A Preamble to One of Our Mother Tongues on World Hindi Day

At a gathering at the Indian Consulate in honor of the World Hindi Day on January 10, those who spoke in their mother tongues and then translated into Hindi, gathered with Vice Consul Anju Malik (fourth from left) and Acting Consul General Prashant Sona (fourth from right).
By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: Recognizing the importance of the Indian diaspora worldwide and the need to unite them with cultural ties, in 2006 then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (who recently died on December 26) inaugurated the first Vishwa Hindi Divas or World Hindi Day which has been celebrated since then yearly on January 10.
This past Friday, members of the International Hindi Association, Houston chapter came together, as they have done for the past three years at the Indian consulate, to honor the richness and fullness of Hindi and enjoy presenting a passage in their state languages, later translating into Hindi, to glorify the national language of India. The entire evening’s celebration was in Hindi.
“Hindi is among the most widely spoken languages in northern India and across the globe”, said Vice Consul Anju Malik. “After Mandarin and English, Hindi ranks as the third most spoken language worldwide and continues to spread”. Acting Vice Consul Prashant Sona appreciated the audience of about 40 people, and their efforts “to keep Hindi alive and our Indian traditions”.
Swapan Dhariyawan, a co-founder of IHA Houston, who helped organize the event, noted that Hindi was first spoken at the United Nations General Assembly in 1949. As in previous years, the Indian Prime Minister sent a message to cover the occasion. Dhariyawan had lined up eight people to speak about the diverse cultures in India, first in their own state language and then translated it into Hindi. But they had to all start with the preamble “We The People…”.
To start off, first came Partha Krishnaswamy in Tamil, then Hindi; then came Kirti Sohoni in Marathi; Jagdeep Ahluwalia in Punjabi; Keka Kar in Bengali; Ramesh Cherivirala in Telegu; Pallavi Dhariyawan in Kokani; Saeed Pathan in Urdu; Daxina Mehta in Gujarati and Swapan Dhariyawan in Sanskrit.
In closing, Sona gave a short introduction to the late former Prime Minister Atul Bihari Bajpayee who a great Hindi poet. Sanjay Sohini presented one of his poems; followed by another recited by Swapan.
At a gathering at the Indian Consulate in honor of the World Hindi Day on January 10, those
who spoke in their mother tongues and then translated into Hindi, gathered with Vice Consul
Anju Malik (fourth from left) and Acting Consul General Prashant Sona (fourth from right).