An incident at a crowded Bangalore hypermarket prompted Mayur PH and his friends to start Kannada classes for those unfamiliar with the language. A woman who had lost her child in the weekend crowd was frantically trying to communicate with security personnel but was severely handicapped by her inability to speak Kannada.

“We stepped in and helpe her explain things to the security guard and the problem was solved, but it made us think,” says Mayur. It made them think of the many people who had poured into Bangalore after the IT boom, of their inability to communicate effectively in their daily lives, and of the situations in which they could find themselves when knowing a smattering of Kannada could mean the difference between life and death.

THE FIRST LESSON So Mayur and his two friends (who wish to remain anonymous) started by giving lessons in basic Kannada to their colleagues at the tech company where they all work. For two years now, they have held classes on the premises of their workplace and taught the basics of the language to close to 800 coworkers during two and three-hour sessions held after office hours. Then, about a year ago, they started getting enquiries about off-campus classes and started conducting them in a small way for those who had heard about their effort through word-of-mouth. “We never charged our colleagues for the lessons, and initially the classes held outside were also free. But people showed a lack of seriousness and would often drop out or miss classes, and we realized that we’d have to start charging them so that they take this seriously,” explains Mayur.

AN ORGANIZED EFFORT That’s when they embarked on the plan to create a fullfledged Kannada school.They registered it as a partnership and branded their unique effort as the ‘Kannada Learning School’, with its own logo,website and Facebook and Twitter pages. “Since we have devised our own lesson plans over the years, along with teaching modules and techniques that are uniquely our own,we needed to protect this intellectual property,” says Mayur.

These modules and methods are what make the Kannada Learning School so popular. Currently, batches for the four-week basic course commence each month and are held at the Seva Sadan Institute in Koramangala. Classes are held over two hours every Saturday and Sunday, and each batch has around 20 students with two tutors taking them through the paces. Classes are followed up by slides and assignments, which are usually emailed to students. The social media-savvy group also posts a word-of-the-day on its Facebook page every day, making the process of learning interactive, and fun.

“These processes were created and refined over two years,” says Mayur, who asserts that while they don’t claim to be able to teach ‘perfect’ Kannada within a month, they do make sure students can easily converse in the language in everyday scenarios.

“Also, we create a foundation on which you can build your knowledge if you have the interest.The more you use the language continuously, the more you’ll learn,” he says. The school also has advanced classes for those who want to read and write in Kannada and plans to grow by branching out to different areas. QUITE A HANDFUL

The three young founders laugh out loud when you ask them about the amount of time they spend on this project and if they have any 'free time’. “After work, you’ll find us mailing assignments, correcting them and updating Facebook, etc. On weekends, we are busy teaching. There's no time to go shopping or to watch a film. But because of these classes, we have met so many interesting people, laughed with them and learnt with them. It’s been a great stress-buster,” says Mayur.