Visitors sing shlokas, carols for X’mas

NEW DELHI, December 29: They can read and speak near-perfect Sanskrit. They also know the intricacies of vedic maths. But these children ...

NEW DELHI, December 29: They can read and speak near-perfect Sanskrit. They also know the intricacies of vedic maths. But these children are not students of a Shakha school. They come from the 23-year-old St. James School in London, where 80 per cent of the 600 children are Britons.

So when a group of 18 students from this school came on a cricket tour to India just before December 25, they managed to sing a few Sanskrit shlokas along with the Christmas carols. And they didn’t keep talking about Sanskrit or vedic maths being their school’s USP. For them, the verses of Gita, Mahabharata and Ramayana are just like any other subject.

Paul Moss, the headmaster of St James who has come with the children, says: “Sanskrit is the finest language known to man. The subtleties in this language are what makes it a spiritual experience as opposed to a material one which any other language offers.”

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The students of St. James are taught Sanskrit from the age of five “when they are alien to everything”. Though they are comfortable reading selective Sanskrit passages by the time they touch 10 years, some of their teachers have faced problems getting used to the language. Derek Illingworth, the teacher who collected funds for this tour, goes for Sanskrit classes every Saturday. He says that though he hated it in the beginning the language has given new meaning to his life.

As to why British children should join a school which teaches Sanskrit rather than some other fancy language, Moss says that not only has St. James been successful with this programme but many students have gone on to pursue languages at Oxford and Cambridge.

The cricket team, though a trifle disappointed after losing the matches, was however excited about being in the country. “It was shocking to see the poverty but India is a beautiful country,” says Richard Fletcher (18), the team captain.

The students’ itinerary includes visits to Kasauli, Rishikesh and other spots on the upper reaches of the Ganga. They have even managed to pack in a show of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai into their hectic schedule and picked out a song to sing at their farewell dinner. “It’s not difficult as Hindi is similar to Sanskrit. We can even read the signboards at times,” says another student.

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The organisers of this cricket tour are, however, not sure whether they will make it back to India next year. According to UK-based Sunil Amar, who was the driving force behind this trip and has three children studying at St. James, the paucity of funds might make it impossible for them to organise the tour next year. The cricket team of St James School first visited the country four years ago.