"Mamma.. What is this?"

“Mamma.. What is this?”

As I flipped through one of the books in a shop, a cute little voice attracted me. A pretty girl around four years old, wearing a beautiful frock, was inspecting a toy. She turned to her mother and asked – “Mamma… what is this?” The mother replied back in English and then bought her the toy.

Something just did not feel right to me.

After the mother left with the kid, I began to wonder what was that something. It was the little girl talking in English. I am sure that her mother tongue was Hindi, but the mother and the daughter conversed in English. To be honest, I did not like that.

I have personally nothing against English. I feel that each language in itself is equally great and deserves the same respect. But my point is that the way we are treating Hindi, which is our mother tongue, is not doing justice at all to the respect it deserves.

Hindi, and all other regional languages, is still the language of common masses in our country. But there is a segment, which we are creating, that feels ashamed to talk in their mother tongues. I don’t understand why it becomes necessary to talk in English in queues of airport (among your own family members), why is it necessary to place an order in English in a fancy restaurant, why is it necessary that a mother should talk to her four year old daughter in English outside her home (and many times inside as well). The way the ‘modern parents’ are bringing up their kids today, will only lead to creating a generation, which is plainly unconcerned, a generation which is far from the masses, a generation who can not live without AC, can not travel in local trains, is week and uncompromising on any of its comforts. A generation, who reads Dickens but not Premchand, cannot count from one to hundred in Hindi, who can not distinguish between unnyasi (seventy nine) and navasi (eighty nine), who does not understand that guruwar and vrihaspativar are the two names of same day (Thursday). If we continue this way we will only keep widening the gaps, which are already so stark in our society.

We definitely are suffering from an unnecessary complex. A phobia, which says that talking in English, will raise us to a higher social stature. All we are doing is becoming copycats. All we have imbibed from the West is a scanty dressing sense, and a cheesy English accent. None of their discipline, their sense of punctuality and cleanliness, is ever reflected in our actions.

One of the prime reasons why India is booming today is because of a huge chunk of young people who are good at English. But this generation has seen the hard days, has gone through the rigours. It is important that it does not bring up a generation, which is over pampered and frail. Our country can not afford such individuals. We should not forget that where English is the key to our success, Hindi is our culture, our roots and the key to our collective strength.

(Written on 3rd August, 2009)