Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers out there. My little one woke me up this morning to give me a little gift, “Jaipur” fragrance, and a couple of beautiful card that she made. All I can say is, I am lucky to be the father of little Jaya. Jaya, thank you for the fathers day gift. I love you very much!!

If you want to know any thing about Indian education system, know this…it is extremely competitive to get into either Medicine or Engineering. With thousands vying for limited seats, one really needs to put in a lot of hard work and effort to succeed. So, when one reads a story of some one working against all odds to succeed, it warms one’s heart.

Mr. Rajendra Das moved to Kolkota (erstwhile Calcutta), to open a tea stall and support his family, leaving them behind in Orissa (a near by state), and sent them Rs 3000 (less than $100) per month to subsist on. Today Mr. Das is smiling from ear to ear because his eldest son Deepak Das has topped the medical entrance exam ahead of 22,339 students!

Imagine the odds that this young man must have faced! To live in that poverty, and yet to keep mind focussed on the ultimate prize, Deepak has demonstrated the power of dedication and hard work to overcome those odds, and succeed.

We salute you Deepak!

This news item brought out some thoughts about the virtues of knowing more than one language.

Recently, while visiting my parents in India, I decided to go to the holy city of Trimbukeshwar, a small town north west of Mumbai. While in most Indian cities English is well understood and if you know no other language you may still be able to get by, in this little town you would be hard pressed to find some one who understands you. The lingua franca of this town is “Marathi”. So, imagine my difficulty when I tried to pull out Marathi words from my brain, words I had used once (about 18 or so years ago), but had forgotten because I hardly ever speak Marathi these days. At first it was difficult, but then after about a day or so I was speaking Marathi quite fluently. Once more, I was reaping the benefits of learning more than one language in my early childhood.

The reason I was able to speak Marathi on this trip was because I studied Marathi in School, along with Hindi and English. In India, there are 13 officially recognized languages. So it isn’t uncommon for children to learn at least two languages, and children who study in English medium schools learn three. I have found tremendous advantages associated with learning multiple languages. Learning a language opens up a brand new culture to you through its literature and ability to communicate with the people who speak it.

Thus, I am always dismayed when I find Americans who are so adamantly against our children learning any language but English. If life is to be an enriching experience for our kids, we should encourage them to learn other languages, and we should encourage them to talk to other people in their own language. English is a univeral language of business (just like in India), and it is not very likely that it will ever be supplanted by any other language, but is it necessary that English should be the only language of culture?

Now, I don’t mean to be critical of Ginos in the above story. I don’t know the true reasons why they insist that the patrons order steaks in English, but what ever the reason, I think they are missing out on something. May be they are indeed trying to encourage other people to learn a second language. Chances are, immigrants find their policy intimidating, and are staying out of their restaurant. Its one thing to try to help a patron order in English (that would be encouragement), and completely another to force a patron to order in English.

Meanwhile, for our children I say, lets encourage them to learn two other languages - Spanish, and Canadian, the languages of our neighbors. Hopefully it will make them better neighbors.

Did you know that there is indeed a tea plantation in US? The only tea plantation in North America, currently owned by R.C. Bigelow Inc., is on the island of Wadamalaw, in South Carolina. I myslef haven’t been to it yet, and hope to go there some time soon. But from what I hear, RC Bigelow has done a nice job of making it into a profitable enterprise.

“I would hope that over time this will become a destination for a lot of tea drinkers and that it will bring a considerable number of people into Charleston,” added David Bigelow, the co-chairman of the board of R.C. Bigelow Inc., the Connecticut tea company that purchased the plantation at auction in 2003.

Being a tea plantation born myself, I hope that this plantation continues to reap success and continues to stay an important landmark in US. So, if you are a tea lover, and cannot go to India, drive down to Charleston, and visit the plantation. Click here for the story on CNN.com