Going back to the roots

Speaking about the significance of understanding each other’s language, Bapat asserted that, “Love, tears, laughter, hunger, thirst speak their own language, without any words.” Praising the translation works done in Kannada to Marathi and vice versa, he said, “This is a step towards realising Sane Guruji’s dream of India becoming one.” “The Kannada Sangha aims to break the language barrier,” reiterated Malati Kalmadi, one of the trustees.

In a humorous way, Bapat expressed that all languages are flexible but they cannot lose their essence. He had the crowd in splits when he elucidated this by giving an example of a common sentence, “Mee main road hun station la gelo, tickets reserve keli. Here some words in English are used, but no one will say, `Mee wentlo’!”

The main aim of the Kannada Sangha was to establish an educational institution and organise cultural activities. “It’s now 30 years that the Karnataka school has evolved into a well-known institution. So we decided to go back to our roots, organising creative and cultural events,” said Malti Kalmadi who with Indira Salian is in-charge of the cultural activities.