This year, the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture (RMIC) in Golpark, Calcutta, has introduced a six-month communicative Hindi course. “It is called Batchit, meaning conversation in Hindi,” says Dinesh Yadav, one of the two Hindi teachers at the centre. So far 25 students have taken the course.
Those signing up for the course come from different parts of Calcutta; a number of them are also from the suburbs — North 24-Parganas, Howrah, South 24-Parganas and Hooghly.
“There is a medical student who wants to be prepared in case she takes up a position outside Bengal,” says Yadav. There are bachelor’s students who want to learn the language to converse with Hindi-speaking friends and teachers, small-time businessmen who need to communicate with clients based in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai.
Hindi is a compulsory language for those who want to apply for government services and it is a must-know for lawyers, engineers, bank employees, doctors, clerks of government offices, CBI officers and air hostesses. “One of my students is preparing for the civil services, another wants to join the defence forces. A mother wants to teach her child Hindi and so is learning the basics. There is someone who wants to apply for a teacher’s position at one of the Kendriya Vidyalayas. An English teacher who also works with an NGO has signed up because she needs to reach out to people at the grassroots level in Jharkhand and Odisha,” says Yadav.
Only a handful want to learn Hindi for the heck of it. Smrity Banerjee, for example, wants to be able to read Hindi classics.
Even before Batchit, Hindi was taught at RMIC since 1942, says Sabujkoli Sen, principal of the School of Languages, RMIC. “Those days, the British used to learn Hindi. It is important to know a local language if you are in the administration,” she says. RMIC has six more courses in Hindi other than Batchit — Prarambhik or the beginners’ level is comparable to Hindi taught in classes V to VII, Prabesh is equivalent to Class VIII, Parichay is equivalent to Class X, Kovid to Class XII, Ratna equals graduation and Acharya is master’s in Hindi. “Most of the students want to learn Hindi because they cannot converse in Hindi but once they join, they study all the levels,” says Yadav.
“Our courses are certified by the Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samity in Wardha (Maharashtra), an organisation founded by Mahatma Gandhi,” he adds.
Sukhen Pal, a theatre and film actor, is learning Hindi at the institute. He tells The Telegraph, “I want to act in Hindi movies, I want to go to Bollywood. Film producers and directors have asked me to improve my Hindi. I often go wrong with the genders and numbers.” He adds, “Also, I speak the language with a pronounced Bengali accent, which is unacceptable if you are going to work in the Hindi film industry.”
Piyali Das comes from Birati to learn Hindi. “I am a journalist. Once I was interviewing a person who was comfortable speaking in Hindi, but I was ill-equipped. That day I had put forward my questions to my interviewee in Bengali and he replied in Hindi. It was quite embarrassing,” she says.
Luna Chatterjee was brought up in Tollygunge. She says, “I did not know an iota of Hindi when I got married and shifted to Hazaribagh in Jharkhand where everyone around me spoke Hindi.” With her faltering Hindi, she could not handle clients when she joined a tourism business in Purulia. She adds, “At the camp in Purulia, many people come from Jamshedpur and Ranchi for trekking. I have to communicate with them and relay the rules and regulations of the adventure sport. Spoken Hindi is absolutely necessary and I have to be accurate in whatever I say.”
The Batchit programme happens in the evening when college is over and offices close down. While the six levels of Hindi courses take seven years to complete, this one is short and advantageous for those who want to pursue Hindi further. “They can join at the Prabesh level directly instead of Prarambhik and save time,” says Yadav.
Last updated on 04 Jun 2024
