Indian music teachers honoured in South Africa

Five people who take time off every week to teach Indian languages, music and Hinduism were honoured at an event.

A handful of dedicated people who take time off every week to impart lessons on Indian languages, music and Hinduism were honoured at an event in Johannesburg.

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The occasion was the first Guru Purnima Day of the Mayfair School of Music and Hindi.

Started in 1996 with about 22 students, with classes in harmonium and tabla only, the school now has 32 students who also attend classes on Hindi, Gujarati and Hinduism.

Five teachers, one of them trained in India, give their time on Saturdays to teach children and a few adults.

One of the adults, John Lindsay, a white South African who travels to classes from Benoni, some 40 km away, is in fact the school's oldest student at 70.

He decided to start learning about Hindu culture and the Hindi language after taking a keen interest in eastern cultures.

Lindsay joined a whole lot of much younger students as they paid tributes to their teachers by presenting them with gifts. Many proceeded to show proud parents what they had learnt so far.

Some played the harmonium, taught by Yashwantbhai Harikisson; while others participated in a well-orchestrated group presentation on the tabla, taught by India-trained Prafulbhai Mistry.

Hemabhen Makwana and Shivabhen Rajiv Shrivastava put their students in Hindi and Gujarati through a range of activities, including sketches, poetry recitals, riddles and jokes in these languages, while Bhaktiebhen Kala's students showed what they had learnt from her about Hinduism and its role in South African society.

Rajivbhai Shrivastava, who has been the manager of the school since 2000 after arriving from India earlier to work here for the United Breweries Group, said he did so because of a passion to teach children music and language.

"It is very gratifying to see parents sending their children, some as young as six years, to learn to play musical instruments; speak the language; and learn about Hindu culture," said Shrivastava.

"Once they get a basic foundation and develop a pride in their culture, we are finding that they stay on as teenagers to tackle advanced classes. We even have some university students and housewives who come for classes."

Somewhat ironically, the majority of learners and their parents are from the local Gujarati community, but there is more interest in getting their children to speak Hindi than Gujarati.

"We decided to let our daughter learn Hindi, even though both my wife and I speak fluent Gujarati, because Hindi will stand her in better stead later in life as a more universally spoken language, even in India, than Gujarati," one proud father said as his child rattled off some riddles in Hindi.

There was hardly a learner who did not pronounce his or her Hindi with a distinct accent because it was not spoken at home, but the teachers were unperturbed.

"People of all languages speak their mother tongues with an accent when they have grown up in cultures and families where these languages are not spoken at home," said academic Jhithoo Desai, a guest at the function.

"The important thing is that they are speaking what would otherwise be lost completely."