The Common Wealth Games have finished and so I let out a sigh of relief saying to myself, "all's well that ends well". I feel proud that India scored 2nd just after Australia as far as gold medals are concerned. India did well in spite of all the uproar and allegations of corruption. I feel proud as an Indian and happy for Canada as it secured its position by gaining 4th place.
Since then I have been questioning myself - why do I get so happy or sad when it comes to Indian victory or failure? I am a Canadian citizen, and yet my loyalty is more towards my country of birth than the country of my citizenship. My heart pains when media here talks badly about India. I become defensive and start behaving like a brand ambassador of India although I am not officially appointed. My heart rejoices when India is praised, or handles any crisis intelligently and practically. I feel proud when our cricket team does well or our girls become Miss Universe or Miss World. I feel happy when an Indian living outside gets a Nobel prize. It gives me an identity. Even if we are holders of a Canadian passport we will be first known as a national of India and its image, its progress , and its good and bad will get associated with our image. We will be treated accordingly in our work place...e.g. Indian getting opportunities in the Silicon Valley based upon their performance in their own country first.
I feel we Indians, living outside, should try our best to always keep the flag of India high and contribute our best to the society we live in. We all are, as individuals, carrying the responsibility of being an ambassador of our country, so we should represent ourselves in the best possible manner. We should not think of India only as a shopping centre (because of the low cost) but also a place where the philosophy of love, compassion, understanding and mysticism originated. The world looks towards it for higher meaning and higher salvation. Wherever I may be, I will never forget that I am an Indian first. Jai Hind.
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Friday 12 November 2010
HINDI - A BONE OF CONTENTION
Recently Hindi became a bone of contention in India. Lots of news channels were debating about the legitimacy of Hindi as a national language. I have some opinions on this topic so I thought of sharing them with all of you.
Being an Indian myself and living outside India for almost 17 yrs., these matters still concern me. I love Hindi and speak Hindi all the time whenever I get a chance. I have taught the language to my children as well. The sad thing is that Hindi is not widely accepted in India, and since we as Indians are divided on so many issues, we don't mind doing regional and communal politics even if they are sensitive issues of national interest. Recently, I was watching a debate conducted by NDTV and CNN-IBN and was appalled to see the amount of resistance Hindi is facing from within India. Though majority of the Indian population speaks Hindi, it is still not an accepted language and most of them from other states were saying it is a dysfunctional language. How any other regional language can be functional, I cannot understand. They are willing to accept English as their national language and not Hindi, because it will be a defeat on their part. Though only 8% of population in India can speak English, the English channels were trying to project that 48% of the janta in India are in favour of English.
First of all, on this kind of a forum, we need a good Hindi speaker, who can look educated, elegant, and sophisticated enough to be heard by so called-anchors of the shows and other invited guests. They never invite a highly sophisticated, elegant and stylish person who can represent the majority interest of the people of India.
The second issue is about convent schools. For this I think, we, our mind-set, competition outside, and lack of govt's will to improve the quality of Hindi schools, were responsible for its failure. 4-5 years ago, when I was in India, I met my mom's maid servant who was a young girl of 14-15 and she sounded very intelligent. So I asked her to enrol herself in the Govt. Girl's High school. She refused. She said, if she ever goes to school, she would like to go to an English school. She doesn't want to go to a school where the teachers give work to children and then get busy into knitting and other kind of activities. I was shocked to listen to this impression from a village girl, who refused to be educated at all if she had to go to a Hindi school. Hindi schools have poor etiquettes and almost zero presentation. Teachers are not up to the mark. If we want people to send their children to our own schools, we will have to improve a lot of things in order to make it functional. Govt. representatives keep on visiting Europe and North America, but they never try to learn and implement things that are good about the west. For them, coming to the west means eating, drinking and being merry. When it’s time to go back home, then they do petty politics.
Today, at least Raj Thackeray (Maharashtra) and M.K. Kanimozhi (Tamilnadu), who are involved in language politics are able to sustain themselves, although they and their children didn't go to regional schools, because they think English is an international language and so they need to know it in order to progress. Where is a Hindi ka pratinidhi ( a strong one)...when Samajwadi party tries to fight it out...it sounds more like politics than a real concern. When BJP says something, they make it look like saffron politics or desi politics or fundamental politics. We need a strong Hindi voice that belongs to someone who knows how to play the game with all sophistication and elegance.
Being an Indian myself and living outside India for almost 17 yrs., these matters still concern me. I love Hindi and speak Hindi all the time whenever I get a chance. I have taught the language to my children as well. The sad thing is that Hindi is not widely accepted in India, and since we as Indians are divided on so many issues, we don't mind doing regional and communal politics even if they are sensitive issues of national interest. Recently, I was watching a debate conducted by NDTV and CNN-IBN and was appalled to see the amount of resistance Hindi is facing from within India. Though majority of the Indian population speaks Hindi, it is still not an accepted language and most of them from other states were saying it is a dysfunctional language. How any other regional language can be functional, I cannot understand. They are willing to accept English as their national language and not Hindi, because it will be a defeat on their part. Though only 8% of population in India can speak English, the English channels were trying to project that 48% of the janta in India are in favour of English.
First of all, on this kind of a forum, we need a good Hindi speaker, who can look educated, elegant, and sophisticated enough to be heard by so called-anchors of the shows and other invited guests. They never invite a highly sophisticated, elegant and stylish person who can represent the majority interest of the people of India.
The second issue is about convent schools. For this I think, we, our mind-set, competition outside, and lack of govt's will to improve the quality of Hindi schools, were responsible for its failure. 4-5 years ago, when I was in India, I met my mom's maid servant who was a young girl of 14-15 and she sounded very intelligent. So I asked her to enrol herself in the Govt. Girl's High school. She refused. She said, if she ever goes to school, she would like to go to an English school. She doesn't want to go to a school where the teachers give work to children and then get busy into knitting and other kind of activities. I was shocked to listen to this impression from a village girl, who refused to be educated at all if she had to go to a Hindi school. Hindi schools have poor etiquettes and almost zero presentation. Teachers are not up to the mark. If we want people to send their children to our own schools, we will have to improve a lot of things in order to make it functional. Govt. representatives keep on visiting Europe and North America, but they never try to learn and implement things that are good about the west. For them, coming to the west means eating, drinking and being merry. When it’s time to go back home, then they do petty politics.
Today, at least Raj Thackeray (Maharashtra) and M.K. Kanimozhi (Tamilnadu), who are involved in language politics are able to sustain themselves, although they and their children didn't go to regional schools, because they think English is an international language and so they need to know it in order to progress. Where is a Hindi ka pratinidhi ( a strong one)...when Samajwadi party tries to fight it out...it sounds more like politics than a real concern. When BJP says something, they make it look like saffron politics or desi politics or fundamental politics. We need a strong Hindi voice that belongs to someone who knows how to play the game with all sophistication and elegance.
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