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A copy and paste response to Rashmun

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A copy and paste response to Rashmun Empty A copy and paste response to Rashmun

Post by Kayalvizhi Mon Jun 30, 2014 7:05 pm

Hindi at the Faculty Lounge

P. Menon

I am an assistant professor in an American university. At the time of this incidence, I had just joined the faculty a few weeks before. I was having a cup of coffee with a few faculty members in the faculty lounge. There in walked a professor of Indian origin - much older than me - may be in his fifties. He walked to our table and asked me in Hindi, something like, "I have not seen you here before. Which department are you with?" I do know some Hindi. I replied in Malayalam, "I joined the ---- department last month. How are you?" He was seemingly startled that I answered in a language he did not understand. He said, "Huh!" I repeated what I said again in Malayalam. He responded, "What language is that? I don't understand you."

I replied in English, "I thought you understand my mother tongue Malayalam, in the same way you assumed I understand your mother tongue Hindi." He turned away, murmuring in English, "Hindi is our official language." I said, "Along with English. Our neighbor state doesn't even teach Hindi in their schools."

After he left the faculty members I was chatting with asked me what it was all about. I explained to them briefly the language situation in India. Just a minute or two. I did not want to bore them.

My replying to an arrogant Hindi speaker's Hindi question in Malayalam is not original. I was merely following our illustrious chief minister Nayanar. Ramachandra Guha recalls an incidence in the January 18, 2004 issue of The Hindu newspaper. Kerala Chief Minister Nayanar received a Hindi letter from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, a serious proponent of using Hindi at the Indian central government. Chief Minister Nayanar responded in kind by sending his reply in Kerala's principal language Malayalam.

More incidents at
http://www.tamiltribune.com/11/0501.html

Kayalvizhi

Posts : 3659
Join date : 2011-05-16

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