NATIONAL LANGUAGE JARGON

 

I was on a deputation on my way to Hyderabad. As usual, I reached the railway station and

entered a Train, and reached my allotted berth. I was provided a seat by other fellow

 passengers in a coupe. The travails of travel in IInd class, that too, when you are venturing

in a hot summer, are not foreign to everyone. It needs no further description.

I found myself in a coupe containing eight people. I took a vacant seat meant for me between

 a woman dressed in handsome furs, fanning all the time with the help of that day’s

news issue to get rid of unendurable heat. A gentleman whom I took to be her husband

 sat next to her while other men occupied the coupe were not akin to each other. These

people have supposedly been in the bogie for quite a long time, this I deduced after viewing

their topsy-turvy outfits and gestures of exchanging edibles. It appeared all the inhabitants

were well familiarised with everyone. The atmosphere seemed charged with discussion right

from the bottom of sinister education, our government. Administration, food, price rise

and at last our hapless National language. I was vaguely sensible of having broken in

upon a symposium which was uninterrupted.

As the train gathered speed, the wind, which was blowing from the east, raised the volume of

senseless babble. Pardon me for using such harsh words as senseless. It is my unbiased opinion

 that none of these speakers can do anything except expose their one-upmanship

here. This augmentation animated the other inorganic clowns. Now this garrulous gag

again centred around the “National Language”. One passenger, occupying the next seat,

pointed" We should revoke Hindi in toto and English must be adopted as the mainstay language.

The lady also nodded her head in concurrence and said, " Well, you see English is so charming and

fascinating that other language looks stale and lifeless. Moreover, it has commanding and

 improving properties of the status quo".

This doctrine irritated the other gentry, who could be believed as a propagator of Hindi said in

disgust, " It is the people like you who brought this Hindi language to such a forgotten stature,

You are the antagonists, who feel pride in wearing the borrowed garments.

You are the factors who made this language intangible. You are ....

" Just a minute ". The lady abruptly interrupted with her lips tight pressed and nostrils

swelled with battle (said)" You are right of course, gentleman, but before you pounce upon

us you know the dictum of preservers of this language?, With unabated zeal, they pronounce

in public that Hindi is our "Matrubhasha". A nation without its own language of conversation

is just like a vehicle without a steering wheel. That Hindi is one of the easiest and best languages,

Stating instances that once one Soviet leader asked Nehru to speak in Hindi than English and

 so on. and so forth. She continued When these so called leaders know the paramount

importance and its grandeur, then why they send their wards to study in English convents,

nurture English tradition so that he or she may be rated as well off in education '. Above all

these parliamentarians never hesitate to address the masses, the guileless in English, the

necessity of National Language". If you can tame them then gentleman, you will not need

any megaphone to imbibe this in every parson of our country ". This long and to the point

sermon made that elite passenger spellbound; he never dreampt so easy and lucid a reply

 to his language jargon. From a lady who, with her sharp tongue, was ready to combat by

hook or by crook, to her adherence. The man galloped from the arena without any fuss.

The lady's triumph inflated tenfold. Tranquility prevailed till a sudden commotion, all

My eyes turned towards the crowded stampede, and I noticed a familiar voice at every railway station

Chay bolo chay coming through the windows. Till now, I was a silent onlooker from inside and

outside. Her latter part of speech evoked my eyebrows. I was forced to be engrossed and

attentive to all her contents, which illuminated my darkness. When I got down from the train, the seeds of compassion already activated my veins to ponder over the languidness of the age-old

" National Language ". My piping hot notion of English chilled altogether from that moment.