Thursday, November 20, 2008

Cosmopolitan Mumbai

I make it a point to read Amitabh Bachchan's blog everyday. He writes about anything and everything under the sun and writes very nicely. His language is superb. Sometimes, he quotes from other magazines also. I liked the article he quoted from Mumbai Mirror, written by Rahul Srivatsava.

As Srivastava said, people from all over India have gone and settled down in Mumbai for so many decades now. My doddamma (mother's elder sister) got married at the age of 12 (Balika Vadhu material!) and went to Mumbai some 65 years back. She knew only Kannada, then. Her children studied in Marathi medium with Hindi and English. Along with them she learnt to read Marathi, Hindi, Tamil (she had Tamil neighbours) and English novels too. She had very good Marathi family friends and did not find any difficulty living there, all these years. Why do people - I will not say 'locals', because people who have been there for generations, are also 'locals'- feel insecure now, as Raj Thackeray feels? Mumbai is called a cosmopolitan city because it has got people from all over India who had been living there, thinking that Mumbai city belongs to everybody, who are Indians. Now, my cousins have come to Bengaluru on their jobs and still they consider Mumbai as their native place.

Here, in Chennai, my children had studied in CBSE schools and they do not know to write in Tamil. They had Hindi and Sanskrit as second and third languages. The government does not insist on having Tamil compulsorily, in the state syllabus. The DMK government is against Hindi language and most of the educated people of this generation (who are in their 20s and 30s),do not know Tamil - to read and write! Three language formula is banned here. The other states insist on their local language as second language and you can have any other as the third language. So people who study in Bengaluru or Hyderabad or Thiruvanantapuram, know Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam. We, esp. South Indians, communicate mostly in English, in work place and outside. We should know the local language definitely and respect other languages also, I feel. Hindi is our national language and English is important for education and for our jobs. All our languages are ancient languages with good literary value, which should be preserved. We should be broad minded and learn the language of the place we live. Similarly, we should respect people of other states, who come to live in our state.

4 comments :

dharmabum said...

very interesting thoughts. i think, along with learning a language, comes fascinating insights into the nuances of not only the structure of the language, but also into new cultures. i have always loved it.

PS: e postu tumba chanagidey. is that ok? :)

Sandhya said...

Yes, what you say is correct. We had lived in Hosur, near Bengaluru, for some years. We had Maharashtrian friends who were very close. I like Marathi and love bhajans of Latha and Asha.

Dhanyavaadhagalu, namma tharaha hosa blog bareyuvavarige uthsaaha koduvudakke! Is it too long for you? Thanks.

dharmabum said...

not too long. does it mean "thank you for visiting such new blogs and encouraging?"

PS: hosa was a new word - am guessing it means 'new'

Sandhya said...

So, you are learning Kannada now?!

The meaning is 'Thank you for encouraging new blog writers like us'. Yes, 'hosa' means 'new'. Exact meaning is 'yengale maadiri pudu blog yezhuravangale urchchaagap paduththuvadarkku'

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