Language

My mother tongue is a funny mix of Tamil and Kannada. More of Kannada than Tamil. Looks like my ancestors came with Sri Ramanujacharya who became the founder of Vishisthadwaitha, the third after Dwaitha and Adwaitha.

We belong to Melkote, the holy place where Lord Cheluva Narayana (Narayana in his most lovely form, hence the name Cheluva – meaning beautiful {handsome?}) and Yoga Narasimha.

Well, the subject went somewhere else. So, I knew how to speak Tamil and of course, I learnt Kannada from my first standard.

I was in the Railway Loco Colony of Mysore, near the Railway Station. What with the lovely sounds of steam engines, and later diesel engines, our life was ‘noisy’. The siren used to go off at 7 am and 5 pm  every day. It too has a story. The siren is meant to call the Railway staff during the emergency (7 times if a goods train has any serious problem and 9 times of a passenger train meets with an accident).  The siren did not work during an emergency since it was not used much. So, to keep it in condition, the morning and evening ritual of ‘time telling’ commenced.

Well, again the subject went…

We, boys and girls of the Colony, used to play together. I spy you, Gultoria etc., There was no caste, creed and other differences.  The reason is simple. We were all at the same economic strata. All the houses were alike. All the ‘dads’ used to chat during the evenings and holidays. ‘Moms’ would be in touch with each other for the exchange of milk, sugar, sambar etc.,! we kids were together.

During 2^nd or 3^rd standard, my mother requested Mrs. Irwin who was 4 houses away from my house, wife of Mr. Irwin (naturally!) who was an engine driver, to teach me Arithmetic and English. They were Anglo Indians. Mrs. Irwin’s   brother  was Eugene and son Michel.  I learnt English and Arithmetic from Mrs. Irwin. I should be thankful to her. Since I was playful, I ignored English.

I was in Kannada medium till 7^th Standard. Later I had a tough time in re-learning English! Ok, that makes it 2 languages. Ever since I remember, I had a muslim lady Boobamma ( I do not know her name, we call all muslim ladies boobamma) for a neighbour. She was looking after me after my father went to work and when my mother used to go to buy groceries and vegetables from Devaraja Market 5 kms from my home.

So, Urdu words I picked up. From 6^th Standard I had Hindi as the third language. I was surprised to learn that Hindi was more ‘sophisticated’ sounding than Urdu.

So, I consider it as 3 languages learnt.

I took the first standard Tamil book from Shiva Kumar who was in my opposite house and started practising Tamil letters. Since I knew the language to some extent, I could pick up fast. Even now I do not know the real Tamil verbs. But I can read, write and speak Tamil.

During 1985 or so, I was reading a Telugu novel’s translation and was stunned with the narration. I wanted to read the original book.

So, I purchased ‘learn Telugu in 30 days’ book and learnt it in 60 days. The advantage is that the script of Telugu is almost similar to Kannada with minor differences. Of course, the grammar is entirely different.

The languages learnt are now 5.

I picked up German words when I passed out Grundstuffe Eins (LKG in German)! I learnt a few Arabic and Malayalam words while I was in Muscat during 2002 to 2005.

I do have a penchant for learning of languages.  I try to greet a Gujju in Gujarati, Maharashtrian in Marathi.

Does it sound very pompous? Well, I am pompous!!!!