Hello!
My name is Mansi Bajaj. I’m a lector in Hindi at Yale University, where I teach Hindi across a range of language proficiencies to both heritage and non-heritage learners. This website was created to provide teachers of heritage Hindi classes at the university level with a resource for lesson planning and instruction around social issues. The materials on this site can easily be adapted to teach other levels of Hindi classes, and may offer inspiration to teachers of other languages.
Language classes provide students with the means to talk about the issues and topics they are passionate about. This website seeks to invite and amplify student voices in the selection of teaching materials, discussion topics, and prompts. The resources and ideas published on this site have been the products of interactions with students at the University of Texas, Austin (2019–2022) and Yale (2022–2024). I am particularly grateful to Spring 2021 Class 1 at UT for finding and testing out many of the initial materials for my classes.
I have been extremely lucky to have benefited from a number of mentors in my teaching career thus far. Professors Rupert Snell, Akbar Syed Hyder, and Dalpat Rajpurohit have been immensely encouraging and supportive—far more than I deserve. Professor Gautami Shah has always believed in me, encouraged me to explore my passions, and introduced me to unexpected opportunities. Through innumerable conversations, exploring a wide range of perspectives, she has inspired me time and again. This website is one such example, and owes a debt of gratitude to Inclusive Hindi, which Professor Shah created as a resource for Hindi language teachers. I am deeply grateful to Professor Swapna Sharma, who has provided immense support and motivation during my time at Yale.
This website is supported by an Instructional Innovation Grant from the Center for Language Study in Fall 2023 and a Belonging at Yale Grant from the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning in Spring 2024. It remains a work in progress, and I continue to update the materials here on a regular basis. To quote Jonathan Perkins (University of Kansas), “OER is like having a child.” We look forward to raising this one for years to come.
Mansi Bajaj
Student Fellows
My name is Aly Moosa (he, they), and I am a senior studying Computer Science and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration. During my sophomore year, I decided to take Hindi–on the heritage track–with Mansi-ji. As a Pakistani-American, I grew up speaking Urdu in my household, and while I know that Hindi and Urdu are similar, I recognized that with a different writing system and historical context, Hindi would allow me to express my South Asian identity in another way. Through Mansi-ji’s class, I explored various topics such as mental health, family dynamics, gender, religion, and war, culminating with a short film around lavender marriages within South Asian culture. I had the pleasure of working with Mansi-ji my junior year as a Pedagogical Partner through the Poorvu Center at Yale. Through this experience, I collaborated with Mansi-ji to augment her class to reflect the progress of her students. I am eternally grateful for Mansi-ji trusting me with this work and allowing me to use my own experiences to help shape the classroom environment. Taking Hindi with Mansi-ji was one of the best decisions I have ever made at Yale, and I am thrilled to see where her work takes her. When I’m not working or studying, you can find me going to the gym, trying new recipes, or catching the train to New York to get a tattoo.
Daevan Mangalmurti (he, his) graduated from Yale University in 2024 with a double major in Ethics, Politics and Economics and South Asian Studies. After enrolling in Hindi courses at Yale as a heritage learner, he was inspired by his Hindi professors, Seema Khurana and Swapna Sharma, to pursue an Advanced Language Certificate in Hindi. He is enthusiastic about making Hindi learners comfortable discussing a range of topics in the language, and he believes in providing learners with the tools and vocabulary to grapple with complex topics such as mental health and casteism. He is proud to have contributed to Mansiji’s effort to create a more inclusive Hindi pedagogy, and to have concluded his time at Yale in a similar way to how he started: engaging with the Hindi language.
Pranav Pattatathunaduvil (he, his) is a first year MPP student in the Yale Jackson School’s BA/MPP program in Global Affairs. He has a deep interest in the Indo-Pacific region, especially US-India relations, the US-China competition in developing nations, and the role that technology can play in achieving a positive foreign policy vision for the region. This specific passion for studying India led him to start taking Hindi classes at Yale, where he has truly fallen in love with the language. He has previously interned for the U.S. State Department’s Pakistan Desk, the Hudson Institute’s South Asia team, and the Special Competitive Studies Project. This summer, he will be the only student interning directly for Admiral Samuel Paparo, the Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. Pranav previously received the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Scholarship, which is a full-ride merit scholarship for 4 students nationwide to attend any US university. He was also the 2021 National Champion in International Extemporaneous Speaking, an activity where students give speeches regarding global issues after limited preparation time. Pranav became interested in supporting the website project as a way of giving back, especially after how instrumental the Yale Hindi program had been in his own educational and personal growth. He also viewed the project as an opportunity to more deeply engage with the themes that he had the chance to first learn about in his classes with Mansi Ji. Pranav was born in Kerala, India and lives in Plano, Texas.
Hi! I’m Pranet Sharma (he, his), a junior in Berkeley College at Yale, studying Physics, Economics, and Computer Science. I’ve grown up all around the world, but currently call North Carolina his home. I speak Hindi and Marathi with my family. I worked on the first design and scaffolding for the website, and was drawn to Mansiji’s innovative way of connecting modern Hindi speakers to both their futures and their heritage.
At Yale, I’m involved in research on building quantum computers with the Yale Quantum Institute. I also dance with Yale Jashan Bhangra, and am a Yale First-Year Outdoor Orientation Trip leader. You can find me listening to music, reading, and hiking in my free time, while talking about the universe to anyone who will listen.
Shrea Tyagi (she, her) is a student, neuroscience researcher, and cross-cultural health advocate at Yale University whose work explores the intersection of scientific innovation and cultural narratives in healthcare. In Mansiji’s Hindi class was where Shrea’s interest in discussing important societal topics — namely health-related stigma — became a realized passion.
Her research on societal topics in Hindi contexts examines how cultural frameworks influence perceptions of chronic illness, particularly inflammatory bowel diseases within South Asian populations. Through her upcoming research at AIIMS in India, she will be investigating how culture-specific health narratives emerge in South Asian communities and how these narratives impact patient experiences and treatment outcomes.
As Founder of The AutoKind Collective, Shrea leads international dialogues that bridge Western medical frameworks with cultural practices, facilitating conversations in Iraq, India, and other countries to create guiding materials for cultural competency within mainstream medical discourse. One of her works – in collaboration with AIIMS – explores how traditional cultural elements like Bharatanatyam dance can be integrated into chronic disease management, creating culturally responsive care models that resonate with South Asian populations.
In her free time, Shrea is on the board of Yale Dhvani, the South Asian classical music club, and is captain of Yale Kalaa, the South Asian classical dance team, where she examines how artistic traditions expressed in Hindi and other South Asian languages create frameworks for understanding globally-relevant topics.
Shrea is deeply committed to establishing globally relevant topics within South Asian contexts because she believes that culturally-informed healthcare represents both a moral imperative and a practical necessity. By incorporating indigenous knowledge systems and cultural expressions into medical discourse, she works to address the profound disparities that arise when healthcare models fail to acknowledge cultural contexts. Her passion stems from witnessing firsthand how connecting topics to language and culture can open up avenues for more detailed and revealing conversation. In this belief, she’s been more than grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to this website.
Shreya Menon (they, them) is a recent MPP graduate from Yale’s Jackson School, focused on gender justice and inclusive policy-making. They previously worked as a social impact consultant in Mumbai, and led trainings on gender sensitivity, sexual diversity, and care work. They were grateful to study under Mansi ji’s incredible instruction in the spring semester’s Accelerated Hindi course, where they analyzed social and political concepts through Hindi-language media. Shreya was grateful to contribute to a curriculum that uses popular culture for vital pedagogical work.