On February 21, 2023, the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) held a language carnival in honor of International Mother Language Day. Over 250 students, faculty and staff members from various language backgrounds attended the event, which was hosted by the Leadership Development Institute of IITGN. The carnival aimed to raise awareness of the importance of language and promote the diversity of cultures found on their campus. It included interactive presentations of languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Kumaoni, Urdu, Odia, Mishmi Kaman, Gujarati, and Korean.
The attendees of the event took part in different activities such as writing their names in various languages and having them put in mehndi in their favourite language. Moreover, the karaoke section provided singers the platform to perform in their native language. Bidhan Kumar Sahu, a chemical engineering PhD student from IITGN, was proud to demonstrate his mother tongue, Odia, in the language carnival. He expressed his joy at being able to inform people about basic phrases and the letters of the Odia language. He thanked LDI team for giving him the chance to be part of the event and noted the pleasant atmosphere.
Nivid Desai, a Teaching Associate at IITGN, spoke of his experience organising the Language Carnival, organised by the Leadership Development Initiative. He noted that it was a truly transformative experience, allowing him to connect with languages from all around the world, and to appreciate the detail and beauty of the many languages that coexist on the campus. He congratulated the LDI team on their excellent job in arranging the event.
