I had been to a restaurant with my family some days ago.Not anything extravagant,just your average run of the mill affair,okay-ish food,normal decor,ordinary customers.All in all,nothing to suggest any 'foreign hand' in the proceeding.Then out of nowhere came this waiter,looked at me and said"Suh,would chyou like any chea or khophhe?"
"Huh?"
"Chea or khophhe,sir?"
"Kya bola tum?"I resorted to bambayya hindi,my knight in shinning armour against strange tongues.
"Chai mangta hai ya coffee?",with a sneer he just couldnt hide.
Yes,this sounded familiar.
I looked at his name tag."There stands Balasubramaniam,asking me questions in his strange British accent"I thought."Wait a minute,moron.His name is Balasubramaniam,he is supposed to ask questions in funny south-Indian accents,not thick British ones"
Epiphanies strike at odd moments.
It dawned upon me that 'the English',or more importantly,'English',had never left India.All these years of dilly-dallying about freedom from England were pretentious assumptions.We are still governed by the English,still under the divide-rule policy.There's some difference though,its the "the" part of "the English" that disappears,leaving just "English" to rule Indians.Haves and Have-nots have been replaced by Know-its and Know-it-nots.Sophistication today implies Anglicization,and sometimes even accentuation.
There was a subject named Communication Skills that we had in our 3rd semester(Fr. Agnel sucks...its not related to the topic at all,but i like to tell this to people,it gives me spiritual bliss)There mere fact that we had discussions,debates and conferences only in English stands testimony to the snobbish language's hold over the social psyche.I can understand if a tamil guy speaks to a marathi guy in English,but what the heck is with two Patils(arguably the most widespread marathi surname) using using "Yo! Wassup mahn?" when they greet each other?
Its this widespread opinion that people who use it stand at the top of the pecking order.Whilst this might be true in most of the cases,its in no way an indication to stop using our own languages for conversation.Supriya Pathak talking to Ranbir Kapoor in broken english in 'Wake up Sid' accurately sums up the whole dilemma of poor regionals.When a mother uses some other language than her own tongue to communicate with her son,i guess its time to start preparing a coffin for hindi,punjabi,tamil gujarati and a host of other languages dying under the imperial language's assault.
The last nails come in the form of people now being embarrassed to use their mother tongues for normal conversations.English speaking classes and all have sprung up,portraying non-speakers are legendary losers.We have taken English from being just a language to a very high pedestal where it defines social segregation.
I guess when the English left India,the left behind a huge sense of inferiority complex as well.
"Huh?"
"Chea or khophhe,sir?"
"Kya bola tum?"I resorted to bambayya hindi,my knight in shinning armour against strange tongues.
"Chai mangta hai ya coffee?",with a sneer he just couldnt hide.
Yes,this sounded familiar.
I looked at his name tag."There stands Balasubramaniam,asking me questions in his strange British accent"I thought."Wait a minute,moron.His name is Balasubramaniam,he is supposed to ask questions in funny south-Indian accents,not thick British ones"
Epiphanies strike at odd moments.
It dawned upon me that 'the English',or more importantly,'English',had never left India.All these years of dilly-dallying about freedom from England were pretentious assumptions.We are still governed by the English,still under the divide-rule policy.There's some difference though,its the "the" part of "the English" that disappears,leaving just "English" to rule Indians.Haves and Have-nots have been replaced by Know-its and Know-it-nots.Sophistication today implies Anglicization,and sometimes even accentuation.
There was a subject named Communication Skills that we had in our 3rd semester(Fr. Agnel sucks...its not related to the topic at all,but i like to tell this to people,it gives me spiritual bliss)There mere fact that we had discussions,debates and conferences only in English stands testimony to the snobbish language's hold over the social psyche.I can understand if a tamil guy speaks to a marathi guy in English,but what the heck is with two Patils(arguably the most widespread marathi surname) using using "Yo! Wassup mahn?" when they greet each other?
Its this widespread opinion that people who use it stand at the top of the pecking order.Whilst this might be true in most of the cases,its in no way an indication to stop using our own languages for conversation.Supriya Pathak talking to Ranbir Kapoor in broken english in 'Wake up Sid' accurately sums up the whole dilemma of poor regionals.When a mother uses some other language than her own tongue to communicate with her son,i guess its time to start preparing a coffin for hindi,punjabi,tamil gujarati and a host of other languages dying under the imperial language's assault.
The last nails come in the form of people now being embarrassed to use their mother tongues for normal conversations.English speaking classes and all have sprung up,portraying non-speakers are legendary losers.We have taken English from being just a language to a very high pedestal where it defines social segregation.
I guess when the English left India,the left behind a huge sense of inferiority complex as well.
