Author Dr S Padmapriya

 *Lesser-known languages of Bharat -*   *Walmiki and Malhar:* Two languages recently discovered by linguists in remote parts of Odisha.  *Toto* : A Sino-Tibetan language spoken by fewer than 1,500 people near the India-Bhutan border.  *Gorum* : A language on the verge of extinction, with only a few speakers left in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.  *Bhumij* : Once widespread, this language is now spoken by about 27,500 people in Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal.  *Birhor* : A language used by the semi-nomadic Birhor tribe in central India, threatened by the community's settlement.  *Koro* : A Tibeto-Burman language discovered in Arunachal Pradesh with an estimated 800 speakers.  *Sare:* A Great Andamanese language that became extinct in 2020 with the death of its last speaker.  *Source: Internet*

  _A Haiku_  Thirsty throat sun burnt, Looking for water here there,  Rain falls on dry earth.   _S.Padmapriya_

 https://www.boloji.com/articles/53605/the-world-visionary--pandit-deen-dayal-upadhyaya-ji

  The Telescope Once, there lived a ten-year old girl whose name was Reva. She used to do everything well, but she did not know what to become. She would rack her brains trying to find out, but to no avail. So, she would think to herself, “Everyone knows what to become. Why am I always so confused?” She would then think again, but in vain.  One day, she and her parents went to a toy-store, to buy a gift for her five-year-old cousin, as his birthday was just three days away. When she was looking for a suitable gift, a toy-package fell on her head. She picked it up and read what was written on it. It said: This Do-It-Yourself mini telescope kit lets you see far-off planets and study their surface. High clarity provided by the strong lens! Great for little astronomers and space-scientists! She turned it over. It had fascinating pictures of the moon and various planets. At first, she thought it would be a perfect gift for her cousin, but then decided he was too small for it. ...

  A short story by eleven year old, V.Varsha Shree -  *Mother Earth's Plight*  Mother Earth was very unhappy. Humans were dirtying her elegant coat of air with their silly man-made smoke. She called out to some of the volcanoes on her surface and instructed them to erupt. "Let them know how it feels to get dirtied by smoke", she thought. Many volcanoes erupted on Mother Earth's cue, but to no avail. The humans were dirtied for a while, but they just released more smoke with their silly technology. Soon, Mother Earth was quite ill, since some of the smoke had entered her nose. She couldn't bear it anymore. She started gasping for breath, quite often. She was very angry with the humans. The birds and animals were suffering, too. They came to her with their problems but she couldn't help them, being terribly ill. One day, Wise Owl came to her with a possible solution. He had brought Bat with him. "Your Highness, Bat has a new friend, Corona, with him. Corona...

 The Government of India tracks the following criteria to define the eligibility of language to be considered for classification as “classical language”: • Extraordinary antiquity of its early transcripts or verified history over a period of 1500-2000 years. • A body of ancient literature or texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers. • The literary tradition should be original and unique, and certainly not hired from another language community. • The classical language and literature being diverse from modern, there may also be a discontinuity among the classical language and its later forms or its sprouts. Classical Languages • In 2004, the Government of India declared Tamil as the Classical Language of India. • In 2005, right after Tamil, the government declared Sanskrit as a Classical Language of India. These two languages are undeniably parental sources for several languages belonging to the Indo-European family and the Dravidian family of ...