Trippingly on the Tongue
Hell'O' I am Vidya Kaul!
Vidya is a resident of Pune, having relocated to the city after nearly four decades on the tea estates of Northeast India. Her abiding passion is reading — she was lucky to have an eclectic collection of books to choose from in the libraries of the tea clubs.
Vidya’s love for the written word encouraged her to publish articles in local publications, and she edited the in-house magazine of what was then one of the world’s largest tea companies.
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Living away from the city meant few educational institutions in the vicinity and this presented her with the opportunity to teach and nurture in children a love of learning.
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After moving to Pune, Vidya is pursuing her other passion, ballroom dancing. Being a people’s person, she enjoys interacting with all age groups. Listening to music, especially the ‘pop’ tracks of the 50s and 60s, is another entertaining pastime.
Ageing...
Introduction
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Do you remember the Fab Four singing blithely, “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four?” Well, ‘eighty-four’ is the new ‘sixty-four’ and I’m sure there are many in that age group who voice these doubts, silently or otherwise. Insecurity is an integral component of the senior citizen’s psyche, more so when they cannot live independently and have to relocate to a facility.
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Languages...
Introduction
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India, a multi-lingual socially diverse land blessed with a melting pot of traditions and cultures, includes within its borders twenty-eight states and eight union territories. It is home to twenty-two scheduled languages, with Hindi and English being accepted as 'lingua franca'. Add to this dialects and tongues which are specific to a locale; truly, we may be termed a polyglot nation. Many Indians can converse in two languages even if they have no formal education. One is spoken at 'home', and the other enables them to communicate with the outside world.
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