Mind your language
The first words that one speaks as a toddler are
always in one’s native language. Over the years, one keeps on learning the
language so spoken at home and suddenly we get propelled into a foreign language;
English. And voila, we all forget to speak our mother tongue. Imagine the
pressures we all go through to speak English, and to be proficient in the Queen’s
or be American and speak the Yank way. Here, I would like to say beforehand, I
am as guilty as the next person. There is a sweet person who will comment or
post something; well this is just my point across for someone who asked. NRI’s
who come back to Punjab come searching for what they left behind, the nativity
and the language!
But, what they see or get to hear is the rapid
Americanization or the change in the manner the next generation speaks. Well
its with everything; I think the pressures to speak English to be it with everything
foreign to be modern is so high; the pressures force us and our kids to swim
this current.
We all initially want our kids to excel so that we can
score high, speak like little parrots, parroting away everything and then later
on everybody sinks in the mire. When we want them to go back to their roots; it’s
too late as they have already been cut off from them. The generation now is
rootless, global children who want to assimilate, sponge away the world; they
truly live by osmosis. Not like us, who do and act like the English but still
are Punjabi to the core.
India , was under British rule for a long time, and
then when they left we were still under the influence of the Gora log and all
of us wanted to shrug off the “Brown” description. But , the coming years , the
industrialization the rapid growth kept us on this path , what kept on happening
slowly an dsteadly was the erosion of the mother tongue. Over the years ,
Punjbai was taught selectively for three years and that also optional . kids
started learning French , German and could identify foreign authors, poets as
their own .
Maybe there is hope, when Shakespeare got translated
into Punjabi by Surjit Singh Hans ….
I don’t know how we can stem this , the Anglicization of
Punjabi, the abuse by Punjabi rappers and the only identity being the over the
top jatt, zameen , goli , bandook , nasha has led me to being weary.
Yes there has been a revival of Punjabi film industry
but honestly over active hormones, some crass humor is not what I want ….
Bibaji, maaf karo …
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