Srinagar:One language dies every 14 days. By the next century nearly halfof the 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will likely disappear. Losing a mothertongue is like losing one's existence. One can survive without the riches ofthe world but can one survive without mother tongue. In Kashmir, however, weare willing partner in crime of burying our mother tongue Kashmiri. Everylanguage spoken in the world represents a special culture, melody, color, andasset and to everyone the mother language is certainly one of the most precioustreasures in our lives. It is common knowledge that there are a good number ofschools in Kashmir valley which punish students for talking in Kashmiri. Thisis unheard of elsewhere in the world. In Germany and France, for example,children are motivated to learn every lesson in French and German. LearningScience and Mathematics through one's mother tongue is comparatively easier ascompared to learning these subjects through a foreign language. It is calledmother tongue because during infancy the child subconsciously learns the basicstructure of this language and thus has the highest potential to gaincompetence in this language. A majority of the greatest scientists in the worldhave learnt science in mother tongue. Or for that matter the greatest literaturein the world has almost all been written in the mother tongue. We need toincentivise learning and speaking Kashmiri. It is good that Kashmiri is nowessentially taught at the elementary and middle level in all government as wellas private schools across the valley. We need to institutionalize our language.Right now individual researches are going on. We need more translations. Moreand more greatest ever books should be available in Kashmiri. Most importantlywe must speak in Kashmiri with our children. That is the most important thing.We hope that we love our mother tongue not just for the sake of it, but forpromoting it, incentivizing it and expanding it.