Italian couple reaches cotton hill school, completes Hindi exam

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Namaskar…aap kaise ho” goes the welcoming gesture from the couple to some befuddled north Indian tourists. Yes, they have their reasons to be shocked since the Hindi gesture of welcome comes from an Italian couple. Their Hindi is ne plus ultra. No cragged sentences or breaking of words. Mavo Sarendri and Marina Matiyoli speak Hindi like their vernacular Italian. Their talks and the effortless convo are a marvel in itself.

The couple got engrossed in the language and started studying Hindi just seven months back. On Saturday they appeared in the cotton hill school to write the Hindi Prachara sabha conducted Pradhama exams. Highly hopeful of the results, the couple wants to continue further with exams of Doosari and wants to end in Sahityacharya. The couple owns a homestay where most tourists hail from North India. It makes a perfect setting for the two Italians to aggrandize their knowledge of the Hindi language with conversations. The couple came to Prachar sabha to learn spoken Hindi but got lured into the other courses provided.

The two from Italy came to India 17 years back. They resided in Kovalam and then started a homestay. They happily imbibed the culture of India and expresses their desire to be on this soil forever. They look soon to gaining Indian citizenship. As a start, they want to prove their mettle in the national language. Both of them love poems by Premchand.

The couple have embraced Hinduism even during their time in Italy. They have two sons, the elder one Claude is a doctor in Italy. The second one Vishnupad is a Hindu preacher in Italy. Contrary to their flawless rendering of Hindi, the two only speak tidbits of Malayalam and find the language very difficult.