a class apart: Prof Pandit Rao at PGI, Chandigarh, on Tuesday. Sahil Walia
EVERY WEEKEND a 42-year-old Kannada man, Pandit Rao, has a special date. He takes out his bicycle and goes to PGI doctors’ canteen. And there, over tea discusses finer nuances of Punjabi with South Indian doctors. If you listen in, you’ll be both surprised and delighted. Rao, a professor of sociology at Post Graduate Government College in Sector 46, Chandigarh, has been doing it since last year. He covers a distance of around 10 kilometres from his house in Sector 41 to the PGI and tries to remove the language barrier between South Indian doctors and Punjabi patients. Until now, around 60 Kannada doctors have picked up Punjabi, thanks to Rao.
It was self-motivation that led Rao to learn Punjabi. “I started teaching in 2003. I was teaching students in English language. I noticed that most of the students in my class belonged to Punjabi families and English as the medium of instruction did not help,” he says. “Then I started learning Punjabi on my own and with the help of my neighbours. By 2005 I began giving my sociology lectures in Punjabi.”
Encouraged by the result he saw in his classroom, Rao approached the then director of PGIMER, Yogesh Chawla, seeking permission for teaching Punjabi to the Karnataka doctors. Rao was given the go-ahead and the idea of learning Punjabi found favour with the South Indian doctors. “When I am in Punjab, I should know Punjabi. When we doctors speak Punjabi with the patients from Punjab, they feel more connected with us,” says Dr Vishwanath, 29, a senior resident doctor of PGI who also hails from Karnataka and is learning Punjabi from Rao.
“After learning the Punjabi language, we have developed an interest in Punjabi songs and Punjabi culture too,” adds Dr Vishwanath. Another Kannada student, Puneet Gowda, a junior resident doctor at PGI, says, “Rao has been sparing time for people like us who face language problems. I think he is the best Kannada-cum-Punjabi teacher who can make us understand Punjabi in an effective and easy manner.”
Dr Sombir Singh, president, Association of Resident Doctors, PGIMER, says, “Pandit Rao’s effort to teach Punjabi to doctors from Karnataka is really commendable. When doctors from south India come here, they cannot speak Hindi easily. So it becomes difficult for them to converse with the patients. If they learn to speak some Punjabi, it will be beneficial for the patients as well as the doctors.” Rao also teaches a group of Kannada engineers and scientists at Zirakpur.
Translation, award and signboards
Pandit Rao has translated the bani of Jap Ji Sahib, Sukhmani Sahib and Zafarnama (letter) from Punjabi into Kannada. He has also translated hymns of religious Kannada literature into Punjabi. Rao awards one of his best Punjabi learning students every year with Rs 35 as there are 35 alphabets in Punjabi language. The award is named after Guru Angad Dev, who actually wrote the Gurmukhi script.
The 42-year-old is also fighting to promote Punjabi language in Chandigarh. He has managed to get signboards and names of important places written in Punjabi as well.
