I took up Sanskrit, the classical language of ancient India, as an optional language course at school in Secunderabad, in India's Telangana state, because it seemed easier to learn than the only alternative, the South Indian language Telugu. My mother tongue is Gujarati, which is descended from Sanskrit, and learning it seemed effortless.
After school, though, the language gradually dropped out of my system because I did not practice communicating in it. That would have been difficult, since there were no other people around me who could speak it.
