FUTURE OF MY LANGUAGE Skip to main content

FUTURE OF MY LANGUAGE

Earlier last year I went to Mumbai for an internship. People in Mumbai are of mixed culture. A heavy number among them is local people who speak local language i.e. Marathi. I also encountered the same situation everyday where I would find many people talking in Marathi in my office. Mumbai being an alive city will preserve its language for a long time to come. But this is not the case for every region.




I once had a chat with an old man sitting outside his house and thrashing the wheat. It was a nice morning in the month of July at a hilly area Karnaprayag. He was sitting on the ground and lived just 10 meters away from where I stayed. I used to see him everyday on the same chair while going to office. He was consistent. So was I. It was Sunday and my day off from office when I went outside the guest house into the sun. I used to live alone in that 3 BHK guesthouse and I used to feel alone sometimes. This loneliness lifted my feet in the direction of that man. I went to that man pretending to pat a dog who was sitting beside him. I stood beside him. A very old soul with wrinkles present all over his body. Every wrinkle shouting one of his story and experience of life. He was not that old as he looked but being in village, carrying heavy loads all his life made him look older than his age. Doing household chores is part of your day in a village of India. I stood beside him and offered him the biscuits showing which I had called the dog. The man smiled and his front two teeths had fallen off. I got the reason for the rejection. One for the dog and one for myself. I waited for that man to speak to me for maybe 10 minutes. But he did not. I had a long day ahead of me and was not leaving that man before he passed my time somehow. At least one hour I hoped.




I asked him, "What are you doing?". I knew what he was doing. I myself had done it in the past when I was a child for fun. But this is a very beautiful question to start a conversation. If a man is doing something and you ask him about it, he will speak about it. A lot. If he does not like it, he will curse it. If he likes it, well you have at least half an hour conversation ahead of you. I have experienced it hundreds of time. Ask to your father about his job, ask to a retired army man about the border and their eyes will shine like a newborn baby. The man started, "Oh! this is thrashing. I am separating this husk from the wheat" etc etc. I won't go into the details since this is not about wheat and husk. After an hour of conversation about few things we came to a point where he said me, "I am really sad about the way people leave this village." We came to this point after I told him that the organisation where I work goes to distant villages and distribute seeds of various plants so that they plant it here and get money worth their crop. Sad how? Well, they leave this village and move to a city. They forget their own men, their own culture, their own language.




He was worried about the fact that the children of his friends, who work in cities, don't know how to speak their local language. He told me how disheartening it is to see his own language just dying as his body comes near to death. His language and his culture is dying with him. All of his friends and their families now live in the cities. They earn better and have almost forgotten their own village. They visit once a year. Now you cannot compare your salary in a village to that of in a city. The expenses are much more in a city. But this is the excuse they give. Although I understand the better education and medical facilities reasons. But, will this leave all the villages just a piece of land? Do we need to settle down to our home town to practice the language we speak? India was a country with 19,500 languages according to the census (Census 2011 India) of which many are unknown or very less spoken. A good number of people speak around 760 languages out of which 250 have vanished in the past 50 years. This time is equivalent to one generation. We are losing our language generation by generation. Is it a good thing that India will succumb to just few languages? Or is it bad that India is losing its diversity? One of the most diverse country today pleads to the rural people to retain their culture and mother tongue. It is not important to live in a place to speak your language.



The old man was concerned about the same. He told me, "two generations more and no one would know what language we spoke." The language he speaks is quite popular in the north and two generations is very less time to write the language's name in the history. But yes, this language is disappearing generation by generation. I have witnessed it myself. He feels very ashamed when two local people talk in hindi instead of knowing the local language. There are it's own advantages of having a single language across the country. It helps to connect all the people to each other. All the parts of the country feels familiar. All the sign boards are readable. Or does this thing keeps India stand apart from many countries? Is it good? Or the man's worry was right? Maybe coming years would tell us.

Comments

  1. Yes it is to worry. I am also ashamed that i can speak few words of my language. My parents become sad that after their generation very few people speak their own language. He hurts when his childhood friends in neibouring village not talk to him in their regional language. It is hurting for them our parents and for their parents to see their language disappearing slowly by everyday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. I have seen many people expressing their concern over this issue. I hope I see some change in the future with people feeling proud over Hindi rather than English.

      Delete
  2. Greetings from China. As a Chinese, I can totally related to you and your story. In my county, more and more young peoples are leaving their home town for big cities, what also left behind them are their languages, local cultures and custom, and everyone is now speaking Mandarin and forgetting their local dialects.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

My Trip To Vietnam - Peace in the Chaos (Ho Chi Minh City)

Vietnam has always fascinated travelers all around the world without actually pointing out any one thing specifically. You might be traveling to India to visit just the Taj Mahal but why do you want to take a trip to Vietnam? There is no such thing. You just want to visit Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. But why do you want to do that? I don't know! And perhaps I did not get this answer from all the videos describing the beauty of Vietnam. This was something that had been playing in my mind ever since I saw a guy crossing a road with a million scooters coming at him. That looks like India though! Would that be the reason? I don't know! And so I pinged my friend Sudhanshu if he'd be interested in taking a trip to Vietnam with me - a beautiful and mesmerizing country. Ah! Sure he is. I knew the answer before even asking him. He and I have made and canceled plans a lot of the time. The one thing that we decided on our trip to Ladakh was to visit Vietnam (or maybe another south-east

When The Desert Turned White - Rann Of Kutch (Rann Utsav)

In the darkroom and past midnight, I and my two friends decided to plan a trip. But the place should be something that does not dig deep into our pockets and gives a lifetime memorable experience as well. While my friend Harish (yeah! we share the same name, unfortunately) asked me, "Is there a place where you wanted to go?".  This question hit me with a place that I have been struggling to go for the past two years. A place which is as far as Indian borders could stretch, as colourful as a child's smile and as memorable as " once in a lifetime " place. I instantly said, " Let's go to Rann of Kutch to see Rann of Kutch Utsav ".  Not to my surprise, my other friend, Aminul said, "Where is this place?" and Harish added, "What is there to see?". I knew that pictures will speak louder than my words. I googled quickly, " Rann of Kutch Utsav " and showed them the images. I am quite sure I showed them this image:

Bhutanese Food You Shouldn't Miss If You Are In Bhutan

Bhutan is an adventurous place for all nature lovers. Bhutan provides us with things that very few countries have to offer. A country that has a negative carbon footprint and is the happiest place on earth deserves at least one trip to it. Is Bhutan famous for anything other than its naturistic landscapes? Yes, it's food! Bhutanese food is one of its kind and will remind you of the Tibetan culture that you might have just read in books or watched on television until now. In this post, I bring to you Bhutanese food that you absolutely cannot miss if you are visiting Bhutan! Let's see our specially curated list of Bhutanese food: 1. Ema Datshi We will start our list with one of the most famous Bhutanese dish called Ema Datshi. Ema Datshi is also recognized as the national dish of Bhutan which makes it worth trying when you are visiting Bhutan! So, Ema Datshi is the combination of two words: Ema which means chilli and Datshi which means cheese. Chilli can be of any

A Day's Tale Of My Travel In Meghalaya

It has been a long-awaited trip to Meghalaya. I always wanted to visit the states far in the east and experience their culture. In the December of 2021 by booking tickets for Meghalaya, me and three of my friends decided to explore this state navigating our ways by an i20 car that we took from Guwahati. Since our entry and exit point was Guwahati, it made sense.  Meghalaya is a small hilly state with a population of around 75%  Christians. This was one of the reasons that we had planned a trip during the last days of December to celebrate Christmas Day. The day around which this story pertains is the same day that we wanted to celebrate and came here for. Trekking in Mawryngkhang Trek On 25th December 2021, four of us decided to do a nature trek in Meghalaya around 50km away from Shillong where we were staying till now. Today was the day for which we didn't have any bookings done as we were not able to find any hotels online. A unanimous decision pointed towards " we'

How To Plan A Budget Trip To Kheerganga Trek

Budget often thrashes the ultimate goals of travelling. Kheerganga is not one of them. Kheerganga trek is a beautiful trek laid out in Himachal Pradesh and visited by thousands of people every year. I made a budget trip to Kheerganga and I am here to tell you how. My Own Experience Of Kheerganga Trek: I had a pretty rough and unique experience since it was the last day of Kheerganga trek. If you want to read my experience of Kheerganga Trek, please visit this link . It is a multi-part story, and you can start from that link and comment on your thoughts. Anyways, if you are here just to get an idea about how to visit Kheerganga and how to plan a trip there, you are in the right place. So, let's start. How To Reach Kheerganga Trek From Delhi Kheerganga is only accessible by road and airways from anywhere in the world. Reaching Kheerganga By Bus: Kheerganga can be reached by bus through HIMSUTA buses or any other Volvo buses from Delhi, Dehradun an

Exploring Kargil - Leh to Kargil with valleys and mountain passes

The beauty of Leh and its surrounding areas has always been a topic of discussion among travelers from April to August. As fascinating as they are in front of our eyes, the debate often tones down when we bring Kargil into the picture. Apart from the Kargil War, there are hardly any places one can name in the beautiful district of Kargil. Honestly, maybe I could have said the same thing a couple years back. I don't remember when I encountered a photo from Zanskar, but I do remember that I never forgot about it since. It was a major influence in deciding the destination and for all the right reasons, we decided to turn our handles towards a different side this time. A side that has not got the attention it deserves. A side we wish we could have explored before. Back to Leh - Once Again All the dreams of Ladakh exploration start from the capital city of Leh. Well, maybe not for those who have unlimited time and can afford a bike ride from Manali or Srinagar. But we are not so

Leh to Nubra Valley via KhardungLa Pass - Ladakh Diaries Page 2

Finally, the day had arrived that we had long anticipated. Climbing the Ladakh mountains with a motorbike and passing through the top of the world - KhardungLa . The ride should start from Leh and end at Nubra Valley. Around 10 AM, we were ready with our bags tied to the motorbikes and excited to press that self-start button. I had been looking forward to this 40km of ride since we landed in Leh.  KhardungLa has always maintained a special place in people's minds because of its high altitude and a milestone that says " Welcome to the top of the world - the highest motorable pass in the world - KhardungLa ". It feels like an achievement to be passing through a road where people sometimes need oxygen bottles to battle their shortage of breath. Down in Leh, travelers who had completed their circuit and were relaxing for a day warned us about the dangers of that road. In the last two days, we had heard all sorts of stories related to KhardungLa Pass which may or

A meet with the Backstreet Boys

 Okay, tell me who is this one. I plugged in one earplug in his ear, rewind the song, and asked my friend. That's Nick? He said in a rather "I am not sure" voice. Ah! No that's AJ. Isn't this song great? Yes, it is really! We listened to the song "Show Me the Meaning of being lonely" together on my Sony Ericsson phone which had only 200 MB of space. It could accommodate only four songs if I could balance the weight of pictures and other files. All those four songs belonged to the Backstreet Boys. The four songs I listened to before sleeping and after coming from school. While the mobile phone did not get me enough freedom, the computer I had hosted 80 GB of space. This was enough to satiate my new exploration. I couldn't care much about the lack of internet at my home and just a simple question "Do you know any internet cafe?" to my friend in school gave me a quick answer! "Near the shopping center on the main road". I was looking

Plan A Trip To McLeod Ganj and Dharmshala - Complete Guide

Guide To Dharamshala and McLeodganj This post will guide you through your trip to Dharamshala and Mcleodganj and guide you through every challenge on the trip. Whether you are going solo or a couple or family, this post is written to help you grasp the maximum out of these two beautiful towns: Dharamshala and McLeodganj. Brief Introduction to Mcleodganj McLeodganj is a beautiful small town situated in upper Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh. The place is called “Little Lhasa” because of its Tibetan population and the world’s spiritual leader His Holiness The Dalai Lama residence. Mcleodganj has scenic views of Dhauladhar ranges and Pir Panjal, a lot of green covers, breathtaking treks and tranquillity as well. Mcleodganj must be on everyone's bucket list. It is great for all friendly age groups, from individual travellers to family, couples and backpackers. Brief Introduction to Dharamshala Dharamshala is the district Headquarters of the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. It is the g

How to plan a budget Kerala trip?

Kerala is one of the most popular choices for people looking to wander around the southern part of India. With its coffee plantations and hazy roads, a budget Kerala trip is what brings happiness and refreshes your mood from your daily lifestyle. In this post, we will discuss how to reach Kerala from anywhere in India, the places to cover, and what season would be the best for your upcoming Kerala trip. A brief introduction to Kerala Kerala is an Indian state falling in the southern part of the country. The population of the state stands at a little higher than 3.5 crores or 35 million. The state is 21st largest state by area in India and borders the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The language popular among Keralites is Malayalam and therefore if you learn a few words before your Kerala trip, it would help you on the road. How to reach Kerala? Kerala is easily accessible by all types of transport modes. So, you can use either land, water, train, or air for your
Managed and maintained by Harish Rajora