Language

Some people have a flair for language. It is said that one of our former Prime minister was proficient in a dozen or more languages.Some of my relatives & friends talk 5or 6 languages fluently.Language is not my cup of tea.my mother tongue Tamil is quite good and have enough knowledge to surf even simple literary work.But I cannot vouch for the other two viz. english and hindi.My schoolingwas in tamil medium school in a rural town of Tamilnadu. There, English was taught like a subject with lot of rote learning with no incentive or training to speak or converse. H indi was optional anyway(the two languages considered important for an Indian for his future). There was negative sentiment against hindi that the school authrities passivelly discouraged students learning hindi.the hindi period very often converted to spl coaching class for composite maths(by the way what's composite maths?) & I along with others in general maths with optional hindi(not the sophisticated French) are considered non entities.It suited us without realising the future truama in store for us.You may wonder how I escaped hindi, working 36 yrs in central service.when they sent a circular whether your mother tongue is hindi or have you passed the spl exams in hindi or passed school final with hindi as a subject. I promptlly tickeed the last one.even though I hardly attended a few classes & learnt only the alphabets. A few yrs later another lr asking whether I can read & write hindi-for which I said yes because I can. But I was'nt asked whether I understood, can speak etc.Thus I escaped.I reralised the handicap when I was transferrede to Calcutta with jurisdiction extending to hindi heartland like Madhyapradhesh,Bihar etc. In one of the meetings the chief enginner was asking for 20 lakhadies- my poor hindi could not differentiate it from ladkies. Started wondering probably track laying is such hard job ,the chief engineer is engaging "cheer girls"to elevate the mood of the workers as we see in places like WWF,Olympic stadium! My wife wanted coconut & told the peon to get, but was shocked to find him followed by a maid servant. she realised the mistake that instead of saying 'nariel' she said 'nari'! once the clerks' tables in my office had a new board 'work station' on enquiry it was revealed that 'bus station where buses stop, train stations where trains stop and work station where work stopped as a protest against some administrative decion taken by me.A meeting with union was called.they would speak in hindi only.My officer on medical administratio who helps me in all technical administration told me that whatever they say she would try to translate & I will simply say 'teek hai'. things will be sorted out later when tempers cooled.But the event went haywire. All the guys started , shouting,accuing; there was no room for translation. whenever I got a chance I diligently saying "teek hai'. At one point all of them stopped talking & went away in a hush. I asked what changed their mind. I was told that they threatened to burn my office, to which also I said 'teek hai' That bewildered them & left to take the next course of action, Ignorance sometimes saves the situation. Apart from some skirmishes here and there my stay at Calcutta was excellent; the best in my service career to both of us. From the day we reached there we liked the people there-frank,intelligent,cultured and highly mannered.Their flair for finearts is superb.What is pecculiar about them is their addiction for FISH.Shoba De in one of her columns write that the problem with her husband(a bengali) is that he wants that the fish bought for the meal to be 'smilling'. Jumpa Lahiri in her prize winning book Interpreter of maladies says MRS Sen goes to a far off place in Manhatten against odds to buy a 'smiling fish' What an irony for the dead fish to smile.