Languages are always hard to master, especially if one didn’t exactly grow up getting exposed to them. Even if they did grow up getting exposed to them it’s really tough to be proficient in all of them all the time. But just because it’s tough doesn’t mean it’s impossible. A true linguaphile or a language lover will take this challenge up without a second thought because they know that each language has its own beautiful essence, though mastering it may be tough the end product is worth every dime. A. K. Ramanujan truly lived a life of a true language lover, whose love for languages only continued to grow with each language he learnt.
A. K. Ramanujan: His Life At A Glance
Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan, better known as, A. K. Ramanujan, was born on 16th March 1929 in the City of Palaces (Mysore). A poet, scholar, linguist, philologist, folklorist, translator, and playwright, one would assume, A. K. Ramanujan’s family must be masters of many languages but the reality is not that simple.
Born into the household of Attipat Asuri Krishnaswamini an astronomer and professor of mathematics at Mysore University, it would seem rather natural for A. K. Ramanujan to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue something similar to his father’s profession. But A. K. Ramanujan proved everyone wrong by switching his major to English during his time at Maharaja College of Mysore.
Hearts,
Death And the Good Citizen
with your kind of temper,
may even take, make connection
with alien veins, and continue
your struggle to be naturalized.
A.K. Ramanujan
A. K. Ramanujan: An Educator and A Linguist
After earning his degree from the University of Mysore and becoming a fellow at Deccan College in Pune and getting a PhD from Indiana University, he started his journey into the world of languages. Armed with five languages: English, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Sanskrit he set out to express himself and his ideas in all of them.
From research studies to poems to essays, he dabbled his hands in a lot of fields and excelled at each of them. In his cultural essay, “Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?”, he highlights “context-sensitive” thinking by bringing to light the cultural ideologies and behaviour manifestations from an Indian cultural context point of view. His poetry mostly focused on hybridity and transculturation, some examples of his works that follow these themes are, Selected Poems (1976), The Collected Poems of A. K. Ramanujan (1995), etc.
After joining the University of Chicago in 1962, he was connected with them throughout his career. During his time there, A. K. Ramanujan played a key role in shaping the South Asian Studies program. From Harvard University to the University of California Berkeley, to the University of Michigan, A. K. Ramanujan taught at many other US universities as well.
Afterword
From dedicating his life to teaching to strongly arguing in favour of giving non-standard, local dialects their voice, A. K. Ramanujan was a true linguaphile who ensured each language got its due. Given his love for teaching, we think it’s safe to say the apple didn’t fall from the tree as both father and son enjoyed it.
