Monday, November 14, 2005

How important is it..?

Now, I was wondering, how important is it to know your mother tongue? I mean, if you are living in a place different from your native place and the language spoken there is not your mother tongue then what difference does it make wether you know your mother tongue or not?
I have seen people getting teased for not knowing Malayalam...but why must we expect them to know it when they have been living outside Kerala for so long. There are exceptions...lotsa NRKs who speak their mother tongue too are there, but no piont in teasing the rest. They have hardly any need to use their mother toungue unless ofcourse their family uses it at home or something.
Will I have been on both sides of the court..teasing and getting teased, so I was just wondering. When I first came to Kerala I didn't know the language, my parents would speak to me in English (because fluency in english was important for school admission) and friends would use Hindi. Well, I am very fluent in Malayalam now, no probs.

But, why make people ashamed about not knowing your mother tongue? Teasing them is one thing, but making them feel really bad about it is another. Its simply a language after all...why is it a must you have to know it, when you hardly ever need to use it? Ok, so if you are living in a particular state it is good to know the local language..thats it.

Now, there is a particular class of 'weird' people who know the language but pretend to not know it or something. God knows why they go through all the trouble to pose they don't know it...its really funny.

Well, I used to feel terrible about not knowing Malayalam...it was something to be ashamed of. But now when I think about it..I don't really know why should one feel ashamed about it? Is it really that important?

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Diwali Dhamaka

I had a really fantastic diwali...!
The started off with a family breakfast at my aunt's place. Every year we have breakfast at her place for Diwali....I simply love it and I also got to have gulab jamuns after a very long time. Wow!
Went out for dinner again with family members and it was great. Well, basically spending time with family is always great..!
Then we all came home to burst crackers...only mild noiseless ones because we have a baby in the family (my nephew who is below 1). Well, everything was going on well, until at the very end we were left with several giant sized match sticks. I had a sudden brainwave that lighting all the oversized left over matchsticks together will be lovely to look at and a fantastic thing to do. Implementing this incredible idea I took around 10-12 of those oversized matchsticks and lit them all together and *BAM* before I knew it there was a big fire and all...and now I am left with 2 very burnt fingers. aaargh...the pain and the stinging sensation was incredible...it gave me a clear view of the gates of heaven (yeah, I'm sure I'll be off to heaven and nowhere else!) Not a single tear flowed down my cheek...no scream or cries from me..just a feeling of pain and shame..haha...God! I have never felt so foolish and stupid before!
Loads and loads of 'Burnol' followed, along with a simultaneous abundance of advice and "I told you to be careful..." surrounding an embarrassed little me.

My fingers are now multi couloured...the folds of my skin hidden from the fire are still light brown and the rest of it looks charred..ugh! I feel like a zebra and looking at my hand reminds me of those movies and music videos where the hero/heroine lies and hides from their lover because of a burn/scar or whatever....oh, it looks so much like my poor fingers. Worst thing is this happened to my right hand, to my thumb and index fingers..the fingers I need to hold a pen. Its better now...I am back in action..have to submit my records on Monday, you see.

Anyway...I guess some bad karmas of the past have been accounted for...one life cut short in the many more births left....

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Happy Diwali!

Its been a really long time since I came to Blogger....I simply ran out of things to say....didn't know what to write...

Well, since I am here anyway...let me wish everybody a VERY HAPPY DIWALI!!
I just saw the news report on tv that said New York has added Diwali to its list of public holidays...They have this law that, cars can't be parked on both sides of a road because that obstructs the path of the cleaning trucks.But on these special days cars can be parked on both sides which means the city is not cleaned on these days. Well, they do have a weird way of acknowledging varoious communities and their customs (by car parking laws!) but still, I guess the Indians out there must be feeling good.