Kannada Rajyothsava
St. Philomena’s College celebrated Kannada Rajyothsava on Nov 28, 2017 in the college indoor stadium. The Chief Guest Dr. Dharani Devi Malagathi, Principal, Police Training College, addressing the audience requested them not to restrict their love for the Kannada language to the month of November but to continue throughout. Kannadigas tolerate and sustain every kind of suppression on culture and language. She opined the division of the states were not made on the basis of language, the status would have been better.
Dr. Malagathi said “like English we can imbibe more words from other languages, but it should be like mixture of oil and ghee or a string of pearls and pepper”. Good Kannada script should be like a peeled banana. We got to follow what U.R Ananthamurthy has said “ learn english in Kannada”. Her speech exhibited her vocabulary, her knowledge of Kannada literature, fluency in language and hold over the subject.
Prof. Ruth Shanthakumari, addressing the students said “though language is a good tool which binds the people, but sometimes it makes us sad, as we see lot of violence happening just for the sake of language. We Kannadigas are so open and free that we talk with non-kannadigas in their
language, rather inviting them to converse in Kannada. Our love for Kannada is questionable. If we can protect our mother language there is no need for the existence of ‘ Kannada Rakshana Vedike’.
Rev.Fr. Bernard Prakash Barnis, the Rector of the College said “ Kannada is the only language which has won Eight Gnanapeetha Awards, let us talk in Kannada, let there be fragrance of Kannada everywhere”.
This was followed by a Quiz for the audience, video presentation by Journalism students. The audience consisted of administrative staffs, teachers and students.