There would not have been any ‘language problem’ if we had lived long back. According to the Bible, humans originally spoke a single language. But God got angry when they tried to build a tower to heaven. As this was not in His plan, He made them speak different languages and scattered them across the earth. Thus began the ‘language problem’ that comes in handy to our politicians, especially during election time.
Though we usually speak to convey messages, we have many other methods like smoke signals, drum beats, and continuous ringing of church bells for the purpose. Films show lovebirds standing away from each other in a crowded room conveying messages using their own methods. Lakhs of other species on the earth, who cannot ‘speak’, also must be having their ways of communication.
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We live in a large country divided into several linguistic states. In addition to the official language of a state, people also speak several dialects unintelligible to outsiders. Some States have again been divided into smaller ones with a common official language for various reasons.
Politicians often take advantage of the ‘imposition’ of Hindi on non-Hindi States to win elections. During the peak of anti-Hindi agitation, signboards in Hindi in many States were hastily replaced with those written in the local language or English. However, when it is a matter of earning bread, people vehemently opposed to Hindi in their home states have no hesitation in learning and using that language.
Film-makers have made use of the problem in different ways. The other day, I saw a scene from an English medium school. The principal asks the name of a small girl during the interview. When she replies ‘Ammukkutty’, the principal asks her to speak it in English! The girl’s father is quick to understand what the principal wants and replies ‘Ammu-kku-tti’ like a native English speaker, and the girl is admitted.
I have heard workers from other States sometimes using derogatory language to their employers. The latter’s expression doesn’t change, as they are unaware of the insult in a strange language. The same treatment is often meted out to these workers also by their hosts.
When I asked for a tube of a particular brand of toothpaste the other day, the shopkeeper looked puzzled. As I pointed to the tube prominently displayed in his showcase, he said, ‘Oh! you need Colgate!’ On another occasion, I asked my housemaid to get an electric bulb from a nearby shop. She couldn’t understand what I wanted till I pointed out a bulb in the house. She was relieved and corrected me, saying the word rhyming with ‘bush’.
Settled in Gujarat, we speak Gujarati fluently. However, after hearing our names and realising our roots are in another State, many Gujaratis speak in broken Hindi with us. Within a few minutes, the scene becomes hilarious. We speak in Gujarati, while our Gujarati friends do so in Hindi. They cannot believe that we are well-versed in Gujarati. Friends of my school-going son usually speak with him in Hindi though he can speak Gujarati well. The same thing happens when we go shopping. Though we speak in Gujarati, the shopkeepers, realising we are from another State, use Hindi.
