Lingo Bingo

Its been sometime now I have been in Chennai and I have picked up few Tamil words but I still struggle to convey myself to local people here. However the English, Hindi languages I know come in handy as most people understand them but when I need to communicate to a person who knows no other language than Tamil, I find myself helpless.

The situation was far more funnier last year.

Last year during summer vacations I joined driving classes and it was agreed that the instructor would instruct me in English as I did not understand Tamil. But who cares about the agreement?? I was assigned an instructor who barely knew any English. Most of my queries were in dumb and deaf language and his answers would be in either Tamil and sometimes seeing my desperate face he would use sign language I would understand. Soon I understood that his panicky voice meant I need to stop and something that sounded like encouragement meant I need to press the accelerator. Somehow struggling to understand his language and nearly mowing down early morning walkers sometimes, I learnt to drive. Well this struggle with languages wasn't new for me and over the years I have learnt some effective sign language and the language of eyes. 

Of all languages I understand(4 in number- English, Hindi,Telugu, Tamil), I think I have spoken Hindi the most. I started speaking Hindi since I was eight though I started understanding it much before thanks to my dad's north Indian colleagues and their kids. I got familiar with hindi when we got transferred to Assam as I got in touch with more and more hindi speaking populace. Here my language was influenced by various dialects of 
Hindi as people from all over India resided in the same colony as I was. These different dialects like mumbaiyya tapori hindi, bihari hindi,pure hindi etc confused me and I developed my language mixing all these dialects and some English for overcoming the lack of hindi vocabulary. 

I remember a conversation with my dad's colleague when I was at a nascent stage of learning hindi. The ULFA(a militant separatist group in Assam) had declared a strike and forbid civilians to drive their vehicles for a day. My dad had some urgent work that day, so he walked to his office(it was a half an hour walk). So his colleagues who stayed back came calling him on what was to be done about going to office. As my dad had already gone to the office, I attended to them. They were surprised and asked how did he go to the office. I told them "chal ke gaye". I think they did not hear me as they asked me again "paidal gaye kya ?". The word "paidal" wasn't in my vocabulary then, so I mistook it for a pedal. I thought they must be referring to a bicycle or a bike. I told them "nahi nahi not pedal, walking karte hue gaye". They smiled among themselves, I did not understand then why. One of them came to my rescue and told them that I was new to the place and did not understand much hindi.

Eleven years for which I stayed at Uttarakhand refined my hindi a lot mostly with the help of my friends who never shied from criticizing me for my use of hindi. Now I can speak hindi relatively better than my mother tongue Telugu.

My knowledge of four languages gives me a little bit of edge and confidence over others. Many times I have played the role of a mediator and a translator which gives me the satisfaction of helping others. Sometimes I feel lucky that I know these languages as I can understand all kinds of diatribes being hurled at me at my back (as people think so even though they speak right before me).

Few days back I witnessed an interesting conversation. I had gone to a shop to buy some provisions. A woman and her daughter-in-law also came to the shop. The shopkeeper was attending to other customers so he could not hear that woman. She told her daughter-in-law to observe her and learn how to draw attention. She started calling him "arrey bhaiyya" and as he could not pay attention, she soon started shooting invectives in Hindi 
at him and some words were really indecent which I abstain myself from using them and at the same time she was pleading him in Tamil to give her provisions. Poor chap, as he did not understand what she was saying attended to her with a broad smile. She said to her daughter-in-law, "Dekha kaisa sun liya gaali dete hi". I was speechless and just stood there watching them.