At home, with words

Manpriya Singh 

As the celebrated speech from Irrfan Khan’s Hindi Medium goes, “People think it’s okay (maybe  it’s cool too) to not know Hindi, but it’s socially embarrassing having to cover up your broken English.”  

Lately, we’ve had a string of movies, English Vinglish and closer home Uda Aida, riding on the same theme and doing well at the box-office too. In sync with the sentiment is International Mother Language Day, more of an observance to promote awareness, cultural diversity, different dialects, and, of course, the languages.  But, more importantly, it’s about taking pride in one’s roots.  

Speaking out loud 

Singer Kailash Kher deliberately makes it a point to speak in his mother tongue, Hindi, especially at a gathering where he finds himself among, as he calls, “artificial crowd that is complexed about their own language and hence the roots. Maybe it’s their conditioning or may be something else.”  He addss, “And I speak it with a lot of passion and pride, and that’s the way it should be with anyone.” Unfortunately, to push the language into the cool zone, he feels, we first need to educate the parents before we go for the kids. Having sung in as many as 25 languages, any other language that he is fluent in? “Punjabi.  Having been brought up in Delhi, I can truly speak it! Do you speak it too?” He’s game for the conversation as long as dialogues get exchanged in one of the Indian languages!     

True-blue Punjabi  

As much as 99 per cent of the communication in comedian Balraj’s everyday life happens in his mother tongue, Punjabi. So much so, as he laughingly shares, “Even my cook from Bihar has learnt to converse in the language. I am surrounded by Punjabi friends and family, so I get to speak the language.”  But he best sums up the beauty of his mother tongue to us, “It’s a lovable language. You want to threaten someone? Punjabi comes to the rescue. You want to make them laugh?  Punjabi punches are unparalleled.  When we came to Mumbai too, the first thing they told us was not to shed our Punjabi accent.” 

That is the reason we have a list full of stand-up comedians coming from Punjab. The only regret is that, “I get to read very little Punjabi though.”

Bengali flavour

Actress Payal Ghosh feels proud of her mother tongue Bengali because, “It is a soft and sweet language and it has rhythm too.” She adds, “Yes I speak in Bengali only when I’m interacting with my family; reading in Bengali is rare, but when I travel to Kolkata I love reading the Bengali poems by Rabindranath Tagore, Sukumar Roy and others.”  

Do not neglect 

Singer Asees Kaur really appreciates days like these for that is, “when we celebrate such an important thing, which people generally tend to neglect.” After all, she says, language is the basis and core of our communication; and such an important thing has to be given the importance it holds. The singer not just speaks, but even reads and writes in her mother tongue, Punjabi. “I speak Punjabi at home. In fact, even when I’m not at home and when I talk to someone in Punjabi, it automatically feels homely to me.”