I’ve been pretty lazy and undisciplined overall, but I started learning Sanskrit seriously about four years ago. After that, my learning slowed down a lot, but I kept coming back to it now and then.
About a year ago, I picked up Kalidasa’s Meghaduta. I started reading it slowly, looking up a dictionary for almost every other word. I didn’t really have a strong grasp of grammar, so I was learning declensions and conjugations along the way as I read.
At the same time, I was also reading classical Telugu and trying to understand that too. Somehow, things started connecting, and I just kept going.
Today I realized something. When I read a padyam or a shloka from Kalidasa now, I can understand around 80 percent of it. And with Mallinatha’s commentary, I can pretty much get close to 100.
I’m now in the Uttara Megha part, so around 70 percent through the text. It took me about a year to reach here.
I still can’t speak Sanskrit fluently or compose shlokas, but I’ve definitely improved in understanding.
So yeah, I guess consistency works in mysterious ways. And the text that was mumbo jumbo to me at the start, now is basically very endearing. I get why Kalidasa deserves all the hype!