Mozhi ப்பராபளம்

This is the norm for most of the bilinguals like me in Tamil Nadu, especially while in school, we suffer from this Language’ophobia. மனேயல்லி ಕನ್ನಡ (வீட்டுல Kannada), வெளியில் தமிழ் and in school English. This was how I started my school days in a confused state till 4th Standard, but when I stepped into 5th standard, things became more complicated. Hindi and Sanskrit joined the race to torture me. I was put into this CBSE School in Sri Vidya Mandir (SVMS), Salem. 

Up until joining SVMS, my Hindi vocabulary was verrrryyy limited, like, “Ek.. doo.. theen”, “Chumma.. chumma.. de..dee”, “shoolay”, “namaskar” and not to forget “ek gaon main..ek kisan raghuthatta”. I was a hosteler then, so new joinees were pushed for a special tuition from 4:30 PM to 5:00 PM, while the rest of my friends were playing cricket.

Hindi teacher should be called as Ji or Pandit. Sanskrit sir as Sharma Ji. Tamil teacher as Ayya\Amma. English and other subjects as sir\madam.

Our Hindi tuition Ji was from Ambasamudram, he’ll say “ஒழுங்க படிக்கலே மணிமுத்தாறுல புரட்டி எடுத்துடுவேன்”.

Halfway through my 5th standard year, there came a circular “Students should speak in Hindi, while in Hindi period. Should speak in Tamil, while in Tamil class. Sanskrit in Sanskrit period. For English class and the rest of the subject- English is must”. 

We hostelers had a big doubt, “What language should we speak in interval and lunch period?”. So as days passed, one day during an interval period, I said to my friend Balu, “டாய், நான் one bathroom போயிட்டுவரேன்...”, suddenly someone caught my ear. It was my Sanskrit Sharma Ji (He was like Premji from Goa film). He said “Hey man, you talk in Tamil”.

Me: No, Tamil ji.. bath room is English!! He said, “come to the staff room”. He pulled my ear and dragged me to 2nd floor.

I thought, “Yov Sharma, நீங்க management-க்கு salaam போட என் காதுதான் கெடச்சதா!!"

I ended up paying Re. 1 for talking in Tamil. That one rupee was added to my mess bill.

உங்க மொழி அரசியலுக்கு என்ன மாதிரி எத்தனை ஊரூகாய் ஜாடியோ!

A small pawn in the divisive linguistic politics.

**Above image by the blogger