Saral ---easy.

Since we set foot in the holy hilly town[Rishikesh],on the banks of the river Ganges, it was raining cats and dogs.

My room in the Ashram had no TV . As there was no let up in the heavy down pour,I needed urgently to know what lay ahead.The news papers were all in Hindi. I hadn't read a single Hindi book or magazine since I closed my text books in the final exams of class 10.I wondered whetherI would be able to understand the written contents.

I need not have bothered,. reading the locally available Hindi news paper was like reading a English newspaper with a fair sprinkling of Hindi words!Every sentence had a English word[ written in Hindi]

The following words within quotes ,presented me with the key to understand the sentences. The main news was that the State of Uttarakund was receiving unprecedented rains [ last being 40 years earlier]and that the govt was on ''high alert''. The "cabinet meeting" was called off so that all ministers could take part in" relief "works.

An article on "life tools" in a "mobile"that helped farmers greatly had the following words 'fertilisers','dictionary','pesticides', 'tips', 'live cricket score'and so on. An interview with a actor had used these words 'acting', 'doctor' etc.This generous infiltration ,rendered the task of reading the Hindi newspaper as easy as reading the back of my hand!