“1965 was one of the most eventful years of my life. That year, the agitation against making Hindi mandatory at schools was in full-swing. As a child, I was happy because I would have one less subject to study and my school declared holidays because of the protests. The compulsion was revoked and I comfortably finished schooling.
In 1975, when Emergency was declared, I was working as a government employee and was imprisoned like many others. Despite all of it, life kept moving on. I got married, had two kids and travelled a lot around the country. But every time I went up North, I repeatedly faced challenges. I couldn’t speak their local language and they weren’t well-versed in Hindi either. People only conversed in their mother tongue or the little Hindi they knew.
I saw how limiting it got for someone to learn just their mother tongue or one common language. So I made sure my children did not face the same fate. I enrolled them in a school where they got to learn Tamil, English and Hindi. I believe that everyone should learn as many languages as they can, be it Hindi, Sanskrit or even a foreign language.
As a free nation that prides in Unity in Diversity, implementation of a compulsory language or recognition of one language as the National Language compromises the values on which the country was built. The minute something is imposed, people react to it in a defensive manner and refute it. People must start seeing the benefits of learning and adopting a new language instead of doing it by force!”

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