Meet H G Srinivasa Prasad, a retired employee of the Reserve Bank of India who has been teaching Kannada to adult non-Kannadigas for the last 27 years.
‘KUDI, KODI’ CONFUSION
Prasad has taught at medical and nursing colleges. “I usually ask everyone why they joined the class to learn Kannada and the most interesting answer came from a nursing student from Kerala.
The doctor had asked her to collect the urine sample from a patient but she ended up asking the patient to drink it! That is because ‘kudi’ (which means ‘to drink’) sounds very similar to ‘kodi’ (which means ‘to give’). Therefore, she decided to learn the language rather than scare her patients,” he recollected.
SIMPLE MANTRA
So, what makes him popular? “Keep it simple and they will fall in love with the language,” is his mantra.
In the last 28 years, Srinivas has trained more than 5,000 people to talk and understand basic Kannada, including Wipro chief Azim Premji’s wife Yasmeen Premji, and many foreign nationals.
Be The First To Comment
Related Post
Please Leave Your Comments Below