My comment on English usage by Kamlesh Bahukhandi as flashed on the f.b. on September 25,2010.

English usage-By -Kamlesh Bahukhandi on Saturday, September 25, 2010
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The bus gurgled to a start From Rishikesh to Pauri ( My hometown ) and I was almost threatened to miss it again. One more late, a day gone. But some Samaritan inside screamed to stop and it screeched a brake. Panting for breath I climbed in and with an equal jolt dropped on an empty seat (fortunately!). Oh! That was Ravi a School Teacher and a co-traveller enroute to the School . “The bus no…before time came and going. Tomorrow..no-no..kal-kal (I put in, Ah! Yesterday?) yes, yes, it is never came only! I saw you and told conductor stop stop. So much problems, no….this bus..one day came and then not came….!”Amused I was, at the ‘English’ usage. Though equally proficient in the local or the national language, this fascination for English is really not understandable! Why this persistence? Well, Pappu, our vegetable vendor, admitted both his children in ‘Inlis medium’ ‘aage chalke achha banenge!’ So did my maid. But who will coach them? “Tuson rakh lenge Behan ji (school teacher... not... Mayawati ) ke paas!!” These days, every other person goes to a convent school. Pray, from when have these names been associated with ‘convents’? The other day, at a meeting, one member came up to me confessing he had joined an English-speaking class to feel at ease with us. I assured him that we are comfortable with him even when he speaks to us in Hindi as I myself is not good in English when it comes to speaking , but he insisted, “Achchha nahin lagta na….aap sab Inglis mein baat karte hain…!” Commonly heard are: “I have two sons , both are boys !;” “I have headache in my head” etc. Repeatedly one hears : “my head is eating circles” (literal translation). A die-hard lover of English said so: “He is sitting in the hall of the living room…” or, take for instance, “what is because of this?” etc. The science teacher rushed into his class, fuming, ordered, “Open the doors of the windows!” In this part of India, between September and November, it is always Actoober (the stress is on the ‘oo’ invariably!). Coming to an institution, where hoards of children come to learn, a general answer to a difficult question is thus : “Sorry Sir I am unknown!” Children making mistakes is pardonable; but what of a Presiding officer in an official meeting, who got up to say, “I have ‘conceived’ (for ‘convinced’) my colleague…..!” Another colleague tendered an application for leave, “I have undergone MTP for my wife, so kindly grant me leave…..” etc. For a funeral attendance he wrote “I want to follow my friend to the graveyard so kindly grant me leave…..” India, with its diverse cultures and multi-lingual tradition, has a huge lineage of great writers and poets writing in English, beginning with Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, to Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth or Amitav Ghosh. In Nirad Chaudhuri’s special celebration edition of Hobson-Jobson, Anglo-Indian words have found a place of pride in the thousand-page glossary, reading which makes one feel that ‘English’ sounds more “angrezi” than a pucca desi drawling of “Inglis” trying to fan out some sophistication of its manners and etiquette, which infact, is one of the best in the world. English is universal; it is not a language to be sneered at or to be shown off. Everyday we learn a bit. Mind you, it has come here to stay!
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Comments of Bishwa Nath Singh:
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Bishwanath Singh :Thanks for your very lovely and meaningful presentatiom.You have raised a very pertinent point that I would like to share with you in a little detail.None can deny that Hindi is not our national language and as why we should not popularize... it. We do love Hindi, admire Hindi and speak Hindi very well but because of several constraints, we can't communicate each other in Hindi though wished to do so. We don't have apathy for Hindi as we consider it to be most interesting language but not at the cost of English as it is an international recognized language that cements people from one continent to another & vice-versa. One can’t popularize Hindi by mere slogan raising rather the publishers and authors who publish & write boos respectively in Hindi have to be persuaded to go for cheap publication and use simple words so that Hindi literature could be popular amongst masses. It becomes solemn duty of our Union Govt. & all State Govts. to come forward and encourage cheap publication of our epics and other books in Hindi so that it could be popular. Hind Divas is celebrated only with intention as how best we could popularize it. Let leading authors, journalist, Academicians, publishers should sit round across a round table and discuss ways and means as how best Hindi could be encouraged in our country. Leading authors & publishers must be selected on their merit by Union Govt. & all State Govts. and National award /State award be given every year to encourage others to take up this work sincerely & honestly. Leading authors & publishers must be selected on their merits by Union Govt. & all State Govts. for National award /State award to be given to them every year to encourage others to take up this work sincerely & honestly. Let us examine as why Hindi is not so popular in our country! Firstly, India is a mufti-linguistic country having well-recognized twenty two more languages besides Hindi as duly accepted by our constitution in our country .Besides them, over one hundred more languages that people speak and converse in our country. We have one lakh twenty thousand Hindi words where English has ten lakh words. Truly speaking, we are synchronizing Hindi after independence. Before independence two organizations such as NagriK Pracharni Sabha & Hindi Sahitya Sammelan had done excellent jobs in propagating Hindi .Now almost those organizations are in decaying stage because of apathy of our Govts.. The great stalwarts like Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Mahatma Gandhi,P.D.Tondon,,Seth Govind Das,Premchand & many others who were very prominent persons and great scholars had presided over Hindi Sahitaya Sammelan. Such personalities are rarely seen now presiding over any such meeting connected with extension of Hindi. It is a fact that job guarantee is at the lowest ebb to carry our livelihoods & meet personal expanses to our Hindi writers & Poets or who nurse Hindi for his/her career. Let us not forget that before we attained Independences on the 15th of August 1947,we were under British colonial rule for over a couple of centuries where English was taken as language of pride to converse and that old legacy, still we are carrying and that is why every Parentage feel like their children going in convent to be well-versed with English that none can deny. The only consolation we can have that now percentage of youths appearing in All India Civil Services Exams. Conducted by UPSC using Hindi as their medium for their exams . have gone up in recent years from seven percent that was in 2005 to twenty percent recently. Even the Selection board has started encouraging examinees to use Hindi as their medium since it is our Rashtra Bhasha. Why should we look at dark side of it? Hindi has a great future not only in our country but even in abroad as NRI have been using their mother tongues for their conversation amongst themselves and follow all rituals there to Keep their old values(”Sanskar”) & traditions alive.
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Liked by Kamlesh Bahukhandi on September 25,2010.
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f.b.
September 25,2010.