Imposition of Hindi

Why did I hate Tamil when I was in school?  I just cant explain. Perhaps the teachers were Tamil Nazis and perhaps it was my Dad who took special interest to teach me the language. Why was my Dad so concerned about Tamil?  He was obviously swayed by politicians like CN Annadurai, EVR Periyar who were tamil zealots and who swayed the masses with the rhetoric. Today as I listen to those speeches my love for Tamil gets triggered. I wish we had Youtube and internet those days. As a student I would have access to their speeches and perhaps learnt the language willingly.

I continued to hate Tamil and at one juncture I was given the option to take French as a second language but my Dad stood his ground. He devoted more time to teach me but then I failed my pre university exams and I failed in Tamil. But then Tamil, as a language, continued to harasses me for 2 more years as I did my graduation.

Life goes on.  I got into the work world and I could neither speak Tamil (because I hated it) nor could I speak English. I was tongue tied, my self esteem took a beating. It got worse when friends around me spoke Hindi and I had no clue on what was happening. I got spewed out of most interesting social circles.

Later on in life I got to realize that language is just a combination of sounds. Sounds are common to all languages. How does it matter if I learn Tamil or Hindi or Urdu or Spanish?  To love Language is good but to be zealous about a language is stupidity.

I was quite happy when I saw this facebook update the Church response may not be a planned on but its timely

Hindi Service at St. Andrews Kirk

World Tamil Conference 2010

I saw this video in rotary club.  How things have changed.  Look at the style and quality.

Looking forward….

One really looks forward to some days. I have been a serious follower of Tamilzh Maiyam for long, relished on the music at the Annanagar Tower park last year and feasted on the Venu Biryani and Karandi Omlette at the Virugambakkam park… I always used to wonder how Fr. Jagath Gasper’s team pulled off this multi location events with some superb performers and mind blowing food and events. Finally today I met the man, in flesh and blood, along with Kiruba. I got to understand that such things can be done with a cool head… and thats what I saw – a really cool head.
Few of my friends have already decided to take a long break starting with the Margalizhi season and ending with Tamilzh Maiyam… Now after some exhilarating six days at Natyakala’09 Iam really looking forward to the Tamilzh Maiyam...

The world is changing, should we?

I had come across this video 3 yrs ago… and I laughed it off.  I saw this again in the light of what I have been working on – cultures.  Here are a bunch of boys doing a good job of imitating and having fun and suddenly as a thud they are brought back to reality.

The reality hits when Munniandys paati (grandma)  spots them in a busy city corner and talks to the boys in a typical Tamil lingo.  Watch the faces of the boys and girls.  Dont miss the tamil

It needs to be enjoyed and demands  thought too.

Tamil as Classical Language

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WHEN the Government of India declared Tamil a classical language a year ago, a gathering of educationists, social scientists and technocrats at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) in Chennai issued a clarion call to the intellectual fraternity for the preservation of invaluable literary works of the ancient language using modern tools. While sharing the euphoria over the honour done to the ancient language, MIDS Chairman M. Anandakrishnan observed, “If the language is to be protected, mere status enhancement will not do, the value of [the language’s] assets also must be enhanced. They must be made performing assets” (Frontline, November 5, 2004). He said, “Tamil’s assets are not only Purananooru, Agananooru and Thirukkural… We have a long tradition of assets in literary works, books on varied subjects, including science, newspapers, journals and so on.” Regretting that “there is not even a bibliography of Tamil publications, let alone annotative bibliographies”, Anandakrishnan called for “concerted efforts” in such directions. Similar suggestions came from several linguistic scholars and language experts as well.

Frontline link