Eavesdropping is fun--if only I could understand Sanskrit!

As is my habit when I visit India, I walked over to the nearby Natesan Park even before the Sun came up.  It was a careful walk to the park though--not only had I to watch out for garbage and stray dogs, but had to also avoid stepping into any number of puddles that were seemingly everywhere, thanks to the heavy rains.

With each lap around the park, the people count increased.  With the hour approaching, it was time to call it quits.  Instead of simply walking back home, I chose to sit on a bench for a few minutes and think.

As I wondered whether I should untie my shoe laces for a few minutes, I heard some strange words coming from two people seated on the bench to my right.  The tone sounded familiar, but the words were not.

I was glad that they were on my good side--the good ear side, that is.  Because, it turned out that they were conversing in Sanskrit!

Perhaps my old Sanskrit teacher from the high school days will be happy to know that I could recognize Sanskrit words even after all these years.  He was always worried that while a dog could be taught to shake hands, we students were worse :)

The man on the bench, dripping with sweat from exercising, I imagine, looked about 55-ish, while the woman was a few years younger.  He was on one end of the bench, while the woman was at the other.  I figured that this meant they were not a married couple.

But, their conversation wasn't anything clandestine--it was evident that these were practicing their language skills.  Conversing in Sanskrit.

A couple of minutes later, a much younger man--about thirtyish--walked towards them.  The older man forgot to welcome him in Sanskrit, and spoke in English instead.  And then invited him to sit down in the space in between, and the young man did.

The Sanskrit conversation resumed, with the younger man also participating.

What a wonderful experience out of the ordinary!  Early birds do get some tasty worms.

Suddenly, the woman spoke in English. "That is the possessive form of the word" she said.

These three were quite serious about the old parent of many a world's languages.

I listened in for a couple of more minutes.  And when I heard one of them say "Aham (अहम्,)" I got excited enough to go through in my mind the singular, dual and plural forms of the first person, second person, and third person pronouns:

अहम्  आवाम्  वयम्
त्वम्  युवाम्  यूयम्
सः तौ  ते

And, of course, the female and neutral versions, which I am now tired of typing in a different script :)

As I started walking back home, I heard one guy yell at another, "you want to go to Dubai with us?  There is a deal. Only 25,000 rupees for the flight and four days there."

This sounded so harsh after being lost in a Sanskrit conversation.