Language Problem
Ten days back, when I was standing in the queue to pay my Electricity Bill for the previous month, there was this girl standing before me in the queue. Should be in her mid-twenties.Should be living mostly alone for when i sneaked and looked into her E-Bill from the back, I saw that the number of units havent gone into Slab 3(should be scarcely using the electric facilities,I wonder how ours always slips into Slab 3,but my house owner has a big part to play with that,which is a different story altogether!).
Anyway, she was from North and knew nothing in Kannada. As we went close and close to the counter, I also saw that in her bill there was this Arrears Column where it was written 296. So she goes to the counter and tells the man at the counter in Hindi that 296 is there in this arrears column and she had apparently paid the bill last month as well and that was a mistake in the bill
Now, I dont know whether the man at the counter knew Hindi or not, but atleast I expected him to reply her back in English.If he doesnt know anything other than Kannada then its fine. But atleast he should have tried something so that this girl understands what he says!As expected, he started in Kannada and this girl didnt understand anything out of it ofcourse, and she started arguing in Hindi with that person. Now there was a old man standing between me and her in the queue and he translated it for her in Hindi from Kannnada
"Aap ke paas previous month kaa receipt hai?".
Poor girl, she had misplaced it and replied that she doesnt have one. Then this old man would tell her in Hindi that there is no way the guys at the counter could verify that she has paid her previous bill. And the old man also said that she needs to go to the main office at J.P.Nagar to verify this.The poor girl just nodded and went. Not sure if she paid her arrears or not!
Thats exactly one of the problems with Bangalore... The majority of people here are from North, Andhra, Kerala and mainly from Tamil Nadu...Ask any auto driver and he would tell you the exact statistics of people from each state. Of course we manage with Hindi with auto rickshaws, hotels and many other places, but what do we do in Govt organisations like the one above? Of course, in many situations people would be helpful, but there are some cases like this as well. One more thing: If you want to travel in BMTC buses, you should be knowing Kannada, my friends. Its OK if its the regular route which you travel daily, you would know the route number, but if its a new route, better do all prelim enquiries regarding the route numbers for, everything would be written in Kannada in the bus boards and there would be Kannada numerals. Thank God, they atlease have Roman Numerals above that. But if everything else is Kannada around that, its of no use, isnt it? Yeah, you can ask the people who are travelling already in the bus, before boarding one, but chances are high that he/she might not know it as well. My point is: Why are the bus boards in Bangalore, the IT capital of India, Silicon Valley of India and what not, does have anything written in them in English?
An interesting news I read in the newspaper last year: People were complaining that the bus boards are hard to decipher.So what BMTC decided was they would send two people from BMTC to different states across the country. All expenses including the stay, travel and food would be that of BMTC and the work for these two people is to find out whether in these states,for the government run buses, are the bus routes written in both the state regional language as well as in English.The paper also said that a simple thing that could be done by making a single phone call is being made an expensive tour! And if someone had been to other states, the boards would have changed, but yeah, they are the same still.
Language: Man invented thing to communicate. Whats the use in having so many languages in this country when I dont get what you are saying and you dont understand a word of mine! People sometimes deliberately play with others, I tell you.
Like, the other day, I was going back home from work. I already told you the number of buses in Bangalore are less and people are surviving because of Sumos and Matador Vans. So i was in one such Sumo and it stopped near this bus stop. And there was this lady standing there. And the driver of the Sumo yelled, "Banashankari! Banashankari!". And to this the lady says in English,"How far is Majestic or Shivaji Nagar from this place? ". The driver starts getting irritated now. Why is she asking this when she knows that the Sumo isnt going there? He, I guess is not that good with his English, but still he tries whatever he could in English (and its a not so pretty woman as well, but still its a woman standing outside), "Madam, but this goes to Banashankari".
Now the lady continues in her English: "You know! Its very late and dark. I am getting really scared standing out here."The driver whatever he understood, am not clear, replies " Madam. Drop you in JP Nagar 1st Phase..You can go to Majestic or Shivaji Nagar from there. Lots of buses from there."... And NOW, the lady replies in Kannada,"Illindhu JP Nagara Yeshtu Kodu Beku?". For those who didnt get it, she was asking how much she should pay for dropping her off at JP Nagar. The driver says 5 rupees,but his Madam wont board the Sumo, so he shuts the door and starts moving ahead. After going some distance, he said to his companion "If this woman knew Kannada, why was she doing all these non-sense? She could have talked with me in Kannada and why was she wasting my time!?"I was sitting at the back happily enjoying at whatever he was shouting at her.
One more thing with language is that when you know that the other person doesnt understand what you speak, you can use that to shout at him/her with all possible foul words. Like what happened at the hospital other day. There were these Bengali girls and this nurse. The Bengali girls suddenly come to this nurse and started shouting at her in English. "We had this appointment at 9 AM. Now its like 11 AM and we havent seen the doctor yet. And the surgery that was supposed to happen, didnt happen yet".The nurse would initially tell them in English to calm down. "The doctors are not free, Madam. Also, there are a lot of procedures to be followed. Your case file had to come, then you have to pay cash at these counters, etc.. etc.."The girls would some back little stroger."There is no one working here with any responsibility in this hospital. We had to go to some other place as well. Whats going on here!?"... Now this would agitate the poor nurse. I mean, i understand the girls' concern.But its a damn hospital. You never know how long a doctor is gonna take for the patients who went before you. And yeah,you cant do away yet with the procedures which the nurse explained! So if you are going to the hospital, you have to expect these things. Sometimes you might be lucky, sometimes not! Anyway, back to my point, once the nurse got agitated,she started using Kannada now shouting at them, which those girls didnt get ofcourse. And she would tell the story to every other nurse in the department while those two were with the doctor.
One more way I can think now of where Language can be used to an individual's favour is by these criminals and politicians and big shots when a case is filed finally against them.How many times have we seen this! The case would be filed in some other state where they would be charged with the crime and there would a 1000, 2000 page chargesheet and what these people would say to delay the case is: "Its not in my mother tongue. I dont understand a word of it. You guys are trying to fool me. Translate it to my mother tongue". And three to four months would just pass away in doing the same!!
Why didnt we have a single language in this country, Jike? For that matter, why dont we have a single language for the world?"Do we have to really pride ourselves in saying India has more than 800 odd languages being spoken?, Unity In Diversity,blah. blah.blah". I ask you "So what?" .Whats the use in having so many languages? At last it all boils down to Hindi or English. English: One thing which we have to thank Britishers, they ruled whole of the world one day and made us all talk with the outside world in a common language and it has what made me today to talk to you.Imagine the situation where a Bengali would know only Bengali, a Gujarathi would know only Gujarathi and a Tamilian would know only Tamil!How would these three talk if they have to?. Yeah, yeah big leaders would have translators when they have political meetings,but who would be the translator for you and me?
One more thing, have you observed? I have atleast observed it with construction workers and other small vendors, office boys and shop keepers here. Their Kannada would be damn good eventhough they are not from this state. You can hardly make it out that they are from North or other Southern states. How come something which a highly educated person who works in a big MNC could not accomplish is accomplished by a woman who has never seen to school in her entire life and has been doing nothing but carry bricks to a building construction?
Necessity? You and me can somehow manage most of the time with our British given English and hamaara rashtrabhaasha Hindi, but they cant! It all boils down to this thing:If you are going out of your city/state or whatever, its you, who has to get accustomed to the world you are entering into.(Its your problem, you entered an alien world,I didnt ask you to come here, so you learn the way the communication has to be done here! Thats Ok.But the same can be applicable to you as well. You might have to come to my city one day, my dear!). It would take some time for me to get accustomed, right? I am just angry at the fact that when I am trying to do it, others in that alien world should appreciate my effort and till the time I learn their way, they can provide some sort of help, if they can. When thats not there, thats when I feel pissed off!
Anyway,Did I tell you Jike that the guy at the E-Bill counter refused to pay me back my change although I saw that he did have the change with him and when I pointed the same to him, he was still muttering something in his language which I could not understand and hence I could not reply and had to leave without my three ruppes back !
Anyway, she was from North and knew nothing in Kannada. As we went close and close to the counter, I also saw that in her bill there was this Arrears Column where it was written 296. So she goes to the counter and tells the man at the counter in Hindi that 296 is there in this arrears column and she had apparently paid the bill last month as well and that was a mistake in the bill
Now, I dont know whether the man at the counter knew Hindi or not, but atleast I expected him to reply her back in English.If he doesnt know anything other than Kannada then its fine. But atleast he should have tried something so that this girl understands what he says!As expected, he started in Kannada and this girl didnt understand anything out of it ofcourse, and she started arguing in Hindi with that person. Now there was a old man standing between me and her in the queue and he translated it for her in Hindi from Kannnada
"Aap ke paas previous month kaa receipt hai?".
Poor girl, she had misplaced it and replied that she doesnt have one. Then this old man would tell her in Hindi that there is no way the guys at the counter could verify that she has paid her previous bill. And the old man also said that she needs to go to the main office at J.P.Nagar to verify this.The poor girl just nodded and went. Not sure if she paid her arrears or not!
Thats exactly one of the problems with Bangalore... The majority of people here are from North, Andhra, Kerala and mainly from Tamil Nadu...Ask any auto driver and he would tell you the exact statistics of people from each state. Of course we manage with Hindi with auto rickshaws, hotels and many other places, but what do we do in Govt organisations like the one above? Of course, in many situations people would be helpful, but there are some cases like this as well. One more thing: If you want to travel in BMTC buses, you should be knowing Kannada, my friends. Its OK if its the regular route which you travel daily, you would know the route number, but if its a new route, better do all prelim enquiries regarding the route numbers for, everything would be written in Kannada in the bus boards and there would be Kannada numerals. Thank God, they atlease have Roman Numerals above that. But if everything else is Kannada around that, its of no use, isnt it? Yeah, you can ask the people who are travelling already in the bus, before boarding one, but chances are high that he/she might not know it as well. My point is: Why are the bus boards in Bangalore, the IT capital of India, Silicon Valley of India and what not, does have anything written in them in English?
An interesting news I read in the newspaper last year: People were complaining that the bus boards are hard to decipher.So what BMTC decided was they would send two people from BMTC to different states across the country. All expenses including the stay, travel and food would be that of BMTC and the work for these two people is to find out whether in these states,for the government run buses, are the bus routes written in both the state regional language as well as in English.The paper also said that a simple thing that could be done by making a single phone call is being made an expensive tour! And if someone had been to other states, the boards would have changed, but yeah, they are the same still.
Language: Man invented thing to communicate. Whats the use in having so many languages in this country when I dont get what you are saying and you dont understand a word of mine! People sometimes deliberately play with others, I tell you.
Like, the other day, I was going back home from work. I already told you the number of buses in Bangalore are less and people are surviving because of Sumos and Matador Vans. So i was in one such Sumo and it stopped near this bus stop. And there was this lady standing there. And the driver of the Sumo yelled, "Banashankari! Banashankari!". And to this the lady says in English,"How far is Majestic or Shivaji Nagar from this place? ". The driver starts getting irritated now. Why is she asking this when she knows that the Sumo isnt going there? He, I guess is not that good with his English, but still he tries whatever he could in English (and its a not so pretty woman as well, but still its a woman standing outside), "Madam, but this goes to Banashankari".
Now the lady continues in her English: "You know! Its very late and dark. I am getting really scared standing out here."The driver whatever he understood, am not clear, replies " Madam. Drop you in JP Nagar 1st Phase..You can go to Majestic or Shivaji Nagar from there. Lots of buses from there."... And NOW, the lady replies in Kannada,"Illindhu JP Nagara Yeshtu Kodu Beku?". For those who didnt get it, she was asking how much she should pay for dropping her off at JP Nagar. The driver says 5 rupees,but his Madam wont board the Sumo, so he shuts the door and starts moving ahead. After going some distance, he said to his companion "If this woman knew Kannada, why was she doing all these non-sense? She could have talked with me in Kannada and why was she wasting my time!?"I was sitting at the back happily enjoying at whatever he was shouting at her.
One more thing with language is that when you know that the other person doesnt understand what you speak, you can use that to shout at him/her with all possible foul words. Like what happened at the hospital other day. There were these Bengali girls and this nurse. The Bengali girls suddenly come to this nurse and started shouting at her in English. "We had this appointment at 9 AM. Now its like 11 AM and we havent seen the doctor yet. And the surgery that was supposed to happen, didnt happen yet".The nurse would initially tell them in English to calm down. "The doctors are not free, Madam. Also, there are a lot of procedures to be followed. Your case file had to come, then you have to pay cash at these counters, etc.. etc.."The girls would some back little stroger."There is no one working here with any responsibility in this hospital. We had to go to some other place as well. Whats going on here!?"... Now this would agitate the poor nurse. I mean, i understand the girls' concern.But its a damn hospital. You never know how long a doctor is gonna take for the patients who went before you. And yeah,you cant do away yet with the procedures which the nurse explained! So if you are going to the hospital, you have to expect these things. Sometimes you might be lucky, sometimes not! Anyway, back to my point, once the nurse got agitated,she started using Kannada now shouting at them, which those girls didnt get ofcourse. And she would tell the story to every other nurse in the department while those two were with the doctor.
One more way I can think now of where Language can be used to an individual's favour is by these criminals and politicians and big shots when a case is filed finally against them.How many times have we seen this! The case would be filed in some other state where they would be charged with the crime and there would a 1000, 2000 page chargesheet and what these people would say to delay the case is: "Its not in my mother tongue. I dont understand a word of it. You guys are trying to fool me. Translate it to my mother tongue". And three to four months would just pass away in doing the same!!
Why didnt we have a single language in this country, Jike? For that matter, why dont we have a single language for the world?"Do we have to really pride ourselves in saying India has more than 800 odd languages being spoken?, Unity In Diversity,blah. blah.blah". I ask you "So what?" .Whats the use in having so many languages? At last it all boils down to Hindi or English. English: One thing which we have to thank Britishers, they ruled whole of the world one day and made us all talk with the outside world in a common language and it has what made me today to talk to you.Imagine the situation where a Bengali would know only Bengali, a Gujarathi would know only Gujarathi and a Tamilian would know only Tamil!How would these three talk if they have to?. Yeah, yeah big leaders would have translators when they have political meetings,but who would be the translator for you and me?
One more thing, have you observed? I have atleast observed it with construction workers and other small vendors, office boys and shop keepers here. Their Kannada would be damn good eventhough they are not from this state. You can hardly make it out that they are from North or other Southern states. How come something which a highly educated person who works in a big MNC could not accomplish is accomplished by a woman who has never seen to school in her entire life and has been doing nothing but carry bricks to a building construction?
Necessity? You and me can somehow manage most of the time with our British given English and hamaara rashtrabhaasha Hindi, but they cant! It all boils down to this thing:If you are going out of your city/state or whatever, its you, who has to get accustomed to the world you are entering into.(Its your problem, you entered an alien world,I didnt ask you to come here, so you learn the way the communication has to be done here! Thats Ok.But the same can be applicable to you as well. You might have to come to my city one day, my dear!). It would take some time for me to get accustomed, right? I am just angry at the fact that when I am trying to do it, others in that alien world should appreciate my effort and till the time I learn their way, they can provide some sort of help, if they can. When thats not there, thats when I feel pissed off!
Anyway,Did I tell you Jike that the guy at the E-Bill counter refused to pay me back my change although I saw that he did have the change with him and when I pointed the same to him, he was still muttering something in his language which I could not understand and hence I could not reply and had to leave without my three ruppes back !
5 Comments:
Would agree with everything you say. As you said, When in Rome, one needs to be a Roman.
One thing I dont think people from the North understand - is the fact that - the South has a distinct identity and personality of its own - all the while being inside the Indian ethos. It is simply impossible to make Hindi a de-facto solution for the entire country, as Hindi is linguistically very removed from the languages of the South - and trying to force that down the south's throat is asking for trouble in the long run.
I even read a few days back to my acute rage, from people who have arguably never experienced what the South means, but still who have taken it upon themselves to "instruct" the people of the South to have a more national-mindset - even going to the extent of brading the South as a "ghetto"... How sad and how so untrue!
I am all for learning Hindi for its simple practicality. You don't lose anything by learning another tongue.
For the same reason, I look at this problem this way. It took me seven days to read Kannada script coherently. I am still nowhere near conversing in Kannada, but learning the script at least solves the problem of trying to decipher the road signs and bus routes.
If Bangalore is indeed a cosmopolitan city, and if IT people are indeed here to live and work on a permanent basis, is an investment of seven days too much to ask for????
@Woodworm: I feel that they should have at least important road signs / bus routes in another common language (somehow I think the Pallavans in TN have always done this in English - more so because of anti-Hindi). For instance, in Maharashtra, thanks to very good painters, there is virtually no distinction between 1,2,9 or any other numeral. It all makes sense to learn another script / language - but some things can make life a little easier - like Arabic numerals.
Am leaving this comment just because i understand the pain Kasri has taken in penning this blog entry ;-)
@Woodworm: Few more things I would like to add. One thing is, people from North, I feel, generally are not ready to learn 'any' southern language for that matter. You and I try doing it and may be because we recognise the similarity between the languages of South and so its possible to associate stuff and all. But those guys arent ready and hence the problem would still exist.
But, given the fact that Kannada has lot of similarities with Sanskrit and Hindi as it has with Tamil, it wont be a big deal, but as I said, they dont want to!
@Chaos: Cho chweeet of you!
@Woodworm: One more thing, regarding the Kannada script, yes thats a pain for everyone: be it a person from North or South(except for someone from AP for whom Telugu and Kannada letters would be mostly same). Again, its on personal interest and effort! I did it. I know you did it. Many dont wanna do it.. Thats why am asking for a common language here like what H is asking so that its easy for all of us.
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