Language of the Gods

One night when the sky was clear, cool breeze blowing and stars were twinkling strewn across the sky, an angel who was in a retrospective mood decided to visit India. As he flew over various cities he was amazed by the changes happening in the country. He was wondering whether the changes were for good or bad. He decided to have a closer look and came down taking physical form of that of a human. When he swooped down he landed near a building, which looked like a printing press. He observed few workers loading packages into a vehicle.Surprised and curious, he asked one of them what they were doing.The worker told him that they were dispatching magazines to various parts of the country.

Our angel who is by nature a very curious being decided to go through some of the magazines in different sizes and color lying on the floor. While flipping through, one magazine attracted his attention with a blast of color and vivid life like illustrations. He spoke aloud 'Ah ha! this looks like Shri Ram blessing Hanumanji before the start of war with Ravan, which I witnessed, long time back! What could this be doing here?' he murmured. He decided to explore the magazine further. As he took the magazine in his hand, he was stunned. It was a near perfect depiction of The Ramayan.

The language was unlike the other magazines he had gone through earlier. It was his mother tongue - It was in Sanskrit. The angel was overjoyed!! He started reading it.Engrossed he read some of the stories again and again.He read the vikram - vetal story, the stories of his brethren - the Gandharvas. Indeed it was such a delightful experience for him to read about the Indian villages, saints as well as contemprory stories set in modern context. He was amazed by the bright colorful paintings which were printed in the magazine. He touched the pages of the book again and again. He looked up and whispered,' Thank God! This language is still alive. It is still taught and there are people who understand it.

The angel became a bit desperate then,he wanted more. He asked the workers if there were more books and where he can get old issues of that magazine. They gave him some of the old copies. He read through them completely but that did not satisfy his appetite which had been whetted. Suddenly while going through one of the magazine he saw an announcement which caught his attention. It said 'Read Chandamama in Sanskrit on the web'. He was intrigued by the term 'web'. He decided to do some research and check with his friends. His friends updated him on internet and the world wide web.

Now the angel is an avid reader of Chandamama magazine in Sanskrit on the net...:)