My first sanskrit lesson

I had been browsing NCERT's online textbooks and I find sanskrit lessons for class 6 pdf.. I had been wanting to learn sanskrit for a long time.. It should be easy compared to other languages like japanese, in the sense it uses devanagari script which I already know.. So just have to learn grammar rules.. I remember long ago when I was doing a computer course in 1999 there used to be a boy who was also doing a computer course. He used to call myself and my sister as his sister(akka) and he knew sanskrit and I was to learn sanskrit.. but he used to talk of how difficult it is to learn sanskrit and that not all will be able to learn it and only elite few can learn etc.. so the myth is about to be broken.. since the script is similar to hindi, even I can't make out the meanings of the sentences atleast I would be able to read them without difficulty and also if I finish reading this... then I would like to learn Latin.. Like sanskrit is to Indian languages, Latin is to European languages... so I think I would never have dearth of languages to learn, as I can always add one or the other to my list of languages to learn.. I had been referring to the sanskrit dictionary to get the names of birds for my website, www.languagereef.com and I find it odd that the way it is written is different in dictionaries and the NCERT book I was referring to. So how to I confirm which is right and which one is not... I have no way of acertaining.. Maybe I have to check with my teach yourself Sanskrit book..
I just now realised it is an ordinary blog with no lessons in it... so what do I do.. add the lesson in my next blog.. or maybe I can just list few rules as I learnt in the book now..
1. ratha - a car is masculine whereas chinta - reflection is feminine.
2. A sanskrit noun in the dictionary is in the crude form.
3. By adding to or otherwise changing the crude form of the noun, seven different forms of cases are obtained. These altered forms are cases.
4. 1st - Nominative/Subjective case.. if the noun denotes the subject spoken of in a sentence then it is called subjective case.
अ ->अ:
इ -> इ:
उ->उ:
ऋ->आ
Neuter nouns ending in अ a make the Nominative in अं am.
I will try to answer the first exercise tomorrow.. Time to sleep now..
Namaste - 
hajimemashita.