STORY CREDITS
Writer/Editor: Shivangi Vasudev Bhatt
Photo: Media and Communication, IIT Gandhinagar
With an aim to raise awareness about the importance of languages and celebrate the diverse linguistic and cultural landscape of the campus community, the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) celebrated International Mother Language Day with a ‘Language Carnival’ on February 21, 2023. More than 250 students, faculty, and staff members from 12 different language backgrounds participated in the exciting event and showcased their language and culture through creative stalls and engaging activities.
The Language Carnival, hosted by the Leadership Development Initiative (LDI) at IITGN, was the first of its kind event on campus and proved to be a highly engaging and fun event. The Carnival featured interactive stalls, each showcasing a unique language, including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Kumaoni, Urdu, Odia, Mishmi Kaman, Gujarati, and Korean. Visitors were invited to participate in creative games, write their names in different languages, and even have their names written in their favourite language using mehndi. The event also had a language karaoke segment, where singers from all the languages represented at the event performed songs in their respective languages.
The event instilled the importance of different languages in an enjoyable way and highlighted the diverse language landscape of the campus. It was a true celebration of language and culture and was greatly appreciated by the participants.
Sharing his thoughts, Bidhan Kumar Sahu, a PhD Student in the Chemical Engineering discipline, said, “It was a matter of pride representing my mother tongue Odia in the language carnival. It was a pleasure to make people aware of the simple day-to-day phrases and the scripts of the Odia language. Lovely vibe and atmosphere. Thanks a lot team LDI for giving us this opportunity.”
“The Language Carnival, organised by the Leadership Development Initiative, was a transformative experience for me. I discovered a unique camaraderie between languages from across the world. It helped me appreciate the finer nuances and beauty of the languages that flourish around us on campus. I congratulate the LDI team for a marvellous arrangement!”, said Nivid Desai, Teaching Associate, Writing Studio, IITGN.
Anviksha Mishra, a Postgraduate student in the Humanities and Social Sciences discipline, said, “It felt like a major event full of many smaller events, entailing the beauty of not only different languages but also cultures. I have never thought of languages as being so fun.”
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