Srikant Sastri’s Post

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Chairman, Geospatial Data Promotion & Devt Committee (GDPDC) | Mentor on a Mission | Entrepreneur, Advisor, Board Member, Author, Educator | Distinguished Alumnus Award (IIM C), Distinguished Service Award (IIT Kanpur)

ARE MANY INDIAN LANGUAGES DYING? One estimate says ‘5 languages are extinct’. Another newsitem said ‘India has lost 220 languages in 50 years’. When languages die, we lose part of our culture & history. UNESCO’s global list has 197 ‘endangered’ Indian languages. Tulu, spoken in coastal Karnataka & Kerala’s Kasargod district is one of them- considered ‘vulnerable’. It was therefore exciting when one of the student groups I mentor at Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University picked this problem to solve. As part of their yearlong ‘Experiential Learning Module’ (ELM) that I supervise Eisha Sathish Shetty Deekshika Ganesh Madhuja Joshi Zahanat & Mohammed Rayaan first did extensive research on this topic. Then built #Langlore (langlore.in). Blogs, journalistic content & language modules To help us learn, and preserve these vulnerable languages. Pls wish them good luck. And congratulate them- they won the ‘Best ELM Project’ award last week. In my group pic with them, you’ll see all of us saying ‘Aand’ (= Done!) in Tulu The other words they taught me were ‘Solmelu’ (thank you) & ‘Barpe’ ( see you again). For a language buff like me, interacting with this team was fantastic! Some trivia: Famous Tulu-speaking personalities include Emperor Krishnadevaraya from history to today’s stars- Devi Shetty Suniel Shetty Ravi Shastri Aishwarya Rai KL Rahul UNESCO Ministry of Culture Ashoka University Pramath Raj Sinha Aniha Brar Karan Bhola Naina Lahoti Saman Waheed Thank you for your help Vaibhav Sharma ! And Vikram Alva #Tulu #language #unesco #langlore #karnataka #kasargod #vulnerable #dyinglanguages #content #learning #education #langlore

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Deepak Kumar

hASK | Google for business events news, product launch. [Looking to raise $200M] (Founder & CEO, hASK)

2w

Too many languages are a bloody BS...Good that they are dying... All the different languages is doing is stopping people from connecting in the name of state/linguistic jingoism.. Nothing good about holding onto useless nostalgias.. India needs less & less number of languages to be a unified country..

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Gaurav Kawatra

Renewable Energy Consultant | Helping Corporates Save Energy Costs & Achieve Net Zero | Open Access Solar, Wind & Rooftop Solutions | Served 44+ Clients across 15+ States | 110+ PPAs | Founder - Infinia Solar

2w

Congratulations on winning the 'Best ELM Project' award for Langlore! It's inspiring to see young minds taking the initiative to address the alarming decline of Indian languages and the potential loss of culture and history. Best of luck to all of you in your future endeavors!

Arup Dasgupta

Managing Editor at Geospatial World

2w

My Mother Tongue is Tulu, though I cannot speak it any more! But my cousins are fluent in it. It is a language without a script. I am surprised to see it in the vulnerable list.

Solmelu for your efforts and highlighting this Sir. Preserving our local languages would surely keep us culturally enriched and diverse.

Kalpesh Kapoor

Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

1w

Nice! This reminds me of Prof. Ganesh Devi’s extensive field work.

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Manish Kulkarni

Converting Ideas into Invoices. Co-Founder & Director at Pro MFG Media

2w

This is a fantabulous initiative, Srikant ji

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