English is NOT our mother tongue.

The widespread prevalence of queen’s language as a medium of education in India is undoubtedly one of the biggest factors which helped in putting us on the global map. It not only made it easier to absorb the vast amount of scientific findings originating mostly in the west, predominantly published in English language, but also to communicate & to deliver our own ideas across the globe. Besides, we were, as if, tailor made for the kind of jobs that required skills & intellect of a variable range but knowledge of English as the quintessential feature.

But in this period of over 60 years when we made our presence felt throughout the world as not just a land of snake charmers & elephants, I believe we started taking pride in something which is essentially foreign. There is a difference & a very wide one in adopting something foreign & adopting it over something native & holding the former at a higher pedestal. As I mentioned earlier, learning English was inevitable for most of us who aspired to go forward in life. But at the same time, it has to be realized & constantly remembered that there was nothing wrong with our mother tongue in the first place. It’s just that a wooden log always aligns itself to the water current to surge ahead with least resistance.

The reason I am writing in English is pretty straightforward. I am not adept enough to write in my mother tongue which is Hindi. And for most of you reading this, whatever your native language be, you’d agree to the fact that the expression of our thoughts is generally English because we simply fail to phrase ourselves this flawlessly in our mother tongue. Not being an extremist, I do not abhor the so called invasion of our culture by a foreign language or advocate a linguistic movement to venerate & glorify our birth language. But I certainly condemn a disregard for any of our own languages or for the people who prefer to use them.    

There does exist a sense of superiority in a large part of our English medium educated society since familiarity with English has come to mean a higher standing in our culture, both intellectually & economically. But this display of arrogance is the worst example we could possibly put up to show how hollow our education & moral development has actually been. Taking nothing away from the queen’s language, Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit, Bengali & many more such Indian languages are far richer in terms of vocabulary & contain such beautiful expressions that are unparalleled in any western medium of communication. It is nothing but our misfortune that we not just fail to learn what is ours but also choose to scoff at it.

I really wish that each one of us would recognize the fact that language is nothing but

a medium of expression. Weighing them against each other is our disdain towards the very channel that lets us display who we really are. An unbiased perspective towards them would not only enrich our lives but also preserve what is slowly fading away, our faith in ourselves. 

Cheers to life :-)

The ‘I’ business.

The biggest misconception in my life, for a very large part of it, was that I considered egoism evil.  Somewhere deep down inside I was fully aware of being an egoist myself but the admission wasn’t easy considering the amount of weight this largely hypocritical society attaches to the label. The turning point in my perception I’d say was Ayn Rand’s very popular quote “To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I'”. It struck me so hard that I was forced to read some of her works which for the first time illuminated my vision towards ‘individualism’. I’ve met at least 100 people with 100 different interpretations of the term but I’d rather be talking about mine.

My journey began by a self evaluation procedure. I tried to figure out the beneficiaries of my everyday actions & the ones that I commit seldom. The answer was often more than a single individual but the common element in all these sets was the ‘I’. Then I went a step ahead & tried to judge those actions which are generally considered benevolent like giving alms, helping your parents & friends etc. Once again I could uncover the ulterior beneficiary & it was me again! These actions were either done with a sense of satisfaction attained by helping those who were in need or a belief that God would be pleased & would reward us in return. In either of the two cases, we kept our own interests in mind at all times. This I believe was the most startling of revelations & provided so much peace & solace to my conscience that my expectations from others lessened to a great degree. Also while performing such actions, I felt relieved of the baggage that one often carries by patronizing thyself of doing great deeds for humanity. Charity, they say, begins at home. I say a part of it always comes home.

Now, another perplexing question which often arises is how do we tell the difference between right & wrong. My opinion is that every action which benefits you as an individual & doesn’t harm any other creation of God is righteous. In this manner you satiate yourself & thus add to the total contentment of all mankind. This, I believe, is one of the best ways of helping humanity (aspiring beauty queens, please pay attention J)

In my last article, I’d written how God can be found in mere mortals. I’d extend it to say that the height of individualism is attained when God can be found within oneself. If our body & mind are strong enough to appreciate & follow the simple truth that our soul is a perennial source of all emotions that we’d ever need, we’ll never be at the mercy of another mortal. Kindly do not interpret the last sentence as an appeal towards being anti-social. It just wishes to draw your attention towards the latent power of self realization & contemplation.

Cheers to life J