Jonathan Lee and Gregory Neo recited poems in Hindi on Jan 8, as World Hindi Day and Pravasi Bharatiya Divas were celebrated at the National University of Singapore (NUS) campus.
Both Singaporeans learnt Hindi at NUS’ Centre for Language Studies, which has several language programmes, including Tamil.
At the three-hour event, organised by the High Commission of India, NUS, Singapore Sangam Hindi Association and publisher Vani Prakashan Group (VPG), three books containing stories and poems in Hindi were also released by guest of honour Pooja Tillu, India’s deputy high commissioner to Singapore.
All three had contributions from members of the Indian diaspora.
World Hindi Day, also known as Vishwa Hindi Divas, is celebrated every year on Jan 10 to promote the Hindi language and its usage worldwide.
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is held on Jan 9 every year to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community in the development of India.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 18th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, yesterday.
“This year, we combined the two celebrations,” said Dr Sandhya Singh, Hindi and Tamil language head at NUS. “For the first time, we got a publisher from India (VPG) to bring out the books of poems and stories written by members of the Indian community living in Singapore. Some 20 of those who contributed also spoke about their work. Non-Indians who are learning Hindi at NUS also got the chance to show how much they have learnt.”
For Jonathan, a computer science graduate from NUS, reading a Hindi poem “before a big crowd was an eye-opening experience”. He added: “Hindi is an interesting language to learn. I’m a fairly fluent speaker and aim to use the language when I visit India soon.”
Gregory, who is studying philosophy at NUS, started learning Hindi to impress his partner, who is Indian.
“It was initially difficult to learn the language, and my partner would help me out,” he said. “Now I can construct sentences and understand what is being spoken.”
NUS has five Hindi courses which give students a working knowledge of the language – which, along with Mandarin, is spoken by most people in the world.
V.K. Santosh Kumar
