uldn’t be decided by economic factors or law of demands. Kannada has as much heritage significance as French or Spanish. State language should necessarily be a compulsory language in school. Children should have pride in their culture and heritage that is how foundation of strong individuals and societies are laid, also the reference point of children’s understanding of world should necessarily start from surrounding. But the blogger thinks that although state government has every right to make Kannada compulsory in every schools within the state they needn’t impose Kannada as medium of instruction, it is better to give the choice (although studies have strongly suggested mother tongue as medium of education). In the meantime English also should be made integral part of primary education.
This blogger was very keen to learn basic spoken Kannada but couldn’t find any place (they teach Japanese very near to where I stay!!), so had to buy CDs (the CD was about a guy who wants to go from airport to hotel also some basic interaction with driver…money wasted!!) and watch Kannada news channels. I do understand most of kannada but speaking is very limited. I picked up Tamil easily probably since I was young and mostly used to be out with people but now I am middle aged and language really was never my forte. State government should take the initiative to provide centers for basic kannada (week long programs) for outsiders.
Angrezi ka chuska !!
English is my third language. My first language is Malayalam, the language I learned the earliest and use for thinking, the language of mind. Hindi was the language spoken outside with friends and so on. English was used to write answers as also some spoken words in school. The metamorphosis from Hindi to English happened quite late in life but was quite interesting experience. Although English was part of written experience I never spoke this language. English speakers were kind of enigma, people who were not supposed to be real, people who spoke as if answering some questions in exam. It had to be compulsion otherwise why would they be taking the pain to speak in this language is what I used to believe when I was a kid.
When I was probably ten or eleven, the school I was studying had disproportionately large number of children who were locals (KV school is meant for defense personnel), children of small businessmen and so on. English was looked down and anyone who tried English (or tried to impress teacher with the same) was noted by the last benchers in the class and beaten up during the break. Not that many kids spoke English, even the English teacher used to teach in Hindi!!. There was one kid who had come from
I was in the cusp of the societies divergent in many ways, suddenly facing world where I had to relearn even how to wish people. From Namaste to Good evening was a painful process- had to practice it many times before approaching the person in case you got it wrong, the English version of salutation changed three times in a day (Good morning, good afternoon and good evening). So even meeting some elderly person in the neighborhood became a kind of ordeal. In this rapidly changing life style (standing and eating was considered a big no, and here everyone enjoyed their dinner standing!!) more English words started to creep into conversation. But I still never spoke a complete English sentence. Until one fateful day at Nasirabad (bloggers might be wondering where the hell is this place?.. well it is a small town in Rajasthan. A non-descript place few Kms from Ajmer-Pushkar, known probably for kachoras -bigger version of kachoris!!, if you are culinary inclined).
Nasirabad’s Garrison Engineer was family friend, we visited him on our way from temples in Pushkar and Dargah at 
e hitch here was although extremely friendly they were Anglo-Indians and so the children didn’t know much of Hindi. It shocks me how people can live without acquiring any language from their surrounding they have lived since childhood (you can see some of these species in English TV channels. When they try speaking Hindi they sound more like some character from movie on colonial era playing the part of Englishman-Tom Alter had a cursed life in this context!!). We were playing hide and seek and I found myself under the bed with the anglo Indian boy. He asked whether I can see where she was?. I had the easy option “no” but thought instead of trying English and said “she is next to the table”, although there was nobody next to the table, but table was an easy word and I definitely wanted to speak English and so managed my first English line, graduating from monosyllables to one sentence. I was probably 12 and took eight odd years to finally manage conversing in this language. There were lots of trial and tribulations considering that English does have strong class context. Need to add here that I was regular listener to BBC radio so transformation was quite rapid, the reason for listening was not for English but was partly amusement (it was different kind of English) also loved international news and locating the place in the map, it was kind of an obsession reading names of places in the map. There is a charm in knowing how the name sounds!!.
Much have happened since now I spend most of my time speaking, conversing and writing in English, it seems natural. Yes I do find
Third language is expected to remain in the periphery but for the reason of money and contemporary reality has made it central to my interactions. Although not a language of choice English has the advantage of access.
