Aarohi is rich with cultural diversity – language, food, references, culture, rituals….and that makes life interesting to live.
Various languages – We are blessed with people(visitors and members) from various languages – Tamil, Kannada, Telgu, Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi, French, Spanish…and so on.
And when we learn various languages, we don’t realize. One child coming from Tamil and Kannada language background, coordinated with people in Kashmir (Hindi) for the skiing course for some community members. Some of us laughed with joy when he spoke in Hindi and made all his points clear over phone.
Language week at the campus was just celebration of various languages and cultural diversity and to add flavor to our week, Eight people from UK visiting, part of The Otherwise Club (www.theotherwiseclub.org.uk) shared diversity with us. To begin with clothing, choices, language, the culture of working, food we shared, we experienced that the culture diversity is nothing more than the differences between two people, two places etc.
Cultural diversity cannot be explained, it can be experienced.
Food is another area which allows us to understand diversity – At Aarohi kids come from various culture and background – one likes while other wants chapati, one likes spices while other cannot bear spices, one is very specific about what vegetables one eat, while other is wanting more vegetables (mostly adults), one want soup, while other want fried food, one only have non veg at home while other is pure vegetarian, one doesn’t use onion, while other cannot eat without onion and garlic, one likes chicken while other want fish, one has Punjabi taste while other has Andhra taste, One like plain dal, while other is used to of Sambhar (with lots of vegetables), one eats based on how it looks, while other eat based on how it smells and top of all this basic cultural difference here comes the health angle and the various opinions and our own research on the food we make and consume – Millets are better, use Ragi, add greens, Use different oil, do not use oil, what about the millet flours and some sweet, home made snacks would be better, why not add some sprouts, plain curd and raita (cucumber or boondi) and and many more stories…and we continue to experience living with diversity, not only in language but many facets of life.