I rushed to enter Harry Potter – The Deathly Hallows (part 1) movie at 7pm to ensure I didn’t miss even the titles, but was tortured with 20 mins of Hindi advertisements. Well I was not in Delhi or in a Hindi movie. Why the hell am I shown ads in Hindi where the majority of the population DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HINDI. I am at Chennai PVR Cinemas to watch an English movie. Obviously, majority of the audience understood English. So why not have the dialogues for the ads in English? If you wanted to localize, then why not localize it in the state’s language which is TAMIL? I used to wonder this even in Bangalore. Why not Kannada, why Hindi? I can perfectly understand if it was a Hindi movie. But why for an English or worse a Tamil movie? Or else, why don't you just put music or mimes instead of having an unknown language? I just felt like banging their heads with a frying pan, the minds who come with these wonderful foolish narrow-minded ideas. Why narrow-minded? I will explain. For all the non-violent readers there, the frying pan is this blog :-)
When I was working for the client InstallShield, Mike tried saying something in Hindi and I said I don’t know Hindi well. He was astonished and asked “Isn't Hindi your national language?” I immediately exclaimed "NO”. I explained India is a country of diversity and there are around 21 regional official languages and many more languages and dialects. He was shocked and said “Wow”. Shouldnt every Indian be proud of our diversity and mention that instead of saying just “Hindi”? When I visited US, I realized how he got that idea. There was a North Indian girl (I don’t remember which state), who spoke to me in Hindi. I politely said “I don’t know to speak Hindi”. Well, anyone can guess her reaction. Whichever ignorant "Indian" proclaims "Hindi as national language" please read here that "Neither the Constitution of India, nor any Indian law defines any national language."
I once went to Hiedelberg and all my colleagues insisted in going to Raja Rani. Just a few days from India and they are already yearning for Indian food. I was interested in trying some native veg salads. But one has to adjust with the crowd phobia (or philia in this case). So we went to this Punjabi restaurant called Raja Rani at Hiedelberg. I ordered some Roti and some subji which is irrelevant. The so-called “patriotic” Sikh replied in Hindi and I said “I am sorry. I don’t understand Hindi. Can you please speak in English?”. He was infuriated and yelled at me “It is a shame. We came to India 40 years ago and still we had not forgotten our land’s national language. You are coming from India and you don’t know Hindi?”. Well that was rude especially in front of European onlookers. I quietly said “Well, in our part of India, we have still not accepted Hindi as a official language” with a smile. Well with his expression, I thought he is going to come straight hit me. He asked with hatred “Where are you coming from?”. Well, “Pondicherry, which is near Tamil Nadu”. He shrugged and started giving me a gyan “We Indians should be united. I have taught my children Hindi though they are brought up here so that they don’t forget India”. Well, I immediately wanted to ask “Did you teach your children Punjabi, which actually is your mother tongue?” Well, if you take pride in teaching something of your origin, then why dont you teach it relevantly? If you chose Hindi over Punjabi, that is your personal choice and I am not questioning it provided you don't question why I can't speak Hindi. This is clear dominance to say the least. I didn’t want to start a fight there and didnt say any of this and I disinterestedly said “Ok” and walked back to my table. Well he had specially put a ton of salt in the subji so that I get the point. I asked my colleagues whether their food was good. My colleagues said theirs was delicious. I just couldn’t stop grinning at his silliness / craziness while eating the salty food.
In Wipro also, I was given “gyan” by colleagues to learn Hindi and they did try teaching me a few words. Point is they didn’t learn a word in Tamil though they stayed 3 months in Chennai.
Anyway, just to make things clear. I have no aversion towards Hindi. Or that matter to any language. But why hail Hindi and forget others? If we start teaching children Hindi as the second language avoiding our mother tongue, two or three generations down the line, all the other languages will become extinct. Oh yes, and, they will remember this anglicized Hindi of the bollywood, not of Kabir’s. Now the other proposition of Hindi as a mandatory third language is just insane. What if someone is handicapped with language skills like me? Their career rat race will get additionally stalled by the low marks in languages. It should be, yes, provided as an option for interested students. And it should be taught as a language and not as academics. For that matter there should be choices of other languages and just not Hindi. Just like an option of music or fine arts or martials arts.
Let me elaborate.
I used to love singing class at school, whereas my fellow classmates used to crib. They will sing in “apaswaram” or better still just lip sync. I used to think why can’t school provide options as per individuals interests instead of forcing everyone to one. If there was an option to take Hindi class during my school days, I would have been the first to enrol. Not because it is a so called “official language”, but because I would like to learn Hindi songs and watch movies. (Ofcourse I didn't want to murder Hindi like Sadhana sargam murders Tamil now. She has got a great voice, but just pathetic pronounciation that deems her unfit to sing Tamil songs.)
Since there was no option at school, I had convinced my parents to join me to a Prathmic class. The first day I was filled with dreams that few months down the line, I will speak fluently like Madhuri Dixit. I planned I will scold my sister in Hindi so that she won’t understand;-) Wow, I will learn all Hindi songs and make a collection :D.
Well, the reality was I tried my best to learn in that hot sun under the thatch roof. My parents were furious when I “just pass”ed the Prathmic class. I immediately blamed the teacher ("Aada theriyathavanuku meda konal" For one who does not know to dance, will say the stage is uneven) and said I would join Maruthi tution centre and promised them I wouldn’t ask more if I failed there. Well, I “just pass”ed in Madhyama also. I just couldn’t learn Hindi despite my attempts. I sucked big time in learning Hindi.
After a few years, after my X std, I again did another drama and forced my parents to join me in Alliance Francais and strictly told them I will take only French as second language in XI and XII Std. And God/Devil only knows how I passed my XI and XII Std without knowing a word of French. Well mug up and vomit. Once vomited automatically it clears the brain? :-)
After I went to Bangalore, with all interest, I bought the 30 days learn kannada. Well it still decorates my book shelf. Then joined kannada classes at ulsoor and gave a tough time to the teachers there. Though having stayed 5 years in total in Bangalore, I still miserably failed in learning proper Kannada though I can understand something.
Next was the torture I gave to Gisela joining her German classes. She was such a sweet German teacher. Still, after several attempts, well can I say I lost interest or failed? Whatever! In a nutshell, I suck big time in learning languages. Did I mention my attempt to learn Hindi through correspondence course from Hindi Prachar Sabha? Well, I did religiously all the assignment and sent them and infact also attended the exam with Gayathri. Well don’t ask me the results. (you know it). Not to mention the fat self-learn books that fill my book shelf.
I feel sad that Mahatma Gandhi, who had struggled so much for the rights of the minorities when it came to religion, was quick to say Hindi should be the national/official language because it is spoken by majority of the population. Well, one of his grand mistakes. Why support minority of religion alone, but not of language? I love his non-violence and ahimsa, but definitely feel he had created injustice here. Let me explain why.
The whole world had forcibly learnt one language “English” because of the brutal British empire who masked as traders, but were actual infiltrators. Obviously since these idiotic rulers couldn’t get the local language, so the intelligent localites learnt English for the ease of communication. I was surprised to know from Mike Byrne, the majority of “current American” population has Germanic origins and not English(Saxon). However for whatsoever reason, they had adopted English as the nation’s language. So we like it or not, we had accepted English to be the international language. I can’t ask for directions in English in Germany or France is a different story. But atleast for practical convenience the majority has adopted English for survival. So be it. So we all Indians have already the challenge of learning the foreign language for survival. Well, if you had attempted to teach English to rural children who have Tamil or Kannada as their medium of education, you will get to understand how foreign it is. So should you additionally burden these poor folks with another unknown language?
When we are a nation of such diverse languages, shouldn’t each localite preserve his/hers? If you are going to Bangalore, why do you learn Hindi? Why don’t you learn Kannada? Atleast you will attempt to sound like a localite rather than faking as if you were somewhere from the North. If you are a dud like me and is incapable of speaking anything other than what you already know, then it is understandable. But I don't go about asking in Uttaranchal why are you not able to speak Tamil. So why do you do that when you step in Tamil Nadu? For the non-Hindi folks, if anyway you will have to learn another language from your own because you are linguistically in a different state, why not learn that local language? When in Bengal, why not learn Bengali? When in Maharashtra, why not learn Marathi? Don’t give me these lame excuses, if I learn Hindi, I can survive in any part of India, even if it is not a Hindi state. You can probably survive in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata. But not in Hassan, Guntur, well, the rest of majority population of non-Hindi language states. If you are a city traveller, then learning Hindi for that convenience by your choice is perfectly fine. But forcing and awkwardly questioning who do not make that choice or miserably failed at that choice (a few like me) is obscene, dominant and idiotic.
Stop advocating “Hindi is our national language”. We are a nation of diversity and let’s preserve our own local language or whatever that is left of it. It is just not for Hindi. I don’t wish Konkani to die at the cost of Kannada either if it does. Wherever there is need for a common language to communicate, English is more than enough. Why fake patriotism here? Like cursing the Pakistanis to lose in a cricket match. As for me whoever is skilled and really playing well, let them win. I think it is high time we all understand nations are there only for administrative convenience and not to cause hatred and enmity to the neighbouring ones. If your patriotism causes hatred towards another nation then it is working against humanity. If you are truly patriotic, you will go and serve in an interior village of another state. That shows integrity. Don’t you have the minimum awareness that you are just life and all these identities are just picked up? Whether it is the human form or the badges of India, Tamil, Hindu, etc, it’s still clothes. So why don’t you choose to be a human than an Indian?
I appreciate the Americans who voiced against the IRAQ war. But was disgusted to know Bush was re-elected after the IRAQ war. This is a classic example that the wise and inclusive humans are the minority and the “so called” patriots are the majority.
A German NRI friend who visited recently India was arguing “This is how it should be. Yes Tamil will die in course of time. So what? Don’t we need one language to unite us all?”. I said an emphatic “No”. We already have English which unites the whole educated world. I don’t think there is any necessity of any further division of unity. You will have to learn German to survive in Germany right? So why don’t you learn Telugu when you are in Andhra, Bengali in Bengal, Tamil in Tamil nadu? This is like telling France and German should learn English to unite Europe Union.
If you argue these are states and the others are countries, please know that literally each State Government acts as if they are a different country. Don’t you know the classic Cauvery issue? Dont you know that I cant refund the road tax of Karnataka in Tamil Nadu and will have to painfully pay Road tax here also? Worse still, I have to pay an entry tax also to bring a Karnataka vehicle into Tamil nadu. There are thousands of hassles that are different from state to state, which virtually operates as an individual entity for administrative purposes. So in a broader sense they administratively act as separate entities.
It is said that cosmonauts and astronauts who stay in space for long periods of time return as completely changed human beings (for the positive). For one, they do not see the map borders between nations and states from space. So what is the great deal whether you compare countries or states? When you want to divide you can divide uptil an individual, if you want to unite, you rather unite life. Why take these administrative borders so seriously and try to unite within these fake boundaries?
I do understand that there are a few transferable jobs which require the family to travel state to state. However, in such cases they keeping the second language uniform by having Hindi as the second language makes sense, as all KVs (Kendra Vidyalaya schools) have Hindi as the second language.
So my point is, if Hindi has to kill the other 21 or more regional languages to unite, I rather prefer I don’t have yet another unifying language. In fact, I oppose having this unifying language. Let the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha happen in English. Atleast then we will get educated masses in as politicians. It is great to be polyglot by choice, but not by force! It is great to acknowledge and cherish a multi-lingual culture than to destroy it in the name of "patriotism" and false unification.
Tamil (Tamizh) had been devolving due to a vast influence of Sanskrit (Samskrutam). Half the people do not even know Tamil is an age old independent language existed without the influence of other languages and it was slowly polluted by Sanskrit pundits and “yes” many words replaced and forgotten. Everyone is using “Santosham”, who is using “magizhchi”? I own it up I do not know many of the real tamil words because in my generation the usage is extinct. Anyway this can’t be reversed. Even someone who talks “Tamil is my moochu, pechu” says “udaya suryan”. Suryan is a derived word from Sanskrit (Even udaya is). Aadhavan is the tamil word. This is the state of the so called Tamil leaders. Anyway I am not the literary kind and Sanskrit is a beautiful language without question. And it has seeped through almost all Indian languages. No complaints. But now English has seeped and polluted all if not most of the Indian languages. There are many languages which are not polluted by Hindi. But all are polluted by English. So while you have already imbibed, accepted English unconsciously or consciously in your language whatsoever it may be, why oppose English to be an official language? If you can speak every day in your life without one word of English in your whatever Indian language or Hindi, and you could influence your entire state to follow the same, then you oppose English. Or else just zip it up! Hindi is as foreign and difficult to learn for non-Hindi speaking states and we don't want to go through this torture of forcible conversion!
When I was working for the client InstallShield, Mike tried saying something in Hindi and I said I don’t know Hindi well. He was astonished and asked “Isn't Hindi your national language?” I immediately exclaimed "NO”. I explained India is a country of diversity and there are around 21 regional official languages and many more languages and dialects. He was shocked and said “Wow”. Shouldnt every Indian be proud of our diversity and mention that instead of saying just “Hindi”? When I visited US, I realized how he got that idea. There was a North Indian girl (I don’t remember which state), who spoke to me in Hindi. I politely said “I don’t know to speak Hindi”. Well, anyone can guess her reaction. Whichever ignorant "Indian" proclaims "Hindi as national language" please read here that "Neither the Constitution of India, nor any Indian law defines any national language."
I once went to Hiedelberg and all my colleagues insisted in going to Raja Rani. Just a few days from India and they are already yearning for Indian food. I was interested in trying some native veg salads. But one has to adjust with the crowd phobia (or philia in this case). So we went to this Punjabi restaurant called Raja Rani at Hiedelberg. I ordered some Roti and some subji which is irrelevant. The so-called “patriotic” Sikh replied in Hindi and I said “I am sorry. I don’t understand Hindi. Can you please speak in English?”. He was infuriated and yelled at me “It is a shame. We came to India 40 years ago and still we had not forgotten our land’s national language. You are coming from India and you don’t know Hindi?”. Well that was rude especially in front of European onlookers. I quietly said “Well, in our part of India, we have still not accepted Hindi as a official language” with a smile. Well with his expression, I thought he is going to come straight hit me. He asked with hatred “Where are you coming from?”. Well, “Pondicherry, which is near Tamil Nadu”. He shrugged and started giving me a gyan “We Indians should be united. I have taught my children Hindi though they are brought up here so that they don’t forget India”. Well, I immediately wanted to ask “Did you teach your children Punjabi, which actually is your mother tongue?” Well, if you take pride in teaching something of your origin, then why dont you teach it relevantly? If you chose Hindi over Punjabi, that is your personal choice and I am not questioning it provided you don't question why I can't speak Hindi. This is clear dominance to say the least. I didn’t want to start a fight there and didnt say any of this and I disinterestedly said “Ok” and walked back to my table. Well he had specially put a ton of salt in the subji so that I get the point. I asked my colleagues whether their food was good. My colleagues said theirs was delicious. I just couldn’t stop grinning at his silliness / craziness while eating the salty food.
In Wipro also, I was given “gyan” by colleagues to learn Hindi and they did try teaching me a few words. Point is they didn’t learn a word in Tamil though they stayed 3 months in Chennai.
Anyway, just to make things clear. I have no aversion towards Hindi. Or that matter to any language. But why hail Hindi and forget others? If we start teaching children Hindi as the second language avoiding our mother tongue, two or three generations down the line, all the other languages will become extinct. Oh yes, and, they will remember this anglicized Hindi of the bollywood, not of Kabir’s. Now the other proposition of Hindi as a mandatory third language is just insane. What if someone is handicapped with language skills like me? Their career rat race will get additionally stalled by the low marks in languages. It should be, yes, provided as an option for interested students. And it should be taught as a language and not as academics. For that matter there should be choices of other languages and just not Hindi. Just like an option of music or fine arts or martials arts.
Let me elaborate.
I used to love singing class at school, whereas my fellow classmates used to crib. They will sing in “apaswaram” or better still just lip sync. I used to think why can’t school provide options as per individuals interests instead of forcing everyone to one. If there was an option to take Hindi class during my school days, I would have been the first to enrol. Not because it is a so called “official language”, but because I would like to learn Hindi songs and watch movies. (Ofcourse I didn't want to murder Hindi like Sadhana sargam murders Tamil now. She has got a great voice, but just pathetic pronounciation that deems her unfit to sing Tamil songs.)
Since there was no option at school, I had convinced my parents to join me to a Prathmic class. The first day I was filled with dreams that few months down the line, I will speak fluently like Madhuri Dixit. I planned I will scold my sister in Hindi so that she won’t understand;-) Wow, I will learn all Hindi songs and make a collection :D.
Well, the reality was I tried my best to learn in that hot sun under the thatch roof. My parents were furious when I “just pass”ed the Prathmic class. I immediately blamed the teacher ("Aada theriyathavanuku meda konal" For one who does not know to dance, will say the stage is uneven) and said I would join Maruthi tution centre and promised them I wouldn’t ask more if I failed there. Well, I “just pass”ed in Madhyama also. I just couldn’t learn Hindi despite my attempts. I sucked big time in learning Hindi.
After a few years, after my X std, I again did another drama and forced my parents to join me in Alliance Francais and strictly told them I will take only French as second language in XI and XII Std. And God/Devil only knows how I passed my XI and XII Std without knowing a word of French. Well mug up and vomit. Once vomited automatically it clears the brain? :-)
After I went to Bangalore, with all interest, I bought the 30 days learn kannada. Well it still decorates my book shelf. Then joined kannada classes at ulsoor and gave a tough time to the teachers there. Though having stayed 5 years in total in Bangalore, I still miserably failed in learning proper Kannada though I can understand something.
Next was the torture I gave to Gisela joining her German classes. She was such a sweet German teacher. Still, after several attempts, well can I say I lost interest or failed? Whatever! In a nutshell, I suck big time in learning languages. Did I mention my attempt to learn Hindi through correspondence course from Hindi Prachar Sabha? Well, I did religiously all the assignment and sent them and infact also attended the exam with Gayathri. Well don’t ask me the results. (you know it). Not to mention the fat self-learn books that fill my book shelf.
I feel sad that Mahatma Gandhi, who had struggled so much for the rights of the minorities when it came to religion, was quick to say Hindi should be the national/official language because it is spoken by majority of the population. Well, one of his grand mistakes. Why support minority of religion alone, but not of language? I love his non-violence and ahimsa, but definitely feel he had created injustice here. Let me explain why.
The whole world had forcibly learnt one language “English” because of the brutal British empire who masked as traders, but were actual infiltrators. Obviously since these idiotic rulers couldn’t get the local language, so the intelligent localites learnt English for the ease of communication. I was surprised to know from Mike Byrne, the majority of “current American” population has Germanic origins and not English(Saxon). However for whatsoever reason, they had adopted English as the nation’s language. So we like it or not, we had accepted English to be the international language. I can’t ask for directions in English in Germany or France is a different story. But atleast for practical convenience the majority has adopted English for survival. So be it. So we all Indians have already the challenge of learning the foreign language for survival. Well, if you had attempted to teach English to rural children who have Tamil or Kannada as their medium of education, you will get to understand how foreign it is. So should you additionally burden these poor folks with another unknown language?
When we are a nation of such diverse languages, shouldn’t each localite preserve his/hers? If you are going to Bangalore, why do you learn Hindi? Why don’t you learn Kannada? Atleast you will attempt to sound like a localite rather than faking as if you were somewhere from the North. If you are a dud like me and is incapable of speaking anything other than what you already know, then it is understandable. But I don't go about asking in Uttaranchal why are you not able to speak Tamil. So why do you do that when you step in Tamil Nadu? For the non-Hindi folks, if anyway you will have to learn another language from your own because you are linguistically in a different state, why not learn that local language? When in Bengal, why not learn Bengali? When in Maharashtra, why not learn Marathi? Don’t give me these lame excuses, if I learn Hindi, I can survive in any part of India, even if it is not a Hindi state. You can probably survive in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata. But not in Hassan, Guntur, well, the rest of majority population of non-Hindi language states. If you are a city traveller, then learning Hindi for that convenience by your choice is perfectly fine. But forcing and awkwardly questioning who do not make that choice or miserably failed at that choice (a few like me) is obscene, dominant and idiotic.
Stop advocating “Hindi is our national language”. We are a nation of diversity and let’s preserve our own local language or whatever that is left of it. It is just not for Hindi. I don’t wish Konkani to die at the cost of Kannada either if it does. Wherever there is need for a common language to communicate, English is more than enough. Why fake patriotism here? Like cursing the Pakistanis to lose in a cricket match. As for me whoever is skilled and really playing well, let them win. I think it is high time we all understand nations are there only for administrative convenience and not to cause hatred and enmity to the neighbouring ones. If your patriotism causes hatred towards another nation then it is working against humanity. If you are truly patriotic, you will go and serve in an interior village of another state. That shows integrity. Don’t you have the minimum awareness that you are just life and all these identities are just picked up? Whether it is the human form or the badges of India, Tamil, Hindu, etc, it’s still clothes. So why don’t you choose to be a human than an Indian?
I appreciate the Americans who voiced against the IRAQ war. But was disgusted to know Bush was re-elected after the IRAQ war. This is a classic example that the wise and inclusive humans are the minority and the “so called” patriots are the majority.
A German NRI friend who visited recently India was arguing “This is how it should be. Yes Tamil will die in course of time. So what? Don’t we need one language to unite us all?”. I said an emphatic “No”. We already have English which unites the whole educated world. I don’t think there is any necessity of any further division of unity. You will have to learn German to survive in Germany right? So why don’t you learn Telugu when you are in Andhra, Bengali in Bengal, Tamil in Tamil nadu? This is like telling France and German should learn English to unite Europe Union.
If you argue these are states and the others are countries, please know that literally each State Government acts as if they are a different country. Don’t you know the classic Cauvery issue? Dont you know that I cant refund the road tax of Karnataka in Tamil Nadu and will have to painfully pay Road tax here also? Worse still, I have to pay an entry tax also to bring a Karnataka vehicle into Tamil nadu. There are thousands of hassles that are different from state to state, which virtually operates as an individual entity for administrative purposes. So in a broader sense they administratively act as separate entities.
It is said that cosmonauts and astronauts who stay in space for long periods of time return as completely changed human beings (for the positive). For one, they do not see the map borders between nations and states from space. So what is the great deal whether you compare countries or states? When you want to divide you can divide uptil an individual, if you want to unite, you rather unite life. Why take these administrative borders so seriously and try to unite within these fake boundaries?
I do understand that there are a few transferable jobs which require the family to travel state to state. However, in such cases they keeping the second language uniform by having Hindi as the second language makes sense, as all KVs (Kendra Vidyalaya schools) have Hindi as the second language.
So my point is, if Hindi has to kill the other 21 or more regional languages to unite, I rather prefer I don’t have yet another unifying language. In fact, I oppose having this unifying language. Let the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha happen in English. Atleast then we will get educated masses in as politicians. It is great to be polyglot by choice, but not by force! It is great to acknowledge and cherish a multi-lingual culture than to destroy it in the name of "patriotism" and false unification.
Tamil (Tamizh) had been devolving due to a vast influence of Sanskrit (Samskrutam). Half the people do not even know Tamil is an age old independent language existed without the influence of other languages and it was slowly polluted by Sanskrit pundits and “yes” many words replaced and forgotten. Everyone is using “Santosham”, who is using “magizhchi”? I own it up I do not know many of the real tamil words because in my generation the usage is extinct. Anyway this can’t be reversed. Even someone who talks “Tamil is my moochu, pechu” says “udaya suryan”. Suryan is a derived word from Sanskrit (Even udaya is). Aadhavan is the tamil word. This is the state of the so called Tamil leaders. Anyway I am not the literary kind and Sanskrit is a beautiful language without question. And it has seeped through almost all Indian languages. No complaints. But now English has seeped and polluted all if not most of the Indian languages. There are many languages which are not polluted by Hindi. But all are polluted by English. So while you have already imbibed, accepted English unconsciously or consciously in your language whatsoever it may be, why oppose English to be an official language? If you can speak every day in your life without one word of English in your whatever Indian language or Hindi, and you could influence your entire state to follow the same, then you oppose English. Or else just zip it up! Hindi is as foreign and difficult to learn for non-Hindi speaking states and we don't want to go through this torture of forcible conversion!
You seem to be quite good at "English", which you learnt with ease (or with difficulties) because otherwise you will find it difficult to survive. You must be having English as a compulsory subject in your school days and you never mentioned how many marks you got in that subject.
ReplyDeleteThere are numerous local languages in India and every child learns that from his family and surroundings and not in any schools. Did you learnt to speak tamil from schools?? So when you can learn English at schools why not Hindi? Why learning English is fine but learning Hindi is a forcible conversion, a torture.
And why i am saying Hindi and not marathi, bengali because Hindi is known to a of majority of people in India. And here in India the whole constitution is based on majority. A leader is selected who has got the majority of votes so if we have accepted this concept of majority everywhere else, why this aversion in case of language.
Like English has unified cultures and people across world by making them communicate their expressions. We should try to make our India as one and not split it in Tamil, bengali, marathi etc. I urge you to stop this hatred towards Hindi and promote the cause of making Hindi as compulsory language in schools (as the local language can be learnt through family).
Nice points made throughout. A shame that some see their language as superior to others and will make no effort to learn new ones while expecting others to learn their language.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there's advantage in knowing more languages than u need... in Bangalore, I speak in Tamil most of the time, in Malayalam at provision stores n bakeries, in Hindi with the paani puri walas n in Kannada when I need to catch a bus/auto and without english, I won't be holding my current job :)
I completely agree. Knowing more languages definitely have their advantages.
ReplyDelete@ Sachin - I noticed your comment in SPAM only now and published it. Sorry for the delayed response. Have you interacted with rural children other than Hindi speaking origin? Have you tried teaching them English? I have. I know it is so difficult for them to learn a different language apart from their mother tongue, be it kannada or tamil. In the local school, they teach mainly in kannada or tamil whichever is the state's language. They already go through the struggle of learning a foreign language which is absolutely required for economic survival. Why should anyone go through the trouble of learning an extra language? Out of my interest, if I learn Hindi, that is a different story. But why should it be made compulsory? Why should you unite India with a language. Unity in diversity is the beauty of our country. Why kill it? Do you mean everyone should eat Aloo or curd rice to unite India? NO. Similarly let there be Hindi, let there be Marathi, let there be Bengali, let there be Tamil. I dont think there is any reason for removing the co-existance of other languages and forcible conversion to a language which by chance is the majority. It is like saying let's have one religion. Ok Majority of India is Hindu. So shall we convert the whole country to Hindus? Wont it be ridiculous to teach Vedas compulsorily to everyone? It is my preference to be an atheist or religious or whatever. Similarly, it is my personal freedom to learn a language. Where in my blog did I say I hate Hindi? Hindi is a beautiful language. I am still trying to learn Hindi personally because I like to understand some nice songs. But I DEFINITELY oppose the fact of forcible conversion. I think it is idiotic to load the poor students with yet another subject compulsorily. And I definitely would promote the cause of stopping Hindi from making it compulsory anywhere.
ReplyDelete