Revival of affairs

There were two really good Telugu teachers when I was in school. Madhavachary sir was very tall, wore long namam on his forehead and taught Telugu for tenth grade. Raghavachary sir was the shorter one, also wore long namam and taught eighth grade Telugu. They were both really good friends and both also spoke very good Sanskrit. They often stopped by each others' class to chit chat. During their class visits, they would always talk in Sanskrit, most likely so we did not eavesdrop. It was their conversations that first introduced me to Sanskrit as spoken language.

We actually had mandatory Sanskrit classes in high school (8th to 10th grades). However, it mostly involved memorizing a bunch of tables containing noun and verb forms. I chose Sanskrit as my second language in Intermediate (11th and 12th grades) as well, mainly so I can get a boost to my overall grades. With something like 96% and 94% in two years, Sanskrit certainly did not fail me. But I failed Sanskrit. Five years of taking the language classes and I still could not utter a full Sanskrit sentence. At that point, I basically had a breakup with Sanskrit and had brief affairs with various other languages, Fortran, C, C++ to name a few. They were all more like one-night (or one-semester) stands as opposed to the long term relationship I had with Sanskrit. But I somehow retained more of Fortran from a single semester than any Sanskrit from all those years.

Well, twenty years after I ditched Sanskrit, we came head to head once again, earlier this year. I have been attending weekly Sanskrit classes since April and I can tell, Sanskrit and I share a much more mature relationship now. I don't just memorize words, I actually understand them. I don't just slog for grades, I willingly look up poems and anecdotes written in Sanskrit. There are some really passionate teachers and volunteers that I get to learn from and their love for the language rubs off on me. I don't want to jump to conclusions but I have a good feeling about my affair#2 with Sanskrit. My two teachers from high school would be very proud.

This morning, I participated in a 5K run with Sanskrita Bharati  team to support Sanskrit language. It was my first organized run and second run overall since Helvetia half in June. I am terribly out of running shape and had to slow down many times to catch my breath. As I headed to the finish line huffing and puffing, I realized the dire straits. Since it was Sanskrit that got me thinking about running again, here's hoping running will follow the lead of Sanskrit post break-up. Not all affairs are alike. I can only hope that I don't wait twenty years to realize running and I are made for each other, like I did with Sanskrit!

At half way point of Cause+Event 5K, stopped to take a picture with 'the cause'