It is the rendezvous with simple lady names Kanika who promotes Hindi abroad. She possesses the knowledge to do Havan, i.e., a cleansing procedure using fire, which is usually the rare case as in India, only “male pandits” do the Havans. Her journey inspires her to take a road less traveled and be happy about it. Sunita Rajpurohit (official), aka Kanika Rajpurohit, claims to be social, a fun-loving lady ready to learn new creative ideas and apply them to life. She hails from Bikaner, Rajasthan. It is a holy place consisting of many temples and gives a glimpse of Indian cultural heritage and traditions. It is also known as “Chotti Kashi.” Read her thought-provoking story on why she believes that Indian ladies can perform Havan in India and abroad without strict gender-based restrictions.
College Years
She was keenly interested in all types of causes and was the cultural minister in college. She was also president of a political organization known as the Student Federation of India (SFI) and led the National Service Scheme (NSS). Currently, she tenders to India Club in Jakarta as a committee member to increase the understanding of Indian culture and traditions through different events. Also, she encourages the promotion of Indian tradition and has been doing for years now.
She started as a teacher in a school in Bikaner in the RSV JNV branch and Singhania University. She taught English, Hindi, Psychology, and Moral Science. After the wedding, she moved to New Delhi and worked as an HR recruiter. After that, she moved to Jakarta to Indonesia with her husband in December 2011.
Professional Career
She took a break from her professional career when she moved to Jakarta and learned classical dance and music from JNICC. It is a body of the Indian embassy to promote Indian culture in Indonesia. In JNICC, socializing increased, and she learned intricated details of Indian culture. IndoIndians’ website helps to interact and help new ex-pats to evolve in society. In 2014, after two and a half years, she got the opportunity to rekindle her career as a Hindi teacher at Beacon Academy.
Like India, Jakarta has a vibrant culture, so it fascinated her. People were also very intrigued by Indian culture, so she tried again to participate and conduct cultural events.
As per Kanika, she has also been social as all the festivals of Indian encourage to meet people. The celebrations of India increase the social circle and are always part of life. She also attended different programs, social gatherings and performed under JNICC, India Club, and the Indian Embassy banner. After three and a half years in Jakarta, she became a member of the “India Club” and contributing to it ever since. She has another group that is in her apartment and encourages people to keep involved in cultural events. She acts as the committee member of ATR, which is based on her apartment’s Apartment Taman Rasuna.
Her Life motto: Enjoy the present moment, give your best shot with full passion and dedication.
Let’s Promote Hindi
Being abroad, if someone communicates in our mother tongue, automatically, we feel connected. That’s how Kanika felt and realized the first language’s importance, which gives a sense of familiarity. Understanding the mother tongue will bring us closer to our traditions and the evolution of our language. Kanika already knew to read and write English and Sanskrit. But in Jakarta, Kanika chose Hindi as her subject to promote Hindi. It is the only way to connect to India remotely and pass the heritage to the next generation to keep the culture alive in foreign lands. Plus, knowing more than one language is always an addon.
Setting up Association
After deciding to promote Hindi in Jakarta, she started exploring and collected her team. She and her team lay the foundation as Indonesia Hindi Association in Jakarta, Indian Embassy, supported the cause, JNICC and IndoIndians supported the cause, and extended the required help. Finally, in June 2015, she set up the association. Her association promotes Hindi and organizes Hindi competitions annually. The International Schools of Indonesia also encourage our association to promote Hindi Language awareness. The association has successfully conducted two annual events. Her association is limited to yearly events and assists people who want to learn Hindi and Indian culture. As inter-country marriages have also started, as an Indonesian groom or bride enters an Indian home, he or she requires a bit of language and cultural assistance. Moreover, her association caters to language and culture support with the whole heart.
Indian ladies can perform havan
Kanika’s education has Sanskrit as a significant subject. She also did course pronunciation in Sanskrit – learned many shlokas, mantras, and songs. Being brought up in the Brahmin family, Havan and Sanskrit prayers were an integral part. Kanika never knew the step-by-step procedure, but she found a way to learn this too. She learned from “Acharya Pratishtha,” who is incidentally her Kathak teacher from JNICC also. Acharya Pratishtha used to do Havans at home and other places. Kanika religiously followed her and used to chant all mantras with her. Acharya Pratishtha gifted Kanika a book named “Bharat Yog,” written by her father, Padamshree Shree Bharat Bhushan Ji, which contains all procedures for Havan. Kanika always refers to this book to do Havans.
A Havan removes all negative energy surrounding us and awakens an auspicious aura. The sacred mantras are chanted during Havan, which cleanses the environment and lets positive forces in. Coming from a Brahmin family and majors in Sanskrit made chanting of shlokas and mantras easy. Now, Kaniaka performs havans very often and doesn’t wait for any special occasion. Havan is a way to recharge and revitalize Kanika. She insists that man, woman, or child, any of them, can perform havans. The only thing important here is to pronounce mantras and shlokas correctly with proper steps.
Visit her page to contact her
Our Editor – Deepti Chawla – Team Storyofsouls
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