By Gary Marbaniang
One fine day when I was in Class III my mother in a humorous way threatened to come over to my school and make enquiries about me in her own dialect. This literally scared the hell out of me and it made me cry so hard that my mother from that day onwards promised to never ever make that threat ever again.My mother speaks a dialect of the Khasi language which is abhorred by some sections of “Civilized” society in Shillong and this naturally instilled the notion in my mind that there is something wrong with the dialect when actually there is none and out of fear of being taunted and reviled I tried to avoid being associated with it at any cost. As far as I can remember it was always three dialects of the khasi language that were spoken at one point or the other at home.When my mother’s relatives come over from their village to visit, it was my mother’s dialect that would be the language of conversation and when my paternal grandmother used to stop by our house when I was a kid it would be my father’s dialect that would be spoken.
The lingua franca or the language of choice is the Sohra dialect and this was how it works out as far as the verbal communication in our home is concerned. As far as school goes,English was the medium of instruction but Khasi was always the language of conversation. It was treason of the highest order to communicate in English among ourselves. Some girls did manage to slip into their own world of conversing in English but for us boys; we didn’t have such liberty and we didn’t really want to fall into the category of being labeled pretenders(leh act) and Khasi nationalism was running really high in those days that our love for our mother tongue outweighed every other consideration. I would clearly remember the diktat coming from Miss Democracy our beloved principal instructing us to avoid speaking in Khasi and adhere to the rule of speaking in English only but the moment the teacher left the room we would start shouting at the top of our lungs in Khasi only. So those diktats never really worked.
Coming to the bigger picture I would like to say that the three language formula as far as our country is concerned would augur well for us in the long run.Just imagine a situation where one of our youths lands a high end job in a multi national company in Gurgaon.He/She can survive perfectly well inside the building’s premises speaking in English only but the moment they leave the building premises they would be completely lost if they cannot speak in Hindi.My advice to our youths from personal experiences is this. Learn Hindi because you never know when you ‘ll need it and you might be found wanting when you need it the most. I remember the time when I was in Guwahati, trying to have a proper conversation in Hindi. It reminded me of the difficult treks I used to undertake as a child to reach my mother’s village .It was a long and arduous journey of at least two hours but once we reached there, the view was definitely worth the walk. The natural pristine untouched beauty of the village with a clean river flowing through it makes you forget all the cramp and the pain which comes with the journey.
As far as my journey in learning Hindi is concerned I haven’t reached there as yet but I’m definitely trying . There were three idiots in my previous organization when it comes to the lack of knowledge of Hindi. I was one of them but luckily for me I was the lesser of the three idiots.I can’t help but mention my dear Mizo friend, Mawia.When he first arrived in Guwahati he seemed to have come directly from outer space and landed straight in the city. He could not understand a word of Hindi and he faced much difficulty in adjusting to the new living environment.I have been to Aizawl and I absolutely love the place and its culture but its people must open up their minds to learning new languages if some sort of integration is going to take place with the rest of the country . My sister who worked there for a few years narrated stories of how she had to use sign languages for communication since most of the people there can’t speak either English or Hindi.
As for me all those times of watching one of my favourite movie star, Rajesh Khanna delivering those sweet dialogues on screen didn’t help improve my ability to speak Hindi at all. Extreme shyness prevented me from learning a lot of things and and this has been a major obstacle for me in taking the big leap of speaking a new language or enhancing and refining my Hindi speaking skills because even though I understand the language I could not come out of my shell and put words into practice .Most of us who grew up and live in predominantly Khasi localities would be wondering how on Earth we are going to learn the language when avenues for learning are stifled by apathy and lack of opportunity.
My four year old nephew is epitomizing the catchphrase,”Where there’s a will there’s a way”.He is growing up in an environment where no one in our family or his immediate surroundings speaks Hindi but the way he is ready to defy convention and break away from the norm is really awe inspiring.His only dose of Hindi lessons is from watching cartoons show like Doremon but he has learned to fully embrace the language.Some of the dialogues from these shows have been ingrained in his mind and of late depending on his mood he will break into his unique way of speaking the language sending everyone of us into bouts of appreciable laughter.English on the other hand will always be the language of opportunity and since it is nobody’s mother tongue it will always be the great leveller in terms of employment opportunities and my last piece of advice to all of us on the occasion when we remember the martyrdom of U Kiang Nongbah is that we hold dear to our heart the love we have for our mother tongue because at the end of the day this is what defines us as Indians.It has always been in our blood that no matter where life takes us we will always yearn for home and this will forever be a defining aspect of the Khasi Pnar character and the bond formed through conversing in the many dialects of our diverse language is something that will always remain close to our hearts and this in turn forms one of the most essential component of our peculiar character of always longing for home.