On a cold, drizzly day I find a bright and friendly library in the small neighbourhood of Lawrence Manor and then dash across the city for all the Gujarati food I can eat. Continue reading Lawrence Manor Neighbourhood: Barbara Frum Library
मैं बहुत उत्साहित हूँ क्योंकि आज मेरा ब्लॉग हिंदी भाषा में है | आज मैं अपने जीवन के बारे में हिंदी में लिखूंगा | जंगल में एक आधुनिक झोपड़ी (तम्बू ) में रहते हुए गर्म रहना नित्य एक युद्ध लड़ने … Continue reading Yurt Years: Staying Warm (हिंदी में)
I decided to go to the basement where you can find the newspaper reading room. In addition to most of the local papers, there are newspapers in many languages from around the world. I found one with Hindi script to practice my reading and see how much I could understand and started reading.
I looked throughout the front page and understood a handful of very simple words. It was as if I had completely forgotten everything I knew. Continue reading Give Yourself a Break
My teacher, Mitali, has done a fantastic job of keeping my Hindi classes interesting and fun and lately one of our regular activities is for me to learn muhavare – idioms. In any language, these are really fun for me as they are, in a sense, word play and that is something I love. And they also make me think about my world a little differently. Continue reading Wasted Effort
I’ve started making a list at the beginning of the day of must-do items. These are the things that, should I finish them, I know I will feel I had a productive day. Yesterday I got a bit panicked at the … Continue reading Happy Morning Multitasking
A few weeks back I was talking to my friend, Pallavi about my experiences learning Hindi and trips to India. After a while she said to me: “Hey! You should be on my radio show!” Pallavi has a show on Radio Regent, a community-focused Internet radio station in Toronto. Her show, Stories with Pal, focuses on storytellers and the stories they tell. I admit I was a bit nervous doing anything live. I’d recorded a number of podcasts before, including my own, but never did anything I couldn’t edit afterward so this was new and different. I was nervous but … Continue reading There’s a First Time For Everything
It’s February of 2016 and I’m discouraged. I have been taking Hindi lessons for about 18 months, spending the better part of two hours reading, talking, learning some grammar, only to have to re-learn it again a few weeks later when it would completely fall out of my head. I felt like I was getting nowhere and in great part that was true. After all, if I’m truly honest – and I can be with you guys. Other than a Hindi film every few months, I would do all of my studying in the 30 minutes before that week’s class. … Continue reading Why I Give Up and Why I Should Quit it
