This March as me and my friends met after a long time. After marriage, all of us were living in different places and meeting each other wasn’t as frequent as we would have liked. As we were talking in Marathi, our kids came to us and started asking the meaning of seemingly simple words.
We told them the meanings and even discussed how as our kids are being exposed to world culture and experiencing regional fluidity, it was obvious that they didn’t know much about their mother tongue. While the reasons were correct and logical, somehow something didn’t feel right.
Just as we were discussing about regional migrations and how that was helping our children understand India’s diversity from close quarters, a friend lamented about the lack of easy access to good regional content for reading. She lived in Bangalore and could not find good Marathi websites, magazines or books to read there.
This simple discussion led us to create Bhav Marathi.
What is Bhav Marathi?
Bhav Marathi is your place to discuss about anything that you love in Marathi. We have a variety of sections like travel, reviews, health, food, blast from the past, stories, sanskar and much more. As parents we know that though we want to introduce regional stories, or mythological stories to our children, it is not always possible to do so. Many times we don’t remember the stories or don’t know how to tell them. Similarly our kids ask us why a festival is being celebrated and we might not be able to give them an answer that is understood by them. Hence we decided to include content about important days, why a particular festival is celebrated, how it is to be celebrated etc.
What does Bhav Marathi cover?
Bhav Marathi is like an online magazine which is open to all those who wish to pen down their thoughts in Marathi. Topics like health, travel, reviews, stories, poems, art and much more is a part of this marathi website. We are looking for people who know Marathi and can write in simple and easy to understand language. This is because we are building a community of Marathi readers and writers who would enjoy good information.
We started off with one thought, of creating a platform that can bring together Marathi readers and writers from around the world! We launched on Gudi Padwa, the Marathi new year and are extremely happy with the way people have been interacting with the website. We have members reading from US to Bangalore and writers from 15 to 50 wanting to write on the site. It is heartening to know that our efforts are connecting with such a huge base.
This is our effort to ensure that our children and us don’t lose out on our connection with Marathi as we go full throttle in this era of globalization. All that is global needs to be embraced, but if can continue to have a heartfelt connect with what is local to our mind and heart, won’t that be the perfect balance? It will also help us raise a truly ‘Glocal’ generation, that is ready to compete with the world, but at the same time, knows their origins, holds on to their belief system and most importantly know that they have a unique identity. This generation would know about world history, but will also know how important it is to protect their indigenous language. It is a different kind of effort to ensure that my next generation learns and understands about local culture.
If you want to read something nice or want to pen down your thoughts, do visit our website www.bhavmarathi.com and send across your first article! Seeing your name online and knowing how people are liking what you write is an incredible feeling. None of us are authors, we are writing our experiences and trying to connect with people who have something to say. I am sure, each of us has something to say, why not give it a try in Marathi?
Well explained post & yes it’s very important for our kids to know about the mother tongue.
I just loved this amazing and thoughtful move, Marathi undoubtedly is a very beautiful language to listen and speak of course. Which our kids should be aware of!
This seems to be a completely new platform. Such a savior for Marathi language learners. Thanks for presenting the information so nicely.
I have been fascinated by this language specially because of Bollywood. It’s great to have a website for Marathi lovers. Great initiative
Wow this is a very well explained blog about the importance of mother tongue ! And marathi is such a beautiful language and kids totally should know about it
Every language is an unique expression on its own & so is Marathi. Thanks for sharing about such an unique site, inspiring indeed.
On one hand , migration exposes us to the regional diversity of our country but it is true that it also dilutes the regional identity and culture of the next generation so it is a good idea to have a channel dedicated to Marathi like Bhav Marathi and thus keep the roots intact .
This is a great initiative for kids to know about their culture. Best wishes to you and your team for this endeavor!
that’s such a great initiative to keep everyone in touch with the regional language. great way to promote the use of Marathi.
Keep up the good work
What a great initiative! In a time when Hindi and English are prevailing, it’s great that there is effort being made to keep regional languages alive
Its really important that our gen next understand their mother tongue.. this website is really helpful for every Maharashtrian to introduce Marathi to their little ones
What a great initiative! With the passage of time our culture, traditions, and rituals seem to be dissolving. We need more mediums that encourage sharing and retaining information. I loved the idea behind this website and hope this initiative will encourage others to do the same.
What a wonderful initiative this website is. We need more people like you to pioneer regional languages.
This is really cool. I really its amazing to have platforms in all languages including regional ones so everyone has a space to discuss and read stuff. In a country as varied as ours, its so important. 🙂
Really a great initiative for Marathi aspiring writers and readers who wants to read more in their regional language. Thanks for sharing I am sure this will be helpful for Marathi writers.
I feel it is important to know mother language and express views in same. You explained it well Neha. This platform is really cool
A very good initiative by you and your friends. I also struggle to get my son to read in Hindi. Or even talk sometimes!
That is great! I am sharing this ahead with my friends who know marathi and who enjoy reading in marathi.
Bhav Marathi is a great move, everyone should try it out. It’s our place to discuss about anything that we love in Marathi.
Great way to promote the Marathi language. I have heard it and love it. It’s a great initiative to promote this language and keep it alive in every heart, mind, and mouth
website seems wonderful and interesting. I don’t know Marathi, but definitely gonna check out this website
Will check out this website, Neha. Of late I’m inclined towards reading Marathi poems and books. Hope someday I can contribute something too.
This is such great news for Marathi lovers. You are doing great in giving regional language a platform.
I really wanted to know Neha what your new website is about, glad you explained it so well in this post
Regional local languages should be encouraged, as it really helps our generation to learn and take care of it
I am so glad regional languages are given so much importance nowadays, thanks to websites like Bhav Marathi
Wow that’s awesome, this is really helpful for learning Marathi language. I am Surely going to check out as we are shifting Mumbai
I wish i knew Marathi but will sure pass it on to my Marathi friends.
What a superb initiative to create a platform for particular language readers! All information in magazine that can be accessed anywhere. Good Luck!!