Deep inside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a Wednesday evening recently, a class of about a dozen students were speaking an arcane ancient tongue.
“It is time for exams, and I pray every day,” says one.
“Perhaps, you should study, too,” counters another at the conversation table. The others laugh.
The conversation is in Sanskrit, a classical language that is the Indian equivalent of ancient Greek or Latin. Today, spoken Sanskrit is enjoying a revival – both in India and among Indian expatriates in the United States. There is even evidence of Sanskrit emerging in American popular culture as more and more people roll out yoga mats at the local gym and greet one another with “Namaste.”
Read the entire story here.pdf.
Also: an article about my Sanskrit teacher at MIT — we didn’t really know he was a space physicist who had traveled to the North & South Poles.