Uzbekistan and 'Tamil'

            It would indeed be a surprise to be greeted with a traditional ‘vanakkam’ by an Uzbek, in a far-off place like Tashkent. No! It wasn’t a carefully memorised word — Kamola Ergasheva, who welcomed members of the Indian delegation accompanying Vice-President Hamid Ansari, is an ardent fan of Tamil and is doing research on Tamil grammar.

Kamola specialised in Tamil grammar in her post-graduation after spending three years learning the language at the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies. And she is not alone. Lola Maktuba, another student of the institute, is doing research on the novels

of Chinnappa Bharati. She has even translated one of his novels into Uzbek. What made them spend years learning Tamil? Kamola recalls how she developed an interest in the language seeing the 500 or so Tamil books, including dictionaries, at the institute library. “There was no going back after that,” Kamola said, as a visibly impressed E.M. Sudarshana Natchiappan, Rajya Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu, broke into a wide grin. Dr. Natchiappan is one of the four MPs accompanying Mr. Ansari on a four-day visit to Uzbekistan.

The Tamil-speaking Uzbeks and their two teachers were special invitees at reception, hosted by Indian ambassador to Uzbekistan Gitesh Sharma, in Mr. Ansari’s honour.

Lola, also sprang another surprise on the Indian delegation by speaking chaste Hindi. It was her teacher who noticed her capability to learn other languages fast and encouraged her to learn Hindi and then Tamil. She then began teaching Tamil to other students and Kamola was her first. Lola and Kamola are expecting their doctorates in a year.

Azad N. Shamatov of the Institute of Oriental Studies — another polyglot — says there are nearly 80 Uzbek students learning Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Bengali and Punjabi at the institute. Uzbekistan has always encouraged its students to learn foreign languages. Sirajuddin Nurmatov, Head of the Department, South Asian languages department says he encourages more Uzbek students to learn Tamil and Hindi.