Welcome Speech – Prof. Rajesh Sachdeva

Well, a very good morning to all of you. Hopefully the year that follows shall also be a bright and happy one despite this great calamity that has occurred and all of us are beginning to think whether mankind will have the destiny it deserves. I just think it is a momentous occasion and indeed a great privilege to have something like the first word. But I'm happy that it is not the first word because some introduction has already happened but it's a great privilege that we have our director here – ‘Sir' – he's chairing this session. May I then have the first welcome for our director, Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh, - Sir, I'm very grateful that you're here and you're going to be leading these deliberations in this first round of it. A great, great event; Prof. Emaneau's work is something that is more than that of a legend and the fact that we have Prof. Kelkar who himself is the living legend from our own country. He's the chief guest on this occasion, it makes this occasion really, really moving, as far as I'm concerned. Sir, we welcome you also with a great sense of satisfaction that you've accepted this invitation of ours. We're very, very grateful. Despite your frail health, you've had this love for the institution always in your heart and you've chosen to be with us and guide the destiny of many Indian linguists on this great occasion. Thank you so much, sir, for accepting our invitation and being with us this morning. Prof. Pattanayak, the founding director of the institution is here. Prof. Rajendra Singh, Prof. Ramakant. I can - I think a list – so many names, Subbaraoji – so many distinguished, I think that the word ‘distinguished' would be an understatement, if I were to use for a gathering like this. I think it's a wonderful thing that so many great minds have been engaged in this exercise that is to follow. They'll be all together. I think personally, it gives me great satisfaction that all of them have chosen to be here. Surely Emeneau deserves that, surely his work deserves that we all get together and be and mark, commemorate an event of 100 years of a real living legend and have another living legend like Prof. Ashok Kelkar to inaugurate it. I think I'm sure all of you will be enjoying your stay here and you'll be enjoying your stay here and you'll be filled with lot of satisfaction when things happen. You see, Emaneau's work on India as a linguistic area only as though confirms our sense of being one for centuries. It's as if the linguistic proof had arrived to what was seen as one. And since India had always had this ‘Vasudevakutumbam', the whole world is one, the spirit in India as the universal. It's so very nice that the people from all over the worldhave thought that they should get together on a setting like this. CIIL is the nodal agency; it shoulders the responsibility of getting people from different institutions together. It's a national institution and, I think, it's a great privilege that we're hosting this just prior to the meeting that's going to happen in Hyderabad four days from now. But this occasion will also, I think, turn into momentous as people take their turns, their insights, their papers and their ideas and the conversations that follow. I think that all of us are going to celebrate this and think that this is certainly going to be the happy part of the New Year for all of us. Sir, I take this as my last word. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to welcome all of you this morning. There members of the press here, there are people from all over, there are so many students here, my colleagues are engaged. All of us are involved in so many activities that the fact that all of them are here this morning shows that they all want to be here and enjoy this presence of so many great human beings on mother earth. We are becoming a small endangered community of sorts as linguists despite the growing agenda of issues that are cropping up all over and the fact that we're all together under one roof, many of us, shows that we have common stake in determining the destiny of mankind and the languages of this country. Thank you so much for giving me this privilege.