14th September is celebrated as Hindi Divas or Hindi Day across India. It was on this day, in 1949, that Hindi was adopted as the official language of the country. It is a day to appreciate the importance of the language and give recognition to people who have done extraordinary work in promoting Hindi. In the spirit of celebrating diversity, promoting language learning, and honouring our host country’s official language, we at Mahindra International School celebrated Hindi day with great fervour.

The constraints of virtual learning did not deter the faculty from making this a special day. Across the school, informational videos were shared with the students to make them aware of the importance of the day. Our Hindi teachers, Ms. Shalini and Ms. Rajashree, created videos (link below) and quizzes to introduce the Primary School students to the significance of the day. In Early Years, our youngest learners took part in the celebrations enthusiastically. They learnt to say simple greetings in Hindi, read bilingual stories, sang Hindi songs and learnt Hindi rhymes. During music lessons, students from P2-5 were introduced to the iconic Hindi song, ‘Aawara hoon’ and asked to interview their families for their experience with this song. https://mbisorg-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/gurleen_kalra_misp_org/EpgqcyyAI4tMqekrBwouItgBm5f1COKGHD7LF9mXHLwchw?e=7HumHm
Students in the Secondary School spent their homeroom watching videos and learning about Hindi Diwas. They also played simple kahoot quizzes about the language and enjoyed the experience. The morning activity lead to various discussions about the importance of language and students sharing their experiences about Hindi.
As part of the celebration, staff members had recorded short videos of themselves reciting Hindi poems, singing songs, sharing a Hindi idiom or a greeting they had learnt during their stay in India. We were overwhelmed by the creativity, teamwork, enthusiasm, and effort put in by the staff. The entries were compiled into a video and shared with all staff and students. https://mbisorg-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/r/personal/gurleen_kalra_misp_org/Documents/Hindi%20Divas%202020/Hindi%20diwas%202020%20all%20staff%20video.mp4?csf=1&web=1&e=1r3Soo
In addition to the celebration at school, our Secondary Hindi teacher, Ms. Rajashree, read a Hindi story as part of an online story reading program. The link is given below. (Appropriate for MYP 1 and above) https://youtu.be/JILmtsnlpMM.
Gurleen Kalra and Rajashree Pande