THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The 25th International Mother Language Day was gracefully marked at the British Parliament’s House of Lords in London on 4th March. Hosted by Baroness Sue Garden and organised by Sanskruti Centre for Cultural Excellence, the vibrant celebration had twenty-five languages of India and South Asia highlighted, presented through poetry and cultural expressions. Doctors, solicitors, poets, councillors, researchers, university educators, singers, dancers and other professionals have all gathered to present their self-authored pieces in their native languages. A booklet with all these poems titled “Rhyme and Resonance” (Kaavya Naadam) was released on the occasion. Andrew Sutton- Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Bhutan and Prof. Peter K Austin, Emeritus Professor in Field Linguistics at SOAS, University of London have spoken at this silver jubilee. Dzongkha, Dhivehi, Nepali and Sinhalese were the South Asian languages presented. A beautiful Konkani composition by celebrated writer Manoharrai Sardessai “Sobit Amchem Goem” was presented as a song by Dr Bernadette Pereira, Savira Araujo and Paulo Dias, wearing Kunbi dress. Young children presented classical dance on a Sanskrit composition and Lalitha Kotla presented a folk dance on a poem by Padma Bhushan Maithili Sharan Gupt, who was famed to use poetry to put forward his opinions as Rajya Sabha MP. The program concluded with Vote of Thanks rendered by Dr Ragasudha Vinjamuri, Founder of Sanskruti Centre.
Sanskruti Centre for Cultural Excellence is a charity founded with the objective of generating a greater understanding of heritage and cultural diversity of India & South Asia. Apart from training and presenting classical and folk dances, the Centre has also been consistently fostering community engagement promoting languages and has been encouraging people to learn and write in respective mother tongues.
