DO NOT ADULTERATE : Languages at risk

When I met my colleague last week at my workplace, he was sharing his living experience in India where he had a chance to visit the land of mass cultures a month ago. I was happy to hear from him that he stayed in Tamil Nadu for a month. But later was the shocking info which has whacked me down to the floor when he said he has learnt the local language with atmost proficiency. How come a German can learn one of the classical Indian languages within a month on his first visit? I stuttered the very nano of a second in asking him the ways that how he has learnt the language. He continued with an example of what he had heard from his Indian colleague when he was picked from the airport.

His colleague : “ Hallo Boss, flight vandhu 2 hrs late…… ,,,……Michael ai pick panittu office ku 30 mins la reach aiyduvom “

Michael had no query about the call since the conversation was pretty obvious to understand about what has been conveyed and to whom it was conveyed. He defines that, Tamil is the language whose dialect is very similar to that of English and is easy to learn Tamil in a span of 4 weeks. No wonder he had such thoughts in his mind. To be frank, I really struggled to find an exact vocabulary to comment on the conversation above. Can it be commented as saying “Adulteration” or “Tarnishing” or whatever? What a shame. I wish Michael will not read this blog.

This incident has taken a toll at my heart. From my point, I felt guilty at this situation because even I had played the role of language depletion so as a result, that god’s own divine language was under-estimated by a foreigner. Instantly to my anger, I was under siege where I was not able to make him understand exactly what really my language is. Though our patriotism towards the nation cannot be ever matched to any foreign soils’, the loyalty to our mother tongue is at a red alert danger. I became the victim who failed to stand for the legacy of my beloved Tamil. I’m sure this situation holds good for all the Indian languages.

Tamil, one of the classical languages of all time flourishing since the Stone Age and is dwarfed by its own children. Why the secondary language has occupied the major places in the primary part of the brain leaving the primary language in peril. I can dedicate a separate blog for this particular title with an objective of bringing this issue to the limelight. We know precisely what has to be done as a remedy and if it has to be said in simple words I would say,

Statutory Warning: DO NOT ADULTERATE LANGUAGES

On an outline, we are merely in the 21st century and it is just the beginning when the similar situation will be seen after 100 years. Just imagine how depth will be the infiltration by these lingual parasites. A change in a system cannot take place drastically, the smaller changes which are made over the time makes the difference when it is seen comprehensively after many years.

So, now it is upto us to make the recession to put the devil once again in the bottle.