Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Whose Tongue is it Anyway!

Getting bound with loved one, is to fill in missing spots of love...
Missing your loved one while away, tell the greatness of your love...
Missing parents, home & native language while far away tells how ignorantly you shove ..

Standing at this part of world, far away from homeland brings apprehension & a feeling of loosing something; The aura of my great land with rich heritage. I pine for sense of my land, the greatness of Karnataka, India.


I have seen that a Kannadiga, would be last one to fight in just the name of language.. Never pressured or compelled to speak just Kannada and never been objected to speak other languages. I grew in parts of Karnataka where, neighboring state people are more in number than Kannadigas. We grew with Kann-arathi( Kannada with most Marathi words). Other places there are Kannada with Telugu words, Urdu words & Konkani. Later when I moved to capital of the state i.e 'Bangalore', I could hear more of Tamil, Telugu, Hindi languages but less of Kannada. That appears kannadigas way of respecting mother India & other regional languages. I am proud to be kannadiga.

November 1st was approaching closer and this day is for Karnataka Rajyotsava. The year 2008 is great for all Kannadigas, as this year Kannada is recognized as "Classical Language" along with Sanskrit & Tamil. This means that the heritage of Kannada language dates back to 300-400 BC owning a richest literature.


I wanted to do something different on this Karnataka's Rajyotsava day. Along with my hubby , I decided to speak only Kannada at its purest way with no other language mix for the whole day. We were sure of expressing thoughts, actions & gestures in Kannada and nothing else. For our surprise we found it extremely difficult to manage. Our Kannada is become more of Kanglish (Kannada with more English). The rich Kannada is my mother tongue and I seem less informed about this!!

At this conjecture, I am not pointing my inefficiency at my parents or teachers nor Government who didn't force us to speak just Kannada during childhood. Who let us speak any language that helped to express.
Language is obviously a vital tool. Not only is it a means of communicating thoughts and ideas, but it forges friendships, cultural ties.Although being away from Karnataka, reading about the greatness of kannada & rich literature it has within. I am now realizing the depth & richness of my mother tongue. The vast brewed richness of my mother tongue has awakened me to know more about its importance. Our oldest language will never see face of extinction or death for we love our language very much..
Love for mother tongue will never die..As rightly told by Gaston Bachelard. " A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language."

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Different Diwali... Best Diwali......

It was hot scorching & fierce summer days in Seychelles & it was time for Diwali festival celebrated all over. The festival of Noise, Crackers & Blazing light!!

One of my colleagues in office, a Seychelles native, asked me about importance of this festival. I just escaped saying that, mythologically this is the festival of triumph of The Good over Evil & we light oil lamps & burst fire crackers. For a moment, I pondered "How strange that, I knew very less of this magnificent festival?"



I was gazing my head all day to know more about Diwali myself... At the very instance, one of my Indian neighbor came home asking if I have got all pooja materials prepared for Diwali, like rangoli color to decorate the home, recipes for Diwali sweets, the sacred powder for oil bath, the do's & dont's during festival etc etc. Here again, I was thunder stuck.

I paused the very moment & tried to recollect every season of Diwali I spent back home as a child. Even my hubby agreed with my wry looks and was frank to accept that he was least aware of any pooja done in this festival!!! That was a great relief for both.... Because all we remember is only burst crackers from dawn till yawn.... All the time we had believed "Diwali" was just a festival of Crackers and nothing else.

This was not the time to call up somebody back home and ask about details of the festival. Beginning from starting date of feast, the importance of new moon, the Laxmi pooja, when to burn crackers, how many days to celebrate, what to cook etc etc..because Ego hurts!!!



Our great friend Mr Internet came to our rescue. I wonder how this internet is such a big boon, it helps in everything; from making Laddu, Dosa to information on even "How to make bombs!!". This Internet was not just enough, our other Indian friends too helped. So with apt info, we set to enjoy the gala of Lights!




Far away from India, with colleagues like a big family, enthusiastic neighbors of our apartment, we all got together to celebrate the Diwali week. First time ever, we enjoyed the festival of Light without bursting crackers or even missing them. We had guests visiting our home, sweets shared, diyas lighted, new dress worn, devotional music played, had food together, got photographed, had great laugh and the enthusiasm was immense.



Now, let anyone ask me. I'll not escape from explaining the importance of Diwali, for I have realized how wonderful this festival is and how simple it can be with loads of fun. It has for sure driven away the Evils from our minds by setting in the Good values. This festival of light lit the light of our senses for the bright & positive days ahead!!!!!
Happy Diwali!!