My tryst with languages has been that of, love-hate. Education, across a string of schools and cities throws at you challenges, of what some might recall, as 2nd and 3rd languages. Compulsory languages, that you had to cross the mark on, to make it to the next grade. I had my encounters with Hindi, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Sanskrit and acquainted myself with French and Urdu. Thankfully, English was the marathon friend.
When it came to taking a second language, for boards, the hoity-toity had, French. As much as, the bourgeois bug appealed to me, I had to resign to Hindi “A”. Then, I had kicked myself for not having scored lesser, so that I could have been assigned to the batch of Hindi “B”. The scholarly subscribed to Sanskrit- oh boy, for that cramming! I have a fundamental disconnect with the whole, memorizing without understanding, school of education, but addressing that would merit an entire post. Honestly, I would have opted for neither French, nor Sanskrit, or the long tail German, Russian, and more. It’s the lack of choices, which sets you off on the “what if” mode. Sometimes, no option is not such a bad option, after all. It makes life simple.
In my brushes with Bengali and Gurmukhi, I learnt to read and write them. Speaking was another league, a preposterous one. Cat got my tongue, voice box would collapse, heart beat and swimming head competed to win the dash, eyes shied away from contact. It remains, a different league.
The task at hand, then, was to prepare sufficiently enough to decode the examination. Put a bunch of symbols together to, string essays, long answers, stories, letters to score 40 or 44/100. Modus operandi – out of the examination hall, out of mind. Admittedly, it was an art. An art of, shallow learning. On the brighter side, your formative years expose you to endless abilities, most of which you are not aware of and look back at, with bewilderment. As we mature we give in to self-doubt. Self-doubt, that stems from a constant monologue in our head telling us “now we know better- we were kids then-boundless” Interestingly, that ability to do unthinkable things is easy to replicate. Look at what one was a couple of years back, and the same feeling takes over-how did I do it then?
Little flair for languages has been a challenge, but am not willing to throw away presents from my past. Rekindling the literature which seems blurred and far.
Despite, English acing the list, there is always room for improvement. Improvement, which translates not into a bigger better basket of words, but a creative use of it. Romancing the language.
India is a land of abundant knowledge. The diversity we read about in our civics textbooks manifests in each family teaching children English, Hindi and a native language. Well, the idea is to neither generalize the first two nor their order but to state that on an average an educated Indian is conversant with three languages. Impressive.
In my case, am not too pleased that despite being of Sikh origin my first rendezvous with Gurmukhi was not until 8th grade, for a brief 4 months. Clearly, I could do away with it being so foggy. Read and understand the vaakh at gurudwara sahib without squirming. Shed the inhibition to speak, get the inflections, intonation and pronunciation right.
Hindi, is a different story all together. Somewhere the colonial hangover left Hindi with drooping shoulders, robbing us of pride in our own literature. Sound education, intelligence, sophistication were and if I may add, are the reserves of the English speaking. Hypocritical and biased. Hindi to me is hypnotic. Casual conversation with locals outside of the metro cities, profound deliveries by theater actors, riveting expressions of orators, storytelling by poets and writers has enticed me into rediscovering Hindi. Rediscovering Hindi is like rediscovering yourself, re-connecting, grounding, dusting off the bells and whistles. Speaking more of Hindi makes me feel warmer and connect better. Some expressions just cannot be translated, they are priceless as originals. True for all languages. Often we think in one language, translate that thought into writing or speech of another. I want to learn to think in the language.
Bengali’s are easy to spot. Perhaps a function of their accent, cliquishness, love for travel, cultural nuances, amongst many others. Revival of my dexterity in Bengali can go a long way in deciphering conversations my friends and colleagues indulge in – my field of marketing and advertising is besieged with the fraternity. More importantly, bond with the domestic help. Most importantly, it is a low hanging fruit when it comes to a language I have learnt to read and write in the past.
Sanksrit, is highbrow. It is a root language and to be able to do justice one must not be of fleeting interest, lend depth. Admittedly, I don’t fit the bill.
Indian languages are too inviting and have caught my fancy. The relationship began with the inescapable syllabus but has mushroomed into a promising canvass of understanding and connecting better with people. High on my wish list is Gujarati, Urdu and finally one international language, Spanish
While I get more conversant with English and Hindi, renew my familiarity with Gurmukhi and Bengali, explore Gujarati, Urdu and Spanish am cognizant that there are only so many languages I can unbox. The truest and most compelling are, unspoken languages- that of dance, music, emotions, art, sports and more. They germinate from our mind, body and soul! Universal.
Summarizing with Quotes
A tribute to my 3rd languages across schools:
“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein
On native language
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela
On Hindi losing appeal
“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.”‒Rita Mae Brown
On my inhibition to speak another language
“Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.”–H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
“…the only normal way to begin speaking in a new language is to begin speaking badly!!”
On learning multiple languages
“Those who know many languages live as many lives as the languages they know.” – Czech proverb
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.” – Charlemagne
Universal languages
“I’m bilingual, speaking English and body language. I prefer the latter, because I can speak it silently and without listening and while my back is turned.”
“Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth”-Margaret Atwood
“silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation.”Rumi
Curio-Cities by Dilpreeta Vasudeva 