Ghar ki Murgi Daal Barabar!

Read it in ET recently as well as many other newspapers about Americans learning Hindi…Majority of the students are now enrolling for Hindi because of different reasons like increasing number of Indian friends and acquaintances, interest in Indian Culture, Bollywood movies, Hindi songs etc…Infact not only Hindi, Americans are showing interest towards other Indian languages too like Bengali, Malayalam etc.

Chalo this is definitely good…now I can see Hindi coming back to India as I am sure that when these Firangis will start speaking Hindi then we the Indians will automatically start considering Hindi to be the “In-thing”. Well, in this era of westernization, one thing which has undergone complete metamorphosis is our language of communication. Rarely one can find today’s Indian literate class communicating in Hindi these days. Forget about communicating on our own, even if people are some where forced to write or speak in Hindi in some forum, they will either very smartly say, “Sorry, I am not very fluent in Hindi” or they will make sure to speak Hindi in such a twisted accent that they can beat even Angrezs in this. And Indian celebrities ka toh kya kehna!!! Most of them can’t speak or atleast try to pose that they can’t speak Hindi at all. Somehow, celebrities esp. from films have got a larger than life kind of effect on most of us and most of us try to do things the way they generally do, so seeing their accent its very much hip these days to either say that “I can’t speak in Hindi” or speak in one of those terribly twisted tongue burr. I happened to see few episodes of this serial known as “Bigg Boss” which is airing on Sony TV these days…I think as per the rule of the game those so called celebrities are supposed to speak in Hindi only and Oh my God, what a drama they do, what an accent!!! Most of them speak Hindi as if they have straightaway landed in that house from America or England. I can understand for people there who are basically from South India and they might not be fluent but what about all others who are either from North or have spent most of their lives in Mumbai??? They speak words with such difficulty & sooo much extra effort!!!
In present age, if you speak in proper Hindi, it’s considered to be so uncool and passé and if you can’t speak proper English in one of those Yankees tones you’re considered to be behenji or bhaiyaji types. Even those who are supposedly speaking in Hindi, for them the new buzzword is Hinglish. I am not saying that speaking in English is wrong. Because of globalization and increasing number of MNCs in India, we definitely need to converse and be fluent in English. Not only our English fluency helps us in professional world rather it helps us a lot on personal front too. Adopting progressive western culture is good, but does this mean that we should be ashamed of our own basic existence and forget our roots completely? Why is it so uncool or archaic to talk in our own language? Infact this situation isn’t true only for Hindi rather its true for most other regional languages too.

But as I told earlier, I think I can see Hindi coming back to us soon…Remember what happened with certain other things for e.g., YOGA. Despite Yoga being of Indian origin and existing in our country for centuries and centuries, we never considered it to be important enough. But suddenly Yoga has become a craze, the hottest lifestyle statement, in vogue kinda thing!!! The highlighted reasons for this fad are many but the most important underlying reason is its sudden acceptance and phenomenal popularity in western countries. When Americans thought its really good, we also thought oh its really good JJJ!!! Who kahte hain na “Ghar Ki Murgi Daal Barabar…”
Let’s hope for some such revolution for our languages too!!!

I am pen!!!

I am pen, sob sob, sob…
What do you mean by “What Pen or Whose Pen”, Arey baba I am pen, your writing pen which you used to use earlier for writing…See you can’t even recognize me spontaneously now!!! Such is my poor fate now, sob sniff sniff!!!
Yes, I am crying because I am seeing my death slowly-slowly in front of my own eyes. I am undergoing the pain of self-extinction and extermination. You know there was a time when I was being considered the tongue of human mind & people used to tell “Pen is mightier than sword”, but now forget about being mighty; I don’t even find my existence on most of the workstations.
How would you feel when after enjoying a long regal life, you would see your supremacy slowly fading away? I know you will not feel good. Even I don’t feel good by losing all my power to this newer generation. I used to enjoy such imperial existence. People used to adorn me so proudly in their pockets or on their working desks. There was a time when I was being considered one of the most precious gifts for all important occasions like success in exams, competitions, first job, first promotion etc. Not only that, people used to give me as good omen to their loved ones for wishing luck like parents giving me to their kids for writing exams or teachers gifting me to their favorite students for some important contest. What a belief kids used to have in me as their “Good Luck Pen” & with what care they used to keep me for especially using at some important exams!!! Oh I can’t forget the excitements which kids used to have when they used to get me first time in their lives & how proudly they used to flaunt me in their friend circle or to their younger siblings who were still using pencils.
Now all my authority has been snatched away by this newer generation. I no longer enjoy my throne i.e., the pockets of people, I have been replaced by PDAs/Palmtops/Blackberrys & what nots!!! Now I don’t have any presence in my erstwhile kingdom i.e., workstations and office desks. While I am carelessly thrown out in outskirts i.e., drawers of workstations, my premium position has been occupied by this new age key boards. Snifffff….
I know now I am of no use to you & you don’t remember me at all, but I can’t forget the gleam which was there in your eyes on the day when your daddy gifted me to you for the first time & I still remember the proud which you felt when your teacher gifted me to you with your name etched on my body for scoring the highest marks in class. Ahhhh Good old days…An era bygone…
Sob, Sob, Sob…

P.S: This post is dedicated to my earlier hobby of collecting good pens. There was a time when I used to be very fond of pens & my near and dear ones used to gift me different types of pens. Believe me, I used to be thrilled to receive pens as gifts & used to show off my collection of pens to my friends. But now I hardly get chance to use those lovely pens. I think I use pens now only for very few specific activities like signature etc. With all these digitization & online world, my life has definitely become more comfortable but at the same time I do miss my small yet lovely hobby of writing by different pens on different occasions!!!