PUNE: Persian classes are in such demand now prominent educational institutes have all begun courses in the language.According to language expert Nikhil Paranjpe, who has recently started a certificate course at the Savitribai Phule Pune University , “During the Golden Era of Persia, it was said Hath Kangan to Aarsi kya, Padhe likhe ko Farsi kya? (If a person is educated, he is bound to know Farsi). However, in the middle of 18th century, Farsi started losing its status. But now, there is renewed interest to learn the language.”The introductory course at SPPU would enable students to read and understand famous Persian poets such as Sadi, Hafiz, Firdausi, and Indian poets like Khusrow, Bedil, Mohd Iqbal and Mirza Ghalib. This was the first course in Persian organized at the varsity’s department of history in 50 yearsSadeg Baghfalaki, a Persian teacher and linguistics researcher at the Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, said learning the language is easy and interesting for Indians as most Indian languages have thousands of Persian words in daily use.“Some of these have been borrowed as it is, the meaning of some has become narrower, or in some cases changed altogether,” he added.Subhangi Kardile, assistant professor and co-ordinator of foreign language courses for Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute, said, “Languages like Hindi and Marathi have borrowed a lot of vocabulary. Researchers want to look at historical court documents as Persian was the court language in the Deccan region.”Shirish Shewalkar, a student of intermediate Farsi at Deccan College said, learning Persian was his passion. “I learned Urdu when I was in college and liked Ghalib. Over 90% of his work was in Persian.”Nidhi Arya, a 19-year-old student in her final year of graduation in arts, said, “Learning the language will help me in my research work. I am interested in medieval Indian history. It will benefit me in travel and tourism where I can communicate, translate and explain the history in both Persian and Indian languages,” she said.