub for workers. Also, as education has gone up in the state, quite often, the second generation workers want to do something different.''

Interestingly, Vijayabaskar adds that while interviewing workers in Tiruppur he found that many of them were saving money to go to Malaysia or to the Middle East. ''Even workers from small villages are now able to imagine a career abroad."

Whether it's the new, upwardly mobile Tamil or a series of contractors with cell phones, labour markets in Tamil Nadu have already seen significant changes. But while some would argue that this represents a healthy, even desirable free exchange of labour between states, Mahadevan emphasises that there is also a heavy element of debt bondage involved.

Going grey
By 2025, south India's population will begin to grey. According to a report titled the 'Indian Demographic Scenario 2025' from the Population Research Centre, Institute of Economic growth, New Delhi, the average age in the region will be 34 years in 15 years as opposed to 26 years in 2000 but more importantly, nine per cent of the population in south India will be 65 years and older. Add to that Tamil Nadu's falling birth rate, and the region will soon be facing a shortage of adults in the productive age group. On the other hand, north India will have a relatively young population with a median age of 26 and only four per cent of the population will be 65 years and over.

Flying, far far away.
Rs 41,400 crores is the amount Tamils working abroad sent home as remittances between 2006 and 2008. This is second only to Kerala, says professor S Irudaya Rajan. Rajan works with the Research Unit on International Migration at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. However, he does point out that the absence of reliable data on the socio-economic profile of Tamil migrants, both inter-state and international, is cause for concern and should be taken up for research by the government. One of the major areas in which remittances arrive from abroad, he says, is in the housing market. "I remember going to a flat opening in Thiruvananthapuram where about 110 of the 120 flats being sold, were to non-resident Keralites who wanted to buy homes," he says. While the proportion is not quite so high in Chennai, builders in the city, like Padam Dugar say it is a trend that's on the upswing for new flat complexes coming up in several newer suburbs such as along the Old Mahabalipuram Road, an extension of the IT corridor.

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2010/09/changing-demographics-of-tamil-nadu.html

Huzefa Kapasi wrote:

goodcitizn wrote: I am not interested in buying any bridge from Brooklyn.

there is a mad scramble for the bridge. you are lucky you have been shortlisted as the prime candidate for it. are you sure you want to pass this once-in-a-lifetime offer?

Gee, I didn't realize I was so lucky! [As an aside, I feel like saying "gesundheit" each time I read your handle!]

Frankly, this forum is to exchange viewpoints however dull, comical, confrontational or educational they whittle down to. Rashmun, or rather, Rushman, hastily comes to the conclusion that one swallow does a summer make. All it takes is two autowalahs (let us not quibble about their muslim heritage) speaking to each other in some variant of Hindi, pardon me -- Dhakini, in the heartland of Tamil Nadu -- (poof goes the smoke and out comes the genie) -- "Hey, this is proof that Dhakni is a part of Tamil vernacular ... okay, skip that thought for now ... hey, guess what, Tamilians from Coimbatore to Kotturpuram welcome Dhakini with open arms and communicate to each other in Dhakini, thanks to Gandhiji and Dakshin Prachar Sabha for such "linkage" of south india ... hey, hold that thought some more ... hmm, the linkage in the first place wasn't necessary since Dhakni was already a part of Tamil so all the effort, however noble and applaudable it be, was redundant and perhaps a little over the top.

That should summarize why the bridge in Brooklyn remains unsold.

goodcitizn wrote:

Huzefa Kapasi wrote:

goodcitizn wrote: I am not interested in buying any bridge from Brooklyn.

there is a mad scramble for the bridge. you are lucky you have been shortlisted as the prime candidate for it. are you sure you want to pass this once-in-a-lifetime offer?

Gee, I didn't realize I was so lucky! [As an aside, I feel like saying "gesundheit" each time I read your handle!]

Frankly, this forum is to exchange viewpoints however dull, comical, confrontational or educational they whittle down to. Rashmun, or rather, Rushman, hastily comes to the conclusion that one swallow does a summer make. All it takes is two autowalahs (let us not quibble about their muslim heritage) speaking to each other in some variant of Hindi, pardon me -- Dhakini, in the heartland of Tamil Nadu -- (poof goes the smoke and out comes the genie) -- "Hey, this is proof that Dhakni is a part of Tamil vernacular ... okay, skip that thought for now ... hey, guess what, Tamilians from Coimbatore to Kotturpuram welcome Dhakini with open arms and communicate to each other in Dhakini, thanks to Gandhiji and Dakshin Prachar Sabha for such "linkage" of south india ... hey, hold that thought some more ... hmm, the linkage in the first place wasn't necessary since Dhakni was already a part of Tamil so all the effort, however noble and applaudable it be, was redundant and perhaps a little over the top.

That should summarize why the bridge in Brooklyn remains unsold.

Oh, that's nothing. Sometimes, it appears that Hindi itself was born in the south, delivered by Duckini in a government maternity hospital somewhere near Hyderabad or Bengaluru. At other times it appears that Hindi was born in northindia and traveled ticketless on a train to the south, where it hooked up with Duckini and became polished. After this polishing, Hindi then returned to the north, this time in AC First Class to keep the polish after the long and grueling journey. Then there's the complication of that interloper, Urdu, in this saga. Sometimes it appears that Hindi and Urdu hooked up in the north, produced Hindustani, which then went south ticketless on a train. At other times, it appears that Hindi and Urdu had separate ticketless journeys south, and they met and started dating in the south. In that version of the story, they produce Duckini as their first born and Hindustani as their second. Then they get fully polished and make their way northward again for a pleasant retirement. It is unclear in this version whether they give birth to Hindustani in the south and bring it back with them on AC First Class, or give birth to Hindustani after their return from the south having been thoroughly polished there. A third version has Hindi-Urdu, a hyphenated person with some personality issues, make a perilous journey south in the general compartment, and come back years later as an educated person with a new name called Hindustani, thanks to the civlizing influence of the south. The particular version of the story we peddle depends on the article that we happen to be presently highlighting and copy-pasting.

All this pain just to show that Hindi is a southern Indian language after all!

Rashmun wrote:In a city once bitterly opposed to the northerner’s tongue, Hindi is finding followers — private tutors give lessons in apartment complexes, and young enthusiasts gingerly try Kabir on their tongue. Even auto drivers will not snarl at you if you speak in Hindi

Fourteen-year-old Swati Ramanan has a new literary crush: Munshi Premchand. “The first story by Premchand that I read and loved was Idgah. That must have been six months ago,” she says in English, before self-consciously switching to somewhat accented Hindi. “Main ab unki ek aur kahani padh rahi hun, ‘Bade Bhaisahab’ (I am now reading another story of his, called ‘Elder Brother’),” she says shyly.

Swati lives on the seventh floor of a tall apartment complex in Kodambakkam, Chennai. Like any teenager, she likes Katy Perry, Harry Potter and skinny jeans. Of late, she has been scarfing up Hindi books that her parents — both work in the IT industry — buy her on their trips to Delhi and Mumbai. In her room is a green felt board with a few Hindi dohas pinned on it alongside cartoon cutouts. They flutter in the evening breeze as Swati talks about her passion for a language far removed from her native tongue Tamil. It all started with snatches of Hindi news overheard from her neighbour’s radio. “It sounded so elegant,” says Swati, pausing to rummage for the Hindi word for ‘elegant’. “I knew I had to learn to speak and write like that.”

Swati attends a reputed CBSE school not far from her home. Hindi is her third language of choice, after English and her mother tongue, Tamil. “My friends opted for Sanskrit and French because you can get better grades that way,” she says. But Swati’s mother, Ananya, takes a broader view. “I have lived in Mumbai for two years. Hindi is necessary if you want to move to other states. People living in south India are increasingly aware of this,” says the 44-year-old, who watches Star Plus and Zee TV to help polish her Hindi. “We enjoy watching Hindi stand-up comedy — there is no equivalent of this on Tamil TV,” she says.

It has been a full decade since the last anti-Hindi agitation in Chennai. The self-professed guardians of Tamil culture haven’t vanished. Indeed, not too long ago, English signboards on some railway routes were smudged off in an act of Tamil pride, says a resident of Tambaram suburb. S Doraiswamy, a retired executive who has lived in Thyagaraya Nagar, Chennai, for close to two decades, says common English words are increasingly being translated into forbidding Tamil — for instance, some bakeries call themselves veduppagam (literally, a cooking room). “There are two sets of people in Chennai today. Those who go out of their way to introduce new ways of asserting the Tamil spirit; and the middle and upper middle classes who want to learn Hindi and to make sure their children don’t miss the Hindi bus,” says Doraiswamy.

With the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act integrating state and matriculation boards, besides others, set to come into force, there is worry that the Hindi bus may no longer make a stop in Tamil Nadu. Till now, in schools following matriculation and other boards, Hindi had been an optional third language. “Under the new system, students can choose from Arabic, Urdu, Malayalam, Sanskrit, French and various Indian and foreign languages as their third language, but not Hindi. A majority of schools in Tamil Nadu will be forced to adopt this syllabus. To study Hindi, you’d have to go to a CBSE school now or turn to options outside the system,” says V Balakrishna, who runs Hindi Vidya Niketan, a centre for Hindi learning, in T Nagar.

Balakrishna sits in a small makeshift room on Dandapani Street. The signboard pointing up is in English and Tamil. “According to state law, the regional language font size should be bigger than the English font. And writing in Hindi is like inviting trouble,” says Balakrishna, seated in front of a blackboard crammed with Hindi verbs. A Hindi teacher in Chennai since 1988, Balakrishna coaches adults and children —for a nominal fee of Rs 150 a month — in written and spoken Hindi. He also prepares students for various certificate courses offered by the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, an institution that dates back to the pre-Independence era. The Sabha now has 18,000 certified pracharaks in Chennai alone, 6,000 of whom actively teach. Says Balakrishna, a Sabha member, “There is no overt political opposition to Hindi in Chennai anymore. Whatever indirect measures, such as samacheer kalvi (uniform education) and the two-language curriculum, are introduced, they are mere political stunts.”

Kevin and Manova Jacob, who are studying for the Sabha’s Hindi Parichaya (introductory course) exam at Balakrishna’s academy, agree. “It is important to know the national language,” says Kevin. For the mathematics graduate, Hindi is a conduit to north India, where he and his brother hope to find suitable jobs. They can’t speak fluent Hindi yet but hope to be able to preach the Bible in Hindi one day.

In February 2011, about 50,000 people in Tamil Nadu — 13,000 from Chennai alone — appeared for the Prathamik-level Sabha examinations, with over 95 per cent passing. Two years ago, the number was 43,000. Inter-state mobility and the trend of job-hopping are key reasons for the increase in interest in Hindi, says Balakrishnan. “The IT industry is partly responsible for this,” he says. Sreenivas, a 58-year-old student at Hindi Vidya Niketan, says he realised the importance of Hindi over a decade ago but could only find time to learn it closer to his retirement. “I have lived all my life in Chennai because I don’t know any other language. But I made sure my daughters studied for Hindi exams even though they couldn’t study the language in their school, which followed the state board curriculum,” he says.

There is a visible cultural dilation on Chennai streets, once famously protective of all things Tamil. Five years ago, Arumugam, a 55-year-old auto driver from Ambattur, would have told you off if you asked him for directions in Hindi. Today, he parks his auto on the bustling North Usman Road and calls out to people: Kahan jaana hai? (Where do you want to go?) “It helps to know basic Hindi — kitna (how much), kam (it’s not enough), dur (far), aa jao (come),” says Arumugam.

Hindi has helped not only autowallahs but also ministers clinch deals, says CNV Annamalai, general secretary of the Sabha in Chennai, and member of a central government advisory committee under the Ministry of Rural Development. “I have always said, Mr Karunanidhi would have been PM long ago if only he had known Hindi. His daughter does, though. She was a Sabha student,” says Annamalai, in faultless Hindi. “There is a lot of demand for Hindi in south India. In a year, six lakh people from the four southern states appear for Sabha exams,” he says, adding, “Studying Hindi does not mean ignoring Tamil.”

On Thanikachalam Road, R Krushnamurthy, a Hindi bookseller, says the demand for exam guides is slowly rising, but that of Hindi novels and reference books is not. “I started selling books in 1990. In 1996-97, I was selling 10,000 copies of exam guides, some of them self-published. Now the number has more than doubled,” he says, adding, “There is a Hindi teacher in every apartment complex in Chennai, seriously.” Balakrishnan laughs and nods. “Theruvellaam Hindi muzhakkam (the cries of Hindi in every street),” he jokes.

Those who cater to corporates believe there is a greater demand for spoken Hindi. Rajan Menon, of Language Tree in Virugambakkam, says, “With IT migration, there is interest in spoken Hindi like never before. We conduct 25-day workshops where we teach communication-based Hindi. There are many takers.” Knowledge of Hindi is no longer an unimportant qualification in the job market, says Anoop S., a senior manager with a pharmaceuticals company in Chennai. “Yes, English is the first language of industry, but what if you are posted in Lucknow?” says Anoop, who hired a private Hindi tutor for three months last year.

For Swati, the grounds for learning a new language are more poetic. She points to one of her favourite couplets by Kabir: Dheere dheere re mana, dheere sab kuchh hoye; Mali seenche sau ghara, ritu aaye phal hoye (Slowly slowly O mind, everything happens at its own pace; The gardener may water with a hundred buckets, the fruit only comes with the season). That pretty much sums up the Hindi wave in Chennai.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/chennai-says-it-in-hindi/830371/0

.

Rashmun wrote:Call it a generational shift or the compulsion of changing times, more students whose mother tongue is Tamil are now learning Hindi as their second language in schools in Coimbatore.

School teachers too feel that learning Hindi in addition to one’s mother tongue gives students an edge when it comes to relocating outside Tamil Nadu in later years.

Some parents like Tamilselvan Nachimuthu, a bank employee, are enrolling their children in private Hindi tuition centres. “If my daughter learns to speak Hindi, she would not have to be tongue-tied when I am transferred to a north Indian State,” says Nachimuthu whose father was a staunch supporter of the anti-Hindi movement.

“In our school we provide Hindi and Tamil as additional languages for students who do not have these languages as their mother tongue. Even though this was optional, we find that most Tamil students now opt to learn Hindi,” says a principal of a leading school in R S Puram. “We start teaching them alphabets from class III and slowly move on to grammar as the language is not spoken in their homes,” he adds. Teachers also give imposition to students in Hindi so that they pick up the language fast.

“Learning Hindi or any other language is a matter of choice and no one can be forced to learn or shun a language. Today, with students reaching out and making their mark at the national and international arenas, it is an important advantage to know the language.

However, if they willingly choose to turn away from it, that choice should also be respected,” says K Sathyanarayanan, principal of Mani Higher Secondary School.

Teachers also say that some parents are forcing their children to study Hindi as they feel it would help them be at home when they go for higher education in other States.

“We do have some students who are reluctant learners of the language. But we have also seen cases where a reluctant learner grasps the language fast and begins to hum Hindi melodies,” says a Hindi teacher of a school in Vada Kovai.

Interestingly, in a reverse trend, some Hindi-speaking students have started learning Tamil in schools. Champa, a class VI student of a school in R S Puram, who hails from Delhi, says she can read Tamil name boards.

“I took up to learning Tamil as an additional language from class III. Initially it was difficult, as we do not speak Tamil at home. But our teachers are patient and I am gradually picking up Tamil. Now I actually like it, when I learn new Tamil words,” she says.

http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article544856.ece

.

Dotty!

Rashmun wrote:

Rashmun wrote:Call it a generational shift or the compulsion of changing times, more students whose mother tongue is Tamil are now learning Hindi as their second language in schools in Coimbatore.

School teachers too feel that learning Hindi in addition to one’s mother tongue gives students an edge when it comes to relocating outside Tamil Nadu in later years.

Some parents like Tamilselvan Nachimuthu, a bank employee, are enrolling their children in private Hindi tuition centres. “If my daughter learns to speak Hindi, she would not have to be tongue-tied when I am transferred to a north Indian State,” says Nachimuthu whose father was a staunch supporter of the anti-Hindi movement.

“In our school we provide Hindi and Tamil as additional languages for students who do not have these languages as their mother tongue. Even though this was optional, we find that most Tamil students now opt to learn Hindi,” says a principal of a leading school in R S Puram. “We start teaching them alphabets from class III and slowly move on to grammar as the language is not spoken in their homes,” he adds. Teachers also give imposition to students in Hindi so that they pick up the language fast.

“Learning Hindi or any other language is a matter of choice and no one can be forced to learn or shun a language. Today, with students reaching out and making their mark at the national and international arenas, it is an important advantage to know the language.

However, if they willingly choose to turn away from it, that choice should also be respected,” says K Sathyanarayanan, principal of Mani Higher Secondary School.

Teachers also say that some parents are forcing their children to study Hindi as they feel it would help them be at home when they go for higher education in other States.

“We do have some students who are reluctant learners of the language. But we have also seen cases where a reluctant learner grasps the language fast and begins to hum Hindi melodies,” says a Hindi teacher of a school in Vada Kovai.

Interestingly, in a reverse trend, some Hindi-speaking students have started learning Tamil in schools. Champa, a class VI student of a school in R S Puram, who hails from Delhi, says she can read Tamil name boards.

“I took up to learning Tamil as an additional language from class III. Initially it was difficult, as we do not speak Tamil at home. But our teachers are patient and I am gradually picking up Tamil. Now I actually like it, when I learn new Tamil words,” she says.

http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article544856.ece

.

Parents opt for Hindi over Tamil in TN schools
Ajitha Karthikeyan | TNN

Chennai: Their grandfathers took to the streets, raised slogans and even went to prison, protesting against the “imposition” of Hindi in Tamil Nadu in the 1960s. More than four decades later, many Tamil kids are studying the “rashtra bhasha” even before they can pick up the alphabets of their mother tongue.

Raj and Aruna did not think twice when they got a note from their son’s school to specify the second language they wanted their kid to learn from first standard onwards. Their unanimous choice was Hindi.

In fact, about 90% of their son’s classmates will be studying Hindi as the second language, as young parents feel their children’s horizon should extend beyond the boundaries of the state.

“At a time when we are talking about a global village, we cannot say no to Hindi anymore. Once we cross the state’s borders, we need to know Hindi for survival. I don’t want my son to be handicapped due to lack of knowledge of Hindi,” said Raj, a software professional.

“Unlike those in government jobs, people working in the private sector have to shuttle from one state to another. Hindi comes in handy at such times,” said Aarthi, a HR manager in a private firm.

However, the new-found love for Hindi is not going down well with the older generation. Soundararajan, a retired state government employee, regrets that his grandchildren are’t learning Tamil. “I am not against Hindi, but feel that children should learn to read and write their mother tongue first.”

“We have been advising parents to opt for Tamil as it is the state language. Though we tell them that their children still get to learn Hindi as a second language in the upper classes, parents clamour for Hindi,” said a teacher working for a leading CBSE school.

State public works minister Duraimurugan, one of the prominent student leaders who participated in the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965, said only the elite prefer Hindi over Tamil.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAwOS8wMi8wMyNBcjAxMTAx

the literacy rate for men in UP is 74% and for women it is 59% according to the 2011 census. this means that 26% of men and 41% of women of UP are unable to read or write their native tongue, hindi. i wonder why rashmun is wasting his time making a case for irrelevant things like link languages, hindi for southerners, and promoting various fowl languages in the south rather than teaching his fellow utthar pradeshis to read and write their own native tongue. very unpatriotic.

if communication is why we need a link language, there is a 26% chance that if i write a letter to a UPite, assuming he is a man, he would be unable to understand my letter no matter what language i use to write the letter. if i write to a woman UPite there is a 41% chance that she wouldn't understand my letter.

p.s: assignment for rashmun: if i addressed a letter to a randomly chosen UP person, what are the chances that my letter would be understood? assume all literate people in UP can read and write hindi, and i write the letter in hindi. assume further that i frame the initial letter and have it reviewed by a hindi pundit to correct errors (this is to avoid smart alec comments).

if kerala is keral, and karnataka is karnatak, why is andhra not andhr?

like the fowl language

I guess fowl do speak to each other in their own language.

Rishi wrote:like the fowl language

I guess fowl do speak to each other in their own language.

they do. some speak duckini and some others speak cluckini.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:if kerala is keral, and karnataka is karnatak, why is andhra not andhr?

Andhra is pronounced as Aandhr (and not Andhraa).

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:the literacy rate for men in UP is 74% and for women it is 59% according to the 2011 census. this means that 26% of men and 41% of women of UP are unable to read or write their native tongue, hindi. i wonder why rashmun is wasting his time making a case for irrelevant things like link languages, hindi for southerners, and promoting various fowl languages in the south rather than teaching his fellow utthar pradeshis to read and write their own native tongue. very unpatriotic.

if communication is why we need a link language, there is a 26% chance that if i write a letter to a UPite, assuming he is a man, he would be unable to understand my letter no matter what language i use to write the letter. if i write to a woman UPite there is a 41% chance that she wouldn't understand my letter.

p.s: assignment for rashmun: if i addressed a letter to a randomly chosen UP person, what are the chances that my letter would be understood? assume all literate people in UP can read and write hindi, and i write the letter in hindi. assume further that i frame the initial letter and have it reviewed by a hindi pundit to correct errors (this is to avoid smart alec comments).

we need to work in parallel and not sequentially. the indian middle class, in particular, needs a link language.

Haha now it is the middle class that needs a link language. How about English, then? Most middle class southern Indians know some English.

Is this why the prachar sabha is pracharing Hinglish in southern India?

Rashmun wrote:
we need to work in parallel and not sequentially. the indian middle class, in particular, needs a link language.

you first need to bring 26% of UP men and 41% of UP women (incidentally i didn't realize that number is so large. it took me by surprise when i looked it up. it really is astounding) into the middle class and make them literate before we even have any need for a link language. it's like saying one part of the country has suffered a tsunami and the other part a bit of wind damage and saying we need to work parallely on both problems.

even if one were to accept your motivations as genuine, you've been on sulekha and SUCh collectively for well over eight years and in the time that i have known you as a poster, i have never seen you propose anything intelligent about solving the illiteracy problem in your own native state. instead you waste your time rambling endlessly about hindi for southerners. what gives?

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rashmun wrote:
we need to work in parallel and not sequentially. the indian middle class, in particular, needs a link language.

you first need to bring 26% of UP men and 41% of UP women (incidentally i didn't realize that number is so large. it took me by surprise when i looked it up. it really is astounding) into the middle class and make them literate before we even have any need for a link language. it's like saying one part of the country has suffered a tsunami and the other part a bit of wind damage and saying we need to work parallely on both problems.

even if one were to accept your motivations as genuine, you've been on sulekha and SUCh collectively for well over eight years and in the time that i have known you as a poster, i have never seen you propose anything intelligent about solving the illiteracy problem in your own native state. instead you waste your time rambling endlessly about hindi for southerners. what gives?

because of poverty many young kids prefer to give up school to start working in menial jobs to feed themselves and their family. I don't have a quick fix solution to this but i take comfort in the fact that things are better than they used to be.

panini press wrote:

goodcitizn wrote:

Huzefa Kapasi wrote:

goodcitizn wrote: I am not interested in buying any bridge from Brooklyn.

there is a mad scramble for the bridge. you are lucky you have been shortlisted as the prime candidate for it. are you sure you want to pass this once-in-a-lifetime offer?

Gee, I didn't realize I was so lucky! [As an aside, I feel like saying "gesundheit" each time I read your handle!]

Frankly, this forum is to exchange viewpoints however dull, comical, confrontational or educational they whittle down to. Rashmun, or rather, Rushman, hastily comes to the conclusion that one swallow does a summer make. All it takes is two autowalahs (let us not quibble about their muslim heritage) speaking to each other in some variant of Hindi, pardon me -- Dhakini, in the heartland of Tamil Nadu -- (poof goes the smoke and out comes the genie) -- "Hey, this is proof that Dhakni is a part of Tamil vernacular ... okay, skip that thought for now ... hey, guess what, Tamilians from Coimbatore to Kotturpuram welcome Dhakini with open arms and communicate to each other in Dhakini, thanks to Gandhiji and Dakshin Prachar Sabha for such "linkage" of south india ... hey, hold that thought some more ... hmm, the linkage in the first place wasn't necessary since Dhakni was already a part of Tamil so all the effort, however noble and applaudable it be, was redundant and perhaps a little over the top.

That should summarize why the bridge in Brooklyn remains unsold.

Oh, that's nothing. Sometimes, it appears that Hindi itself was born in the south, delivered by Duckini in a government maternity hospital somewhere near Hyderabad or Bengaluru. At other times it appears that Hindi was born in northindia and traveled ticketless on a train to the south, where it hooked up with Duckini and became polished. After this polishing, Hindi then returned to the north, this time in AC First Class to keep the polish after the long and grueling journey. Then there's the complication of that interloper, Urdu, in this saga. Sometimes it appears that Hindi and Urdu hooked up in the north, produced Hindustani, which then went south ticketless on a train. At other times, it appears that Hindi and Urdu had separate ticketless journeys south, and they met and started dating in the south. In that version of the story, they produce Duckini as their first born and Hindustani as their second. Then they get fully polished and make their way northward again for a pleasant retirement. It is unclear in this version whether they give birth to Hindustani in the south and bring it back with them on AC First Class, or give birth to Hindustani after their return from the south having been thoroughly polished there. A third version has Hindi-Urdu, a hyphenated person with some personality issues, make a perilous journey south in the general compartment, and come back years later as an educated person with a new name called Hindustani, thanks to the civlizing influence of the south. The particular version of the story we peddle depends on the article that we happen to be presently highlighting and copy-pasting.

All this pain just to show that Hindi is a southern Indian language after all!

I couldn't hold back my laughter reading each sentence and it has taken me a good five minutes to finally settle down to respond! If I were to choose one scenario out of all of the above, I'd opt for the version where the first born Duckni was delivered in an autorikshaw near Saidapet after which the Hindi & Urdu soulmates headed north rigorously polishing each other sitting in the AC First Class 2-berth Coupe before promptly delivering Hindustani on a platform at the Hyderabad junction.

panini press wrote:Haha now it is the middle class that needs a link language. How about English, then? Most middle class southern Indians know some English.

Is this why the prachar sabha is pracharing Hinglish in southern India?

depends on your definition of middle class doesn't it. according to one estimate 5 percent of indians speak english (Well enough to communicate) and according to another estimate around 20% of Indians can be classified as belonging to middle class. The point is that for historical reasons hindi and its south indian variant dakhini have been the first or second languages of most people across urban India.

GC you may laugh as much as you want but actually the laugh is on you because tamil students are telling anti-hindi fanatics to get out of their way since they wish to learn Hindi. Time to open your eyes.

i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

TN's literacy rate is sucky too. it's only better by comparison. 13% men and 26% women in TN are illiterate. no time or resources to waste on excesses like hindi education. achieving 100% literacy is a far more important priority.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

illiteracy is a problem and having a link language is a separate topic. The brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram recognizes this which is why he has promoted hindi in the past.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:TN's literacy rate is sucky too. it's only better by comparison. 13% men and 26% women in TN are illiterate. no time or resources to waste on excesses like hindi education. achieving 100% literacy is a far more important priority.

do you think you know more about this issue than the brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram?

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

illiteracy is a problem and having a link language is a separate topic. The brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram recognizes this which is why he has promoted hindi in the past.

ultimately it all boils down to economic resources. we cannot afford luxuries like hindi education.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

illiteracy is a problem and having a link language is a separate topic. The brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram recognizes this which is why he has promoted hindi in the past.

ultimately it all boils down to economic resources. we cannot afford luxuries like hindi education.

Many tamil students (and parents) in TN disagree with you. I have given links to several articles to this effect.

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:TN's literacy rate is sucky too. it's only better by comparison. 13% men and 26% women in TN are illiterate. no time or resources to waste on excesses like hindi education. achieving 100% literacy is a far more important priority.

do you think you know more about this issue than the brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram?

Lots of people have told you that this line or argument -- appeal to authority -- does not work in most cases. But you seem unable to learn from your experiences.

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

illiteracy is a problem and having a link language is a separate topic. The brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram recognizes this which is why he has promoted hindi in the past.

ultimately it all boils down to economic resources. we cannot afford luxuries like hindi education.

Many tamil students (and parents) in TN disagree with you. I have given links to several articles to this effect.

Please get dotty again with those articles.

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

illiteracy is a problem and having a link language is a separate topic. The brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram recognizes this which is why he has promoted hindi in the past.

ultimately it all boils down to economic resources. we cannot afford luxuries like hindi education.

Many tamil students (and parents) in TN disagree with you. I have given links to several articles to this effect.

Please get dotty again with those articles.

The Mudboy strikes again.

In the time Rashman took to look up and post articles on this now 7-page thread, he could have finished at least one module of a European language on Rosetta stone.

Hyderabad : He goes through two Hindi newspapers every day and even has teachers to help him pick up the language. Now that N. Chandrababu Naidu is looking for a larger role in national politics, the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister is dead serious about learning Hindi.

Hailing from southern India, that too from the Rayalaseema region where Telugu is the dominant language and even Urdu is not spoken unlike in state capital Hyderabad, it is not an easy task for him.

But as convenor of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) comprising six regional parties from across the country, Naidu knows he has to reach out to people in the Hindi heartland in the north.

And the 58-year-old Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief is trying hard.

He is learning Hindi from a journalist as well as a teacher and is also taking help from his wife N. Bhuvaneshwari, an entrepreneur who has good command over the language.

Naidu, who had learnt the Hindi alphabet in school, goes through both the Hindi dailies published from Hyderabad every day. "He makes it a point to go through the headlines, if not the entire text," said a source.

"He is a very avid learner. The only problem is time. After spending a few hours on learning Hindi, he gets busy with party affairs. He tries to revive it when he has to address public meetings outside the state," said a close aide.

Before going for meetings, he rehearses his speeches and his teachers and wife help improve his pronunciation.

Sources close to Naidu say though he began learning the national language in 1996, a year after he became chief minister, he focused on it only in 2004 after losing power to the Congress party in the state.

"When he was in power he could spare little time to learn Hindi and even now he is so busy with meetings that he does not have time to regularly learn the language," a source told IANS.

After forming the UNPA with the Samajwadi Party and other parties last year, Naidu realised the importance of Hindi for communicating not just with other UNPA leaders but also with the people at large.

As the UNPA is addressing a series of meetings on farmers' issues in different parts of the country, Naidu is delivering his speeches in Hindi.

When such public rallies were held in the Uttar Pradesh towns of Etawah in February and Azamgarh last month, he delivered the speeches in fluent Hindi much to the surprise of his UNPA allies and the public.

"Since he is yet to get a hold over the language, he is reading out the prepared text written in the Telugu script," said a close aide.

"He knows that English is not going to help him in sending his message as the majority of the people can't understand the language. He felt this is also essential to communicate with UNPA leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav," said a TDP leader.

TDP sources said Naidu had been keen to learn Hindi after he became convenor of the United Front in 1996. "However, he was preoccupied with day-to-day governance and could not spare the time," said a leader.

He also felt the need when he emerged more powerful at the centre in 1999 and left the United Front to back the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

The IT savvy leader, who was chief minister of the state from 1995 to 2004, could finally spare some time for learning Hindi after he lost power in the last elections.

Learning Hindi is difficult for politicians in the south, especially if they have no exposure to national politics. Former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who is from Karnataka, in fact stunned everyone by delivering his Independence Day speech in chaste Hindi.

In Andhra Pradesh, many leaders who come from Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana can speak Hindi or Urdu but those from the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions are not known to be familiar with the language.

http://twocircles.net/node/60585

Hellsangel wrote:In the time Rashman took to look up and post articles on this now 7-page thread, he could have finished at least one module of a European language on Rosetta stone.

And in the time he has spent on this topic in just the last year and half since this site was started, he could have learned to speak, read and write Tamil fluently.

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

illiteracy is a problem and having a link language is a separate topic. The brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram recognizes this which is why he has promoted hindi in the past.

ultimately it all boils down to economic resources. we cannot afford luxuries like hindi education.

Many tamil students (and parents) in TN disagree with you. I have given links to several articles to this effect.

tamil students and parents are choosing of their own accord to learn hindi. we however do not have the luxury of spending taxpayer money on government subsidized teaching of hindi when UP has such a terrible literacy rate and TN a not so great literacy rate. if you put the choice to illiterate UPites that the choice is between spending to make them literate and spending to teach already literate tamilians hindi, they'd tell you clearly what they want. rashmun, why do you want to deprive the teeming illiterate masses in your state a chance for a better life? very cruel.

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:TN's literacy rate is sucky too. it's only better by comparison. 13% men and 26% women in TN are illiterate. no time or resources to waste on excesses like hindi education. achieving 100% literacy is a far more important priority.

do you think you know more about this issue than the brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram?

Lots of people have told you that this line or argument -- appeal to authority -- does not work in most cases. But you seem unable to learn from your experiences.

Chandrababu Naidu has also started learning Hindi and giving speeches in Hindi. Good for him!

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

illiteracy is a problem and having a link language is a separate topic. The brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram recognizes this which is why he has promoted hindi in the past.

ultimately it all boils down to economic resources. we cannot afford luxuries like hindi education.

And this is why it is completely asinine to spend taxpayer funds on DBHPS -- a criminal organization aligned with anti-social elements -- to be wasted on pracharing Hinglish.

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:TN's literacy rate is sucky too. it's only better by comparison. 13% men and 26% women in TN are illiterate. no time or resources to waste on excesses like hindi education. achieving 100% literacy is a far more important priority.

do you think you know more about this issue than the brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram?

Lots of people have told you that this line or argument -- appeal to authority -- does not work in most cases. But you seem unable to learn from your experiences.

Chandrababu Naidu has also started learning Hindi and giving speeches in Hindi. Good for him!

Good for him. Not so good for you.

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:TN's literacy rate is sucky too. it's only better by comparison. 13% men and 26% women in TN are illiterate. no time or resources to waste on excesses like hindi education. achieving 100% literacy is a far more important priority.

do you think you know more about this issue than the brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram?

Lots of people have told you that this line or argument -- appeal to authority -- does not work in most cases. But you seem unable to learn from your experiences.

Chandrababu Naidu has also started learning Hindi and giving speeches in Hindi. Good for him!

Good for him. Not so good for you.

Hahaha.

Rashmun does not care about the illiterate people in his own state. He prefers that they remain illiterate, even as government funds are wasted and stolen when they are sent to the DBHPS! Those monies could be used to make some Hindians literate instead.

and it appears the DBHPS is not even doing what you want it to do, teaching hindi to southerners. instead they seem to be wasting time teaching hinglish and assorted comedy to southerners. what a waste!

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i am touched by rashmun's generosity that he considers folks in my home state becoming literate in hindi more important than alleviating the shocking illiteracy in his home state - 26% men and 41% women in UP are unlettered.

illiteracy is a problem and having a link language is a separate topic. The brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram recognizes this which is why he has promoted hindi in the past.

ultimately it all boils down to economic resources. we cannot afford luxuries like hindi education.

Many tamil students (and parents) in TN disagree with you. I have given links to several articles to this effect.

tamil students and parents are choosing of their own accord to learn hindi. we however do not have the luxury of spending taxpayer money on government subsidized teaching of hindi when UP has such a terrible literacy rate and TN a not so great literacy rate. if you put the choice to illiterate UPites that the choice is between spending to make them literate and spending to teach already literate tamilians hindi, they'd tell you clearly what they want. rashmun, why do you want to deprive the teeming illiterate masses in your state a chance for a better life? very cruel.

this is a good point that deserves to be thought through. i need to reflect on this a bit.

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

panini press wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:TN's literacy rate is sucky too. it's only better by comparison. 13% men and 26% women in TN are illiterate. no time or resources to waste on excesses like hindi education. achieving 100% literacy is a far more important priority.

do you think you know more about this issue than the brilliant tamilian P.Chidambaram?

Lots of people have told you that this line or argument -- appeal to authority -- does not work in most cases. But you seem unable to learn from your experiences.

Chandrababu Naidu has also started learning Hindi and giving speeches in Hindi. Good for him!

Good for him. Not so good for you.

Why do you spend so much of your time on him? Why not let him ramble on?

panini press wrote:Rashmun does not care about the illiterate people in his own state. He prefers that they remain illiterate, even as government funds are wasted and stolen when they are sent to the DBHPS! Those monies could be used to make some Hindians literate instead.

your hatred for north indians shines through in this post.