My Upanishadic Birdie Pie 7 Poem by Geeta Radhakrishna Menon

The following day, I began the conversation.

'Remember, yesterday, we talked of several states in India?
Now, I have the answer!
In India, we talk different languages.
According to the languages, we are in different states.
The people of one state, generally, cannot speak the language of another state.
For example, I belong to Kerala and speak Malayalam.
If I go to Bengal, I cannot speak Bengali.
Besides, it is not just speech alone, we have to learn to write too.
Each state has its own medium of instruction.
As such, there are several spoken and written languages in India.'

My birdie friend gave a lengthy whistling squeak.

With an amusing chuckle she said:
'A great problem of communication,
With the people of India,
So many Mother tongues, written languages and dialects! '

My black and white friend pondered a while and said:
'I have a suggestion!
Why don't all of you speak and write Sanskrit?
- The ancient language of India.
One large country with one language! '

I jumped up and said: .

'That's a brilliant idea! But unfortunately too late! .
We have already developed various languages and literature,
Having progressed so far, we cannot regress now!
Besides, we are proud of our literature.'

Birdie-pie intervened
'That's fine! But still, you could have a common language.
And that could be Sanskrit! "
"That's true! " I agreed.
"If we could learn English and love it too, then we could learn Sanskrit as well!
We would then be adept at communicating both internationally and nationally."