Chennai-Madras

Language – this is an issue which has stirred Madras and its politicians over the last 34 years that I have been experiencing the happenings of Chennai. It is one of the keys to the character of the citizens of Chennai. The fixation with Tamil and English both hides and reveals many facets of what makes Madras such a charming and culturally significant city to live in. Madrasis regard the Tamil language as the key to the essence of their culture. English is their window to the wider world; Hindi, an imposition of an alien, aggressive culture trying to dominate.

I have a couple of things to say about the last sentence... but that comes later....The rest of the article is much less interesting and sheer nonsense...

This reminds me of an incident... Was talking to my friend about my classmate's marriage and she asked when his baarat was... I promptly went on to ask what this baarat thing is, and guess what, i was greeted with an incredulous stare and the type of look that is bestowed upon a 10th standard child when he is caught watching a porn flick on a hot and sticky saturday afternoon or upon a person endowed with a vociferous fart puts up a public display of his vociferousness(or is it vociferocity?) over a speaker when the crowd's devotional fervour is at its peak...

The gravity of the situation overwhelmed me...

'What?' I queried tremulously.
'Dont you know what baarat is?'
'No... Its a hindi word, isnt it?' - the post-gathering-myself me

The incredulous stare upon a 10th std porn-watching boy turned into one upon a 3rd standard serial rapist.

'Dont you know hindi?' : Make that font 40 bold
'Not to this extent'
'Well, you are supposed to... Its our national language'
'So is English...'
'But...but its a foreign language'

And the pointless conversation went on....

Pushing aside all this patriotism junk, the answer is simple... India, as a nation is only 60 years old... There was no political entity called India before the britishers established the nation....Everybody was fighting everybody else... I wouldnt exactly call that a nation...

To tamilians, both English and Hindi are foreign... Where tamilians differ from the rest of the linguistic communities is that while all other languages of India were either evolved from Sanskrit or heavily influenced by it, tamil has a distinct linguistic tradition, not evolved and not influenced(very little)... And while the familiarity with English is 250 odd years, the familiarity with Hindi is only 40 odd years...I think the criticism is a bit unfair...

And i am much more comfortable with english...

P.S: This doesnt mean i am against/for certain languages... i suppose i am beyond all that now... was just trying to talk some logic... :)