Hindi or No Hindi!

I graduated in 1974 when I was 21. Jobs, as always, were far and few especially for “vanilla” graduates. Mrs. Gandhi’s nationalization of banks had given a fillip to branch expansion and that was my only hope. My father, in all his enthusiasm to encourage me, got me a probationary officer’s guide which cost him Rs. 15/=.  There were no coaching classes or internet to get information on finger tips. Competition Success Review magazine was a constant companion. I embarked on project “job hunting” in all earnestness! I appeared for all exams that allowed me to appear – from Management trainees to clerks to Probationary officers! I had appeared for an entrance exam for IIM, Calcutta in my final year and that was a tough nut to crack. But that failure was certainly an experience to cherish for compared to that, the PO exams were, to put it Chennai parlance “Jijubi”. I got selected as probationary officer in 2 banks besides as a clerk in another Bank. God was kind was all I could say with a sigh of relief!

Canara Bank was a great place to start my career. Having had my initial training stint in Jamshedpur in Bihar and Dhenkanal in Orissa, I was finally posted to Moradabad. It was in Western UP and I landed there with lot of trepidation. I did not know the language and it was far away from home. My first day in office was quite intimidating. Most of the staff spoke only Hindi and I was asked to manage the “bills” counter. In walked a gentleman and he asked in chaste Hindi “Saab, woh chautha sow pachpan bill nikaaldo”. I felt as if I was hit on the head by a Joffra Archer bouncer. Cheques were written in Hindi numerals. The pay in slips were also in Hindi. I cursed the Tamil Zealots back home who did not allow folks like us to learn Hindi. But then, being a positive person that I am, I sought the help of a local colleague, Mr. Ved Prakash Dbey ji – we called him Dubey ji. He gave me a brilliant idea – watch movies! That sounded a great idea and since he was a forced bachelor, he used to accompany me to at least 3 movies a week! All the Amitabh Bachan starrer of those days like Zanzeer, Kabhi kabi, Amar Akbar Antony were seen gleefully. The morning radio sounded Kundan Lal Saigal and evenings were with Ameen Sayani. Mohammed Rafi was my all-time favourite. Soon enough I started learning Hindi, the right way!

My Hindi was very chaste without the Tamilian accent and people started accepting me as their own. One problem with learning Hindi in UP is the usage of, what we call “Sanskrit” words in between. For those who are uninitiated, we call it swear words. You see these words lovingly uttered by our Virat Kohli whenever India takes a wicket. You will not understand the pleasure of mouthing these words unless you have lived in UP or up North. I had a colleague by name Triloknath Chaturvedi – and his name implies that he was a master of 4 Vedas- nothing can be farther from the truth. If he opened his mouth, it would be the choicest of “words” in Hindi. And he was a great influence on me, so much so, I started using a similar language! Once I was travelling from Delhi to Amritsar with my friends and a vendor tried to cheat me. I unleashed a barrage of abuses selected from Chaturvedi’s exclusive dictionary. An elderly man, obviously stunned at this onslaught, sitting opposite to me, seeing us talking in Tamil earlier, gently asked me in Hindi “Are you a Madrasi?”. I said yes and he responded “Even I do not know so many “good” words in Hind!”. My friend Chaturvedi must have been proud seeing the progress of his protege! 

Then I moved on from there to various places, left the Bank and worked in Puerto Rico before moving to the US. In Puerto Rico, a Spanish colleague proudly told me that his Indian friends had taught him Hindi and much to my liking uttered all those “good” words that I had forgotten in a while! On return to India I joined HCL. For some strange reason all sales and marketing guys in IT companies are North Indians! My Hindi helped me to build a bond with them and whenever we had something to quietly discuss which the client should not know, we always switched to Hindi! Needless to add, I have built lasting friendships with many of them. And after all the drama, I have retired to a senior living home which is run by North Indians and yes, my Hindi helps here too!

So, the point I am making is that learning a language is definitely an advantage and enriches you. I appreciate Mr. Modi’s speech for most of the part, enjoy Kumar Vishwas’ kavi sammelans, enjoy reading jokes in Hindi etc., I can go on and on. Similarly, I have also learnt Kannada and can speak reasonably well. And you can see the pleasure in someone’s face when you talk to them in their native language. It is priceless.

By learning a language, I don’t think Tamil will lose out. But unfortunately, those who defend Tamil are those who do not know the beauty of the language. There is a vast literature in Tamil and I am sure most of these chaps do not even know the ABC of these classics. In modern days who would know about Sekizhar or Silapadikaram or the great Thiruvalluvar. They generate new words that are extremely colloquial and purists like me do not understand. For example, for one of my FB posts, one person had commented “mass sir!’. I did not know what it meant. I quietly called my niece and asked her what it meant. She said mass=awesome as if it was something universal like E=MC² ! Recently in our senior living, we conducted a competition where people had to speak extempore for a minute on a given topic without using English words. All of them failed! So much for our Tamil skills. As for me, I am making it a point to read Tamil devotional classics like Thiruvasagam etc., and am fond of quoting from Thirukuaral. More than Tamilnadu, it is Tamil folks in countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia, France, Canada are fostering the language the way it should be done.    

   

So long as it is not compulsory, I guess learning a new language is a great advantage and one must make efforts to learn a language whenever an opportunity arises. There should be no coercion. At the same time, if there is a necessity, I feel that people will learn a language. After all, all languages are beautiful and are useful in some way. So, the more languages you know, the more friends you can have! What else one needs?