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Journalism of Courage
English is a funny language. No one can deny that. Ph is pronounced F. I is always placed before e,except after c. And tissue,issue,potato,tomato all take on a different tone,depending on which part of the world you call home. But it is this flexibility that makes it the language most people choose to communicate in. And for me,that is the single reason that the sound of English well-spoken,obviously is like music to my ears. Certainly,there are other languages that are more expressive,like Italian. Or romantic,like French. But for me,the Queens English remains number one all apologies to Spanish and Mandarin. You may be the language of the future,but I prefer to communicate in the present.
It is this love for words that led me to become a writer. And it has been an incredible voyage of discovery,with books becoming my continents and the perfect sentence my favourite companion. This quest also gave me my word,my raison d etre: serendipity. The fact that I stumbled upon this word in the lesser-known but highly-acclaimed book by Keri Hulme,The Bone People,makes it all the more serendipitous. Those familiar with Hulmes Booker-winning novel will also understand my complex relationship with language. I am not a purist and actually encourage breaking the rules. With syntax. By starting a sentence with a conjunction. And by using the colloquial with insouciance. English,like Hinduism,has the ability to extend itself to include all manners of disruption and change. Which is why I love the way we Indians have taken it and made it into a local language. We saved it from being a dead,foreign language spoken by a few and made it a desi special a living,breathing thing that cross-pollinates into multilingualism. We have added words to the dictionary. Given the language a new direction,and sometimes,even a new spelling. But our greatest contribution is the fact that we have given it some of its finest new literature.
This same disregard is obvious every time you call a helpline. Even if you press the option for English,you will be greeted by a person who cannot recite the alphabet. Like parrots,they say the same thing regardless of your problem. Sorry for the incontinence, they mouth without realising that while they are inconveniencing you,they are implicating themselves. Let me clarify,I have no issue with the way we speak it. I like the Indian accent,I speak with an Indian accent. Frankly,I dont really understand western accents because everyone sounds like they are speaking with marbles in their mouths. I am grateful for subtitles in American programmes. I wish they even came with cultural reference to context guides. My peeve is with everyone speaking like they write SMS text,that is. How can you really be fluent in communicating if you are shortening words into incomprehensible abbreviations? Why does the very precise the need to be made into d? Why is there a tearing hurry to present today as 2day? And when did it become okay to turn even into e1? A crime against language is being committed,and so far,I see no punishment in the offing. It is okay to play with language. But if all you are doing is dismembering it,its time to stop. To slow down. And try full sentences. It works when you need to make a point.
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