A love for the language, coupled with a passion for teaching, brought Sonal Dave, born and brought up in Washington, to Ahmedabad.
A love for the language, coupled with a passion for teaching, brought Sonal Dave, born and brought up in Washington, to Ahmedabad to conduct a ten-day workshop on the classical Indian language.
Sonal was in India to learn Sanskrit seven years ago when a relative of hers told her about a Sanskrit workshop. “My parents are lawyers and have nothing to do with Sanskrit, but I had learned something about the language in school and had developed a liking for it. That's when my aunt told me about the workshop,” said Sonal.
After the month-long Sanskrit seminar, Sonal kept in touch with her tutor who began to teach her via the internet. Now she is back in India, well-versed in the language, and ready to teach others too. At the moment, she is conducting a workshop called ‘Learn Sanskrit in Ten Days’ for students of LD Arts College.
Sonal is armed with a degree given by the Sanskrit Bharati Correspondence and she now converses and writes fluently in the language. She intends to return to the US and pursue bio-chemistry as her major subject and Sanskrit as a minor one.
“I will probably study science and research but I do not want to lose touch with Sanskrit. Hence, I will continue to keep studying the language once I go back,” said Sonal. She said that she intends to work towards the promotion and conservation of Sanskrit back in Washington.
Sonal's Sanskrit professor, GS Panda, said that there are many students who just learn Sankrit but “Sonal loves Sanskrit. After attending her first workshop, she continued to upgrade her knowledge in Washington and she would speak with me every day on the internet and started brushing up her language.”
He said, in view of her keen interest and knowledge in Sanskrit, she was selected to conduct the 10-day workshop. At least 28 of them are attending the workshop and are doing it to learn more about one of the oldest languages in the world.
Siddharth Adesara, a first year BA student, said that he had joined the workshop to learn Sanskrit and not remain ignorant of one of the world's important languages. “This will enable me to converse in the language,” said Adesara.
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