Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday shared pictures from the Vidyarambham celebration held at his home and said that it’s a joy that "learning knows no religious barrier". "Hindu, Muslim & Christian kids all willingly learned to write “Om Shri” at my hands in three languages! That’s Kerala. #Vidyarambham," he wrote in a tweet.
In Hindu tradition, Vidyarambham is a religious celebration of introducing young children to the world of knowledge and the process of learning, usually conducted on Vijayadashmi.
Sharing pictures on his Twitter profile, Tharoor said he taught nine kids who had visited him, to write “Om Shri“ in three scripts - Devanagari, Malayalam & English. Praising Kerala for leading India’s literacy rate, Tharoor who also visited Saraswati Mandapam at Poojappura in his constituency, Thiruvananthapuram, and shared his experience of visiting the temple since 2009 to teach alphabets to kids.
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{{/usCountry}}“As I have since 2009 (except the two pandemic years), I visited the Saraswati temple at Poojappura & spent an hour at the Mandapam teaching the alphabet to kids whose parents register for this. It’s Kerala’s great strength that reverence for reading & writing is instilled early,” he tweeted.
Tharoor shared a picture of him with ex-Thiruvananthapuram mayor K. Chandrika of the CPIM and councillor Dr Vijayalakshmi of Bharatiya Janata Party who had come to wish him at the temple, expressed joy and said “enthusiasm for change is widespread.”
Shashi Tharoor and his party colleague Mallikarjun Kharge are competing against each other for the Congress’ presidential post, the polling for which is scheduled to happen on October 17.