I have been wondering about this for quite some time now and I sometimes feel saddened by the current state of affairs. English has penetrated our lives to such an extent that it has just washed away (or atleast its in the process of washing away) the significance of all other languages (the so-callednative ones). Now, its good that people are so comfortable with English because that is an essential element of globalization, but then is it good to loose something which was once a part of youridentity? Ofcourse if that something is in anyway contrary to the human rationale, then its better to loose it and march ahead, but I can`t see any perspective which gives that idea about Hindi or otherlocal languages of our country. Then why have people started giving a cold shoulder to these languages. Its as if any form of literary or artistic work has almost stopped happening in any other language other than English.
I hope that I am wrong and that I am a mis-informed individual, but then that doesn`t seem to be the case as I am not a total dumbo who doesn`t have a clue as to what`s going around. When I can hear of so many English best-sellers and hardly any thing in any other language, its natural for me to have this idea. If we take the current generation, we can hardly find people who are aware of great literary work in their languages, but then when you ask them about English, they just won`t stop and you will have a huge pile of books which they think is/was great.
Now,definitely its not as if our brains are too small to appreciate things done in various languages/forms. Its just that people have started associating a factor of "coolness" with English and other languages have lost their charm for them. They have just remained as colloquial languages now and that too is dying down fast. Now I might get a lot of brickbats for being all too sentimental about the state and then writing everything in English, but then I am a very lazy guy and its difficult to write a piece in Devanagari with the current set of keyboards. I don`t see keyboards with Devanagari characters in India, whereas almost all the keyboards in some of the Asian countries like korea have their respective language symbols on them. That signals a lack of demand and so its bothering. I myself am guilty of being ignorant about the masterpieces in Hindi and so I am trying to get my hands on some of the good work that has been done in Hindi/Urdu and feel a little happy :) I should say sorry to all the people who stumble or are forced to stumble :) upon this piece, for again writing something serious. But I hope that it gives you something to think about. I haven`t had anything or rather didn`t allow myself to think about anything for a loong time :D
I hope that I am wrong and that I am a mis-informed individual, but then that doesn`t seem to be the case as I am not a total dumbo who doesn`t have a clue as to what`s going around. When I can hear of so many English best-sellers and hardly any thing in any other language, its natural for me to have this idea. If we take the current generation, we can hardly find people who are aware of great literary work in their languages, but then when you ask them about English, they just won`t stop and you will have a huge pile of books which they think is/was great.
Now,definitely its not as if our brains are too small to appreciate things done in various languages/forms. Its just that people have started associating a factor of "coolness" with English and other languages have lost their charm for them. They have just remained as colloquial languages now and that too is dying down fast. Now I might get a lot of brickbats for being all too sentimental about the state and then writing everything in English, but then I am a very lazy guy and its difficult to write a piece in Devanagari with the current set of keyboards. I don`t see keyboards with Devanagari characters in India, whereas almost all the keyboards in some of the Asian countries like korea have their respective language symbols on them. That signals a lack of demand and so its bothering. I myself am guilty of being ignorant about the masterpieces in Hindi and so I am trying to get my hands on some of the good work that has been done in Hindi/Urdu and feel a little happy :) I should say sorry to all the people who stumble or are forced to stumble :) upon this piece, for again writing something serious. But I hope that it gives you something to think about. I haven`t had anything or rather didn`t allow myself to think about anything for a loong time :D
4 comments:
ek aur point..hindi gaaliyon mein jo mazza hai, woh baat angrezi gaaliyon mein nahee aati :D
waise slightly offtopic, lekin aajkal jis terha se log sms-spellings use kar rahe hain, angrezi kee toh taand hee tod di gayi hai..which is sad for any language
:D :D galiyon ke liye to junta abhi bhi language ke barrier se uppar hain :) koi bhi nayi bhasha mai log sabse pehle galiyan seekhte hain and dekhte hain mazaa aa raha hai ya nahi
Interesting to know.
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