Talk by Mr. Prasoon Joshi

The seventh speaker to visit DAIS was Mr Prasoon Joshi, a National Award winning Indian songwriter, screenwriter and advertising copywriter. Mr Joshi showed a remarkable feel for the Indian pulse, which has been noted in many of his works. Famous for some of his works in Hindi, Mr Joshi addressed the DAIS students on the special occasion of Hindi Divas. The programme began with a Hindi Divas performance, put up by students studying Hindi from the primary all the way up to the IB. The play re-enforced the importance of knowing and taking pride in India’s national language through the different scenes. After the play, Mr Joshi addressed the students.

He began by questioning the idea of celebrating Hindi Divas, of keeping aside a particular day in the year to acknowledge its richness and elegance —if the language is spoken by everyone, every day, across the length and breadth of the country, then why do we have to set aside a special day to celebrate its significance? He stressed on the idea that no language is at war with another language; the same applies for Hindi. Mr Joshi pointed our attention to the fallacy that learning Hindi or for that matter any other language implied the losing of any opportunity to learn another language. In India, several different regional languages co-exist with one another, and Hindi is no different.

Mr Joshi mentioned the way in which languages other than English are viewed as inferior, a sign of a lack of sophistication. This view, falsely propagated by the younger generation, can be observed everywhere. In fancy restaurants, customers are afraid to order in Hindi, worried that the waiters will consider them to be unsophisticated. Mr Joshi stated that the only way to eliminate this false assumption is for the youth to embrace Hindi as a language that they enjoy using and are comfortable conversing in. English is not a determinant of how knowledgeable you are – it is simply another global language..

Mr Joshi was kind enough to answer several questions from the students. He provided his perspective on how Bollywood songs do not always portray Hindi in the correct manner. He said that these songs should not be tolerated, and that we, as students, should have the courage to stand up and actively oppose these songs. He reaffirmed that to maintain proficiency in Hindi, it is important to keep speaking, reading and writing the language. New words should be allowed to assimilate in the Hindi language, but not at the cost of the existing words that already have the same meaning or carry out the same function. Mr Joshi concluded by saying that he remains confident in the Hindi language, and he is sure that it will have a bright future if the current generation can continue using the language in their everyday lives. I am sure that school students studying Hindi now view their national language with a little bit more pride and feel more comfortable using it outside their homes as well.