Language woes

A click of the setting sun along a highway

   Abi is trying to speak in Tamil. We try to speak to him in Tamil though it is in minority. Turn around and he sees only Hindi (rather HADOTI) speaking people around him.So Hindi comes to him fluently, but he is catching up Tamil also very easily and quickly.The whole process of teaching him an important language/mother tongue (important because our people in south do not speak Hindi) reminds me of my own learning of Hindi.

   My husband was posted in J&K when we got married. I did not know Hindi at all, not even a single word. So it was very difficult for me to communicate with helping staff. My husband would be off on duty for long hours. Though we were dining in the mess, i still needed to speak quite a lot with the staff. We had a very obedient, sincere and loyal helper. But the only problem was he would not speak any other language other than Hindi or Punjabi. Very quickly we had developed some kind of understanding with the help of sign language. Somehow things were going smoothly till that wonderful day!

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   I had soaked some clothes in a bucket in the morning. After my hubby left for office, I asked my helper to keep a bucket of water on the stove for my bath as it was winter (we were staying in a temporary accommodation hence no geyser). God knows what he understood, he went and put the same bucket for heating in which I had soaked my clothes including my hubby's uniform! After about 30-40 minutes I went to check whether the water was ready or not. Alas! I was horrified to see my clothes getting boiled with almost no water! Some clothes including his uniform were burnt and could not be used. I still have a saree of mine as a memory of that incident. Though I lost some of my clothes it taught me a lesson..I resolved to learn Hindi at the earliest. Meanwhile my husband had gone for a month long training and when he came back he was shocked to hear me speak in fluent Hindi! Today everyone including my hubby say that I speak Hindi better than him.

So with the same resolve, I want Abi to learn Tamil and speak it better than me! I am sure he will, for he is a quick learner.