By Oliver Lyngdoh
There was a report in a local news channel a few months ago entitled “Hindi in Meghalaya”. As a response to it, I would like to bring up another topic relating to language. Just a reminder, the news report gave valid reasons as to why we as a state should be fluent not only in speaking the language (Hindi) but also in writing it. I support this notion entirely, as being a student I need to interact with different people of the community and “English” isn’t the only medium I have to do so. This brings me to the reason of this letter-“English”. Shillong is known to all as The Scotland of the East. However, is it a valid reason for all of us to be using the English language on a daily basis? Whatever happened to the “Khasi Dialect”, our mother tongue? Being a student of NEHU I commute daily from my place to the university campus via the University’s buses, and sometimes I laugh at myself when I hear conversations such as-“ Uto te ei, He called me up last night and U phah kylli ia nga” (that guy called me up last night to propose to me) ; always followed by the reply -“I know, uto te pha, he is such a flirt, kam kai ha te ei,” (I know that guy he is a flirt and fools around).
I’ve been commuting back and forth for three years now via these buses and these are not the only conversations I hear which disgrace not only the English language but also our own mother tongue! If you don’t know how to converse in English then don’t! But better question is – “Why not converse in Khasi among your “Khasi friends?” Now that is a concept I fail to understand among the youth today. Does it make you part of the “In-Crowd” if you converse in English? Or is it because you don’t know your own mother tongue anymore that you have too? If this is the case, then the result of a recent study by research scholars concluding that the Khasi Dialect will disappear in a mere 6-8 years will come sooner than later and our grandkids would be speaking in a manner similar to this-“Mom, Dad peit kato ka newspaper sieh that was written mynhynnin where the writer raised a valid point saying that Ka Khasi kan nym don shuh hadien 8 snem. I don’t understand te pa. Isn’t this Khasi that I’m speaking?” (Mom, dad look at that newspaper of yesterday where the writer raised a valid point saying that Khasi will become extinct after eight years. I don’t understand Pa. Isn’t this Khasi language that I’m speaking?)
To conclude I would like to suggest that even though Hindi lessons are vital to students but Khasi lessons are more important if we want to preserve our lineage. Make Khasi a compulsory subject in schools and not just a second language. Parents, I urge you to encourage your children to speak in Khasi while at home at least. That way your kids can have the privilege of saying –“I know My Own Mother Tongue”.
Ps- Nga thoh da ka phareng ia kane ka shithi namar nga kwah ba kan print ha kot khubor phareng namar nga tip bun kim ju pule khubor Khasi shuh. ( I write this in English because I want it to be published in an English daily for I know that many no longer read Khasi newspapers)