Respect v/s Mother Tongue

Respect v/s Mother Tongue

6 mins
347


"May I come in ma'am?"


 A strange voice is heard from outside. Trisha looks at the door and finds a young man is standing there. Probably thirty years old, the man is wearing a blue shirt in his light brown complexion, a reddish mole can be seen inside the beard. The face seems very familar to Trisha but she couldn't remember where she has seen the man before. Due to her work in the government administration for the couple of years, everyday she comes in contact with many people. But the subconscious mind of Trisha is telling that she has seen the man somewhere else, not in her office. Seeing the hesitant face of Trisha, the young man asks again, "May I come in ma'am?"


 "Yes yes come in."


 As the young man enters, Trisha offers him to sit. Soon their professional conversation begins. It is learned that the stranger's name is Vikram Bishui. He is currently working in a private company.


 Although the conversation is going on in its own terms but Trisha is feeling a little bit uncomfortable because she cannot remember where she has met the man earlier. It is the bad habit of her childhood. she feels very uncomfortable when she can not remember anything, she can not concentrate on any work untill she can remember it. Again, Trisha was feeling very irritated by Vikram's excessive use of English.It seems that the man is forcefully trying to convey his knowledge of English. Trisha doesn't like such people who have problem in speaking in their mother tongue.


 At the end of the discussion, Trisha finally asks the question, "Where is your real home, Vikram Babu?"


 "Kharagpur."


 "Original Kharagpur?"


 "No, actually..." Vikram pauses For a few seconds, then in a hesitant voice he replies, "a rural area of Kharagpur sub division ma'am, you may not know the name."


 "Have you heard the name of the village Lalsurki?"


 "Ummm yes ... how do you know it ma'am?"

"It's not important. Tell me what is the name of your village?"

Umm… my place is called Balisurki."


 Trisha gets a shock after hearing the name. Some pictures of past fifteen years come in the flashback of her mind…


 It's the time of Makar Sankranti. Green vegetables can not be cultivated in this rocky area of ​​rural Bengal. Paddy is the main crop of the fields here. Therefore, during the Poush Parban, a great festive mood can be evinced in each and every house. The "Khamar Puja"(worshipping the granary) goes on for the couple of days with "Pitha (a kind of party) Parban" and "Makar (a kind of nectar of God) Utsav". Then the next day is the rest day, the day of "Khola Vishram". Chicken is easily available in every house of this area. Therefore, on the ceremony of "Khola Vishram", villagers invite their relatives to celebrate the festival of chicken & rice. At the same time, the ceremony becomes even more special for another reason. There is a community in this area, their children wander around the villages with hay puppets all the day, they come to the comparatively rich houses, show dance performance with the hay puppets, sing songs in dialect. Thus they collect "pitha" and "makar" from the houses and at the end of the day after eating they return home.


"Khoshla shager vitore baag bodainche
Baro bou k dekhte peye ghar noraicche" 


(Inside the bush of cress the tiger is sitting and he is nodding his head after seeing the eldest daughter-in-law)


With this song, the boys' jump with the tiger-puppet is still flashing in front of the eyes of Trisha. With the reminiscence of childhood Trisha was almost carried away. And now she can clearly remember where she has seen this Vikram Bishui. The man also used to come to Trisha's village home with his companions at that time. As the boy was little older than his companions, his face remained imprinted in the subconscious mind of Trisha.


 "Vikram Babu, do you remember you used to come to the Dutta's house at Lalsurki? , you used to sing that dialectical songs with your friends?"


 Vikram Bishui fell into a bit of anguish at the words of Trisha, "Leave it ma'am. Now it's past."


 "That's for sure. After Grandpa's death, we sold the house, and from then we never went there anymore. But often in solitude I remember those days there. I can still visualize the dance performance, the hay puppets; still I can hear the sweet melody of those songs in my mind. All those memories… the happiest memories…

Well Vikram babu, do the children still perform on Makar Sankranti?"


 "Nah."


 "No…!" Trisha becomes startled with the reply, it seems that as if the memory of her childhood is sinking into a dark ocean, "Why?"


 "Because, we are no longer undeveloped like that time ma'am. Now there is an English medium school, everybody goes there. We are educated enough, now we can fluently speak English. So nobody sings all those shits now."


 "Don't say that. Those songs are a part of Indian culture, it's tradition. A great source of Indian dialect. It's indeed a great thing that your community's condition has been improved so well, and so you should now try to preserve those ancient culture of India, your own language, your own dialect."


 Vikram Bishui does not respond immediately to the words of Trisha. He thinks something for a moment then looking at her face, he says, "Why ma'am? Why? Can you tell me why you want to pull us behind as much as we want to move forward? Why can't you think of us without that knot?"


 "You are misunderstanding me Vikram Babu ..."


 "No Madam. I know, it's difficult to accept for not only you, but also for many people that common villagers like us are now getting respect by speaking in English. We are now educated in English. And that's why you people want to drag us behind with your emotional blackmail regarding those bullshit language which is actually very very disdainful."


 Vikram Bishui leaves the room in rage. Trisha stares at the trembling door. What the guy has said just now! If you speak in English only then you can gain respect? 73 years have passed after the independence of India from the hands of the British reign, but when could the Indian be freed from the bondage of the English language! When?

Trisha realizes that it's not just the fault of people like Vikram Bishui, rather it is much more the fault of those so called educated Indias who used to find solace under the subjugation of British and consider India as a backdated country. The heirs of these people have now surrendered themselves under the rule of that foreign language even after the physical form of bondage is removed. These people laugh at their own mother tongue, mocks at the dialects of India. This is why many Indian languages are gradually going to be extinct. No language is bad, and people have the full right to use the language of his or her choice. But is it right to disrespect one's mother tongue? Is it necessary to neglect one's own language to practice the other? Is it right to discard the mother tongue?


No, Trisha doesn't know the answer. But she can feel that it's high time for the Indian languages. Something must have to be done to save them. Some steps must have to be taken by us who have created this chaos in actual.


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