Lockdown? No! Lock-in!

When I started teaching Sanskrit to the students of the Certificate and Diploma courses at Mumbai University, I found many elderly people in my class. Some were homemakers, some retired professionals, some practicing doctors, teachers and people working from various fields. I used to wonder what inspires them to take up studies and examinations at an advanced age. I always appreciated their enthusiasm and commitment to learning new things. I didn’t know then that one day, I too would take up an online certificate course one day and will look forward to learning new things every day, do the assignments and homework diligently and be excited to submit the end assessment as well!

It so happened, I learnt about an online Certificate Course in the Sharda script organised by Vyoma Labs, Bengaluru. Back at Mumbai University, I had conducted two successful workshops in Sharda script by inviting resource persons from Delhi but hadn’t done enough practice of the script. This, I thought would be a good opportunity during the lockdown period to keep me fully engaged and excited.

The classes were from 3rd April to 18th April from 10.30 to 11.30 am. I adjusted my regular Zoom classes accordingly and made myself free to attend every class. At the end of the class, all the participants were given some exercise. We were supposed to write the words in Sharda, take a picture and upload that in the Google drive provided by the organisers. An ancient script, in which thousands of manuscripts were written in Sanskrit, was making me tech-savvy, making me go online and learn many new techniques. 

Learning was fun, but more fun were the assignments. Like a sincere student, I did everything the teacher expected. He told us to beautify the assignments, write with coloured pencils/pens. I did it. I copied pictures of Saraswati, Ganesha, Shiva from the internet, typed verses in their praises, took prints and then wrote those verses in the Sharda script. 

It was thrilling to listen to the teacher talk passionately about the ancient script and the treasures hidden in it. A Sanskritist who knows Sharda, the teacher said, can contribute to the world, by deciphering the unpublished manuscripts. I felt special (like many Sanskrit students) that Sharda, the script and the Goddess of learning, is looking at me with hope in her eyes. When I visited Kashmir and saw the dilapidated Martand Sun temple, I felt very sad. I noticed a similar sadness in the voice of the teacher when he said that our apathy to Indian heritage is one of the main causes of the destruction of both, visible architecture, and the script which is dying unnoticed.

I have vowed to contribute in my little way. A great lesson during lockdown to lock in something!