Sanskrit - the venerated language of the Pundits...and Punditas

Mrs Amla Thukral used to move about with an irritated expression on her face whilst our class continued talking. Those were the days when we used to study Sanskrit –our second language. And then suddenly, as all teachers do, she used to pick one kid who would be disturbing the class the most and start scolding the chap. The class used to fall quite all over again and Mrs Thukral would commence with her usual lecture on the importance of the Sanskrit language. And no she never spoke out superfluous praise of the language. It was the language of the educated, that of the highly respected pundits and that of the civilized Aryans –the purest race. Some of us used to get bored to the utmost during her periods. No, she isn’t a bad teacher. We all respected her a great deal, despite her constant reprimands. However we weren’t intelligent enough to understand and hence enjoy the language. After struggling through the chapters of the book consisting of various shlokas from the Ramayana, the Geeta and other great books by great people, I used to reach the examination halls, leaving large parts of the course. However the designer of the exam was quite accommodating to our problems and we were given a large number of choices in most questions. And so I never scored below 90 and above 94 in any of her school examinations. Yes once I did. I scored 75 because that day unfortunately I finished the whole course by sitting till about 3 in the morning. That was one of the saddest days of my life. Mrs. Amla Thukral gave me a disappointed look –she evidently thought that I was a Brahmin descendent…. she perhaps never realized that my surname was Punjabi.

So that day Mridu Chadha felt good for nothing. I decided never to finish the whole course again, except of course, for the boards. And also decided to always get decent marks in this ‘language of the elite’.

Mrs. Thukral told my mother that she expected me to get above 95. I was aghast at that suggestion. How could she?? How could ma’am expect so much from me?? And oh, now what should I do?? I worked hard …still not expecting anything from myself. …afraid to face Amla ma’am again…. and finished the course. I got 95 (thank god!) in the boards! Now I consider myself amongst the learned and perhaps Amla ma’am knew more. Perhaps I too descended from the ‘Brahmins’. There must definitely be some Brahmin amongst my ancestors.

And so I have, since then, smiled with a sigh of satisfaction with those very pleasurable thoughts.

Now its been two years since her tenth board results and I have passed my 12th. I recently attended my cousin's wedding where a ‘Brahmin’ Pundit carried out all the basic rituals. The rumors abuzz were that the Pundit was quite handsome (its called the theory of relativity).

I went to see the sought after man. …And he turned out to be just. …Just so average….oh well, he was just a pundit and what more did I expect from him. This one was certainly different. He did not have a crow-like voice. He spoke in ‘shuddh hindi’ and explained the meaning of the Sanskrit Mantras which he was speaking out. While he spoke, he was quite aware of the undue attention he was getting from some female members of the wedding family and one could almost see a smile flicker across his ‘handsome’ face. Yet he was a Pundit after all and people got tired of his monotonous sing-song. People cracked jokes, both at the wedding couple and their Pundit. However no one spoke out praising words like- ‘yeh punditji to ek-dum Kouwwe ki tarah gaate hain. Oye kouwwe ,oye kouwwe!!(This pundit speaks out just like a crow. Hey crow hey crow). These were the comments of Mridu’s little sister who was about 3-4 years old then. No this pundit was given a higher status. He had even done a Sanskrit Honors from DU (so the rumor went). And so he was respected.

Recently I received my 12th class board results. They were certainly very bad. I always wanted to get admission into St Stephens College. However my marks did not permit me to even think of it . I looked at the cut-offs…. They lied in the 90’s for every subject ….yes every subject. “Except one”, said my mother. “You can get it in Sanskrit Honors. The last year cut-off was 45%. How about it?? “

Oh yes ….How about it?? I would be studying Sanskrit- Ma'am Thukrals subject.

How about it?? I would master that highly respected language ….I would become a ‘pundita’. And ‘RESPECT’, 'REVERENCE'….would 'I' get that??