Story 1:
After many
years, was delighted to see a friend in a mall. He was there for shopping with
his spouse and kid. I was speaking to him in our mother tongue “Kannada” on career,
classmates, etc., and understood he had settled well in life, just when his son
came running with some toys.
ಅಪ್ಪಾ , ಇದು ಬೇಕೂ (Dad, I want this …!)
And was pleading his father. My friend
replied in English, No!! I have told you not to get all those things. The conversation
went for some time and I was surprised to see his son speaking in Kannada and
this guy was enforcing his artificial English accent while replying.
I was curious to know why he was speaking in
English when his son had interest to speak in his mother tongue and his reply
was off-putting.
According to
him, there was need for English in daily life and he wishes his son to inculcate
that practice and not Kannada which has no usage in business life. It made me
wonder, if this guy knows that, even he grew up and well settled in life and for
which he didn’t depend only on English for his growth. What happened in 10 -15
yrs later, for him to think, by speaking in mother tongue, children will not
get educated and also language is not only about business life, it’s more of
connecting with people and society ?
As per some of the studies done by psychologists, whenever we learn , hear something
in any language, our brain will be transforming the words, pictures in our
mother tongue for us to grasp the
meaning. Trying to enforce other language artificially will only strain our
system and also leads to inefficient learning’s. Hope our modern parents
remember this and stop punishing and start encouraging them to speak in their
mother tongue.
Story 2:
Few years
ago, I was returning from library. Hey have you read the latest Harry Potter
series? Asked my friend, and my answer was No. Not that I am against English novels,
but my interest is on various forms of Kannada literature. I told him the same
and suggested he read Poornachandra Tejasvi kind of books instead of asking me on some
magic broom and stick English stories.
Even though
friend was a Kannadiga, he was surprised at my reply. He was wondering if I
still read Tejasvi books and I was surprised at his ignorance and
maturity. People like him feel any books written by foreign authors are all
time grate and forget that our Indian authors write much more closely to our
heart and nativity. Even today when I read any of Tejasvi or Byrappa’s novels,
the characters of the stories will haunt for some days, because of the
connectivity we can do with such stories, even if we know it may not be in
real.
We are
becoming slaves of foreign languages, be it English, German or Japanese. Of
course there is no harm in learning new skills but not in cost of our Indianness.
We feel great that Germans don’t speak in other language but back at home we
forget our own language. We feel gratitude while adding Japanese "san" for names,
but inferior to address any one as Shri or Shrimati. We learn hard to pronounce
French words to wish people, but don’t feel proud to wish as Namaste. Isn’t it
irony of our present day India!!?
We spend
thousands of rupees for unwarranted things, cant we subscribe for Kannada News
paper and magazines which is just some hundred rupees. Remember, what we sow is
what we reap. What we are today is because of the culture and moderation our
parents did on us. If we don’t follow it and let go our children on their own,
we will repent in future.
My English is not fluent, however, I am not remorse about it, as it is not and will never be my language, its only used as medium of communication and not language of heart. You might
feel, why I have not written this in Kannada? Well, I know if I had written it
in Kannada, many Kannadigas themselves would have not read and moved on…!!
This blog is
not about propagating Kannada vs. other language, but the intention is to introspect
our attitude towards our mother tongue in the race of learning foreign
languages. You can replace Kannada with any other Indian language and most of
the languages will be in similar situation as above.
By the way it’s
November!! Time to celebrate Karnataka formation in Indian republic. A
celebration not only for those who are born with Kannada mother tongue but for
all such people who have made Karnataka their home for livelihood. Join the
celebrations and continue to grow, both – state and yourself.
ಕನ್ನಡ ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು - Happy
Kannada Rajyotsava..!!
