Languages....

Two decades back when some one spoke a different language, i used to wonder "what the hell they are talking about?". Obviously i did not know english to even know what 'what the hell meant'. When my mom used to come as my saviour and translate the words for me 'Putta, it means ....' for whatever it meant.

Growing up, i started learning Kannada and Sanskrit. I was shocked when DD1 started and aired programmes in Hindi. Just when i had thought that Kannada & Sanskrit are the only 2 languages in the world this new language comes up and i can't even make head and tails out of it and to add fuel to fire, the cartoons which looked inviting used to speak in this weird alien language.

Luckily i was in a school which used to teach Hindi from class 4. Now learning a new language is not a small thing and i used to misspell, mis interpret most of the words. Sometimes i used to get lost in translation, but somehow used to manage pass the subject.

It ended up that i decided i was about to master all the languages in the world, when we had a new neighbour move in. Now, they had a very cute daughter and i became all set to help them setup their new house. I persuaded my mom to go over and welcome them to the neighbourhood. The first word they uttered shattered my world, now where on earth was Tamil till now; i had never known of its existence.

No matter, i decided i would learn the language and used to pester my mom to teach tamil. However it was no good, as it was getting tough to learn the language. 'Vanakkam', 'Vaango', there were too many words for me to remember. But i was very much determined to befriend that girl and from my mom came to know that she studies in an english school. This was too much, how many languages the girl knows Tamil, English, Kannada and i was thinking i know all the languages in the world.

Moving on from what i had left during those days i have managed to learn a couple of languages more like telugu, marathi, malayalam (though i am absolutely hopeless, efforts are on). I know how to converse in these languages, but i fall flat when it comes to writing or reading them.

As i move on from place to place with my current job, i keep finding out new things, new languages, new grammar of already known ones, languages which have become extinct, languages which have borne new ones. The more i read, the more i find. Sometimes i wonder at the cute girl who had moved into my neighbourhood and fuelled a great passion in my life.

When i meet a friend who is carrying his 1 year old son, i try to talk with his child and say "Arre beta kaise ho?? Kya naam hain tera" and i wonder if the child is thinking what i was thinking nearly 25 years back....