here it goes....
Tamil Nadu, the one place where every individual lands up building a vocabulary of at least a hundred words in Tamil ranging from the slang “po da” to the greeting more popular than good morning… “Saaptiaa?” Which means “had something to eat?” This is one place where the locals really love their language, culture and heritage and the thought of trying to learn a different language is the last thing on their mind.
I have a few friends who have been to Chennai and when I ask them how was their experience this is what they say: “These people don’t budge from speaking Tamil!”
On a wider angle, Delhiites don’t budge from Hindi: “Kyun, theek bola na?”, Bengalis from “tumi kemon achho?”, Keralites from “Yendada mone?” and Biharies from “Kaisan ho bituwa?”. Then there are Mumbaikars with a mixture of Hindi and Marathi, Hydrabadies with a mix of Urdu/Hindi and Telugu.
Any one who visits these places are bound to come back with a considerable vocabulary of the local language. The local language comes along with people like silver foil stuck on sweets (Sorry.. can’t help it… I just love food).
All this brings me to think about my land, and more specifically, my city, the garden city “
I’ve been here in
Why is it so? Is it because people think it is not cool to speak in kannada? Or is it simply great hospitality of us kannadigas to make our guests feel really comfortable by speaking their tongue? I think it has got to do with a bit of both. If it were not for the dislike of the language the Kannada film industry would not try imposing all kind of bans on movies of other languages or Kannada activists would not go around spraying black paint on English boards. This dislike for the language gives us more scope to learn other languages and what we pick up is greatly influenced by our surrounding, like the way I picked up some Tamil from my neighbors. No offence to the North Indians but they have greatly poisoned us with Hindi. Almost every person who has a North Indian as a friend takes great pain to learn to speak Hindi than let the other person learn kannada. The other part, hospitality of us kannadigas… well we are world famous in
It sounds good that we are cosmopolitan and all that stuff but if you look closely you will see that all the metros, the places that have been important trade centers in
As a helpless and lazy individual all I can do is pray that we do not let things fade away as rapidly and work towards growing our roots deeper and keep our language and culture strong. Let us not let people put so much silver foil on us that our actual colour and flavour is lost. And more importantly let us learn to be proud of being Kanadigas.
8 comments:
I think the problem is more convoluted than what appears on the surface. From what I know (speaking as a person who has lived in Bangalore all of his life and still hasn't picked up the local language). From what I have been able to glean, there are two (maybe more) forms fo Kannada, what can be seen in the movies (the puritan's version) and what one hears being spoken on the distinctly pathetic roads of Bangalore (the more colloqiual version).
The rift between both of these cannot be brodged, leaving most people mare than a litle confused as to what their language is to begin with. Which automatically translates to the dislike of said language.
Besides, from an economic standpoint, it is better to learn the language of one's guests.
As with any language the dialect differs from region to region within the state. But this does not mean that the soul of the language is lost. But yes, for starters the movies can play a significant role.
As for the "guests", unwelcome guests should realise the sacrfice being made by the hosts to accomodate them and who are trying their best to make the guests feel at home. This hospitality should not be taken for granted by the ungrateful guests who in return try to snub their hosts. Sadly they forgot the golden rule that in rome do as the romans do. All that they seem to do is crib and crib and crib.
Well i dont seem to understand the 3 types of Kannada in Bangalore being one of the culprit. Having been here all my life, i have learnt kannada, not fluent but good enough. And ya movies do play a very imp role in the spread of the language. It is a known fact that not many quality movies were coming out of the stable of the producers. Once we start seeing some really good movies being made, it would cause more people to watch it and learn a few more words than 'bartira' or 'yesthu'! And considering the cosmopoliton status, i guess we start speaking chinese also...:D
Don't tell me that all movies that are made in hindi are brilliant; must watch movies. Cyanide is an excellent kannada movie! have you watched it yet? so... as we see... we are moving away. One more thing I want to add is that unless we have the urge to learn we will never start.
The quality of kannada movies .. I admit is not upto the mark. Atleast the rate of saaaad movies being made in other languages is not as bad. And the kannada songs need a complete makeover. Thats why most people have forgotten about the kannada film industry. Unfortunately good kannada movies like cyanide also end up being unnoticed. .. :-( .. They could start with the songs for starters. Atleast that way people might want to see the movie.
a wonderful analysis man! Keep it up! I agree with all your points.
Nice background man!
Ya, nice write too! ;)
@Sketcher: i am not saying all the movies are great in Hindi or for that matter any language.. but if you consider the number of Kannada movies that are worth watching with ur 'Family' during Jaggesh's times u will know what i meant..yes there are good movies and i am not denying it. No i did not see cyanide. considering how much of a film buff i am .. this might be the 7th movie for this year :D
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