A 61-year-old scientist named Dave from Fresno, USA, came to stay at my guest house for a month. He wanted to learn Hindi with Bhasha Bharti, as he had developed a strong passion for the language. Dave had spent about three years in Madhya Pradesh, India, working for the US Peace Corps in the 1960s. His Hindi was quite impressive, far surpassing the skills of many who take Hindi classes for months. He had scheduled his classes from the US, confident that there would be a suitable instructor available in Varanasi. However, upon arriving in Varanasi, Dave received a message from Bhasha Bharti stating that his classes had been canceled.

He wrote to them asking for an explanation but never received a reply. We visited Bhasha Bharti together to request that they accommodate Dave, but they showed no interest. Dave was disheartened, unsure of how to spend the next month in India. Eventually, he decided to revisit the village where he had previously worked with the US Peace Corps. Meanwhile, I inquired about other Hindi classes in Varanasi and discovered a professor named Prof. Virendra Singh, who teaches Hindi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

We approached him to see if he could provide lessons for Dave. Professor Singh was very accommodating and agreed to teach Dave for one hour each day. Although Dave had hoped for at least 4 or 5 hours of instruction daily, Mr. Singh was unable to commit more time due to his existing obligations with students from Wisconsin University. Nonetheless, it was better than nothing. I was relieved that Dave found a professor. I asked Dave about Professor Singh’s teaching abilities, and he praised him highly, saying that Singh was the best Hindi professor he had ever encountered. I was also very impressed with Professor Singh.