Class 10 student elated after Sanskrit poser to Modi

Asking a question in Sanskrit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Mann Ki Baat programme on the occasion of World Sanskrit Day, a class 10 girl from Bengaluru has drawn the country’s attention.

Chinmayee, a resident of Girinagar in South Bengaluru, was lucky to speak to the prime minister just when he was talking about Sanskrit. Trying constantly for several months on the Mann Ki Baat toll-free number, Chinmayee’s father Lakshminarayana was lucky to get through the line on Sunday and handed over the phone to his daughter.

An elated Chinmayee told DH that she was ‘excited’ and ‘nervous’ at the same time. “In the end, it turned out to be the best day of my life,” she exclaimed.

Chinmayee’s mother tongue is Sanskrit and she speaks to her parents and neighbours in that language. Her father, Lakshminarayana Bhuvanakote, is associated with Samskrita Bharati Aksharam in Girinagar, an organisation to promote the Sanskrit language. Chinmayee’s mother Srividya is also a Vidushi in Sanskrit. As a result, both Chinmayee and her brother Ganapathi have mastered the language.

“I adapt local languages wherever necessary. I know Kannada, Hindi and English languages. It is hard to find Sanskrit-speaking people in Bengaluru,” she said.

How did Sanskrit become their mother tongue?

Both Lakshminarayana and Srividya are Kannadigas. After their marriage, they wanted to learn a new tongue and assimilate it as a family language. “I had already begun working in Aksharam and I thought we can choose Sanskrit as the new language. Naturally, it became the mother tongue of our children as well,” he revealed. In fact, his Kannada turned better after conversing in Sanskrit.