This blog is dedicated to all the English malayalees out there! Read on...
English has become a very widely spoken language in India. We could call it the world language. But does it have to be at the cost of our mother tongue. I'm not against the english language but it shouldn't be that our languages are forgotten. I say this because there are many out there who prides in saying ‘I don’t know malayalam’. That’s what I’m against, why should a person well versed in English don’t show half as much interest in learning their native language. There are yet some others who think that Malayalam is a under rated language, it does not suit to their culture (whatever that means). Culture… did I write that correct??? When did he fall into the English culture haha…….? Maybe only he can tell. We don’t become an American if in America or English if in UK, we WILL always be an INDIAN MALAYALEE however we look at it.
We move on to new frontiers pursuing our careers or driven by passion to live in other countries and we comfortably ignore our roots. We don’t even have to talk about Indian born foreigners, we have such people in our midst that we get to meet in our daily life. This is my viewpoint:
1. We have to explore new grounds to pursue our goals.
2. We can move to other locations of the world driven by passion and is purely an individual’s discretion.
3. It needs a big effort to master a new language and why not go for it if there is an urge.
But but but this does not automatically mean we forget our mother tongue-Malayalam. We should give the same importance as we give the English language. I’m not saying we should be an expert but we should at least be able to read and write Malayalam. There is no point in calling one a malayalee if you don’t know how our letters look like. I’d only put the onus on the parents. They need to take the initiative to groom their lards when they are old enough to learn. We should encourage speaking our mother tongue at home. This is a good starter. I have never gone to any Malayalam medium school but yet I know to read and write my language. Thanks to my mom.
I think this is not just a matter of concern around Malayalees but I would have the same opinion about people from all the other regions of India.
Never forget that we are Indians first.
9 comments:
2nd raw nerve touched here :))
I can read, write and speak in Malaylam fluently. ( ignore my spelling mistakes though). I am born and bought up in Bangalore, but me and my brothers know Malayalam very well, because it is the language enforced/spoken at home. Today I feel relieved that my parents made sure we learnt Malyalam.
An interesting thing I noticed about Malayalees in Bangalore was that they do not like to be identified as a mallu.I think one of the reasons is because mallus coming from Kerala tend to be loud and crass in public leading to a lot of bad PR which makes the NRK( non resident Keralite)ashamed to be identified as one of them. I seen have mallu guys who giggle and laugh loudly when they are groups. Another penchant for mallus is to be the centre of attention. All these behavior stands out and singles the mallu out in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore. This is just my observation.
With each new generation of Malayalees leaving the shores of Kerala in search of jobs, it is getting increasingly imperative that the Malayalam language be preserved in the new generation being born outside Kerala. Did you know that your child can take Malayalam as second language in an ICSE School?
But I strongly agree with you that mother tongue should be the medium of communication in the home for all Indians so that we can preserve our uniqueness and our culture.
Biju you come out with some thought provoking posts!
Could be true about you being my long lost twin after all huh?? :-)). Thanks for your comment.
Biju,
Agree with you 100 % !!. Though i'm not a "mallu" but as a a proud "Kearalite" and one whoose mother tounge is Konkani, I always used to wonder at this "English mallu's" - I could ( as you very well know) speak/read/write malayalam better than most of the NRK's i have met. It is high time that we take pride in our roots.
Hey Biju - we rarely spoke Malayalam growing up (if u remember). Schools forced us to speak English - what does it say about the Indian government - that forces English as the Primary Language ? and our mother tongues being prohibited in school ?
i totally agree with silverine.very sadly i have to say that malayalis are the worst behaved people i come across. so much so that it has become kind of shameful to be known as a "mallu". i am proud of kerala, but the tag "mallu" is more pronounced with shame and contempt. why? one reason i can think of is that in mallu-land kids are enforced with such stupid and hypocritic social rules, that they literally go overboard when they visit places like bangalore or madras. kind of relieving their pent up frustrations. and the funny fact is these guys come and screw around so badly in these other cities, and go back and tell other keralites about how "fast" and "immoral" bangalores pubs and chennais discos are. its terrible. i have lived both in kerala and bangalore, and i have seen the best and worst of both places.
@Prasanth Prabhu-Thanks for your comment man. :-)
@Satwa10112: Thanks but it would be great to tell me who this is. :-). I never mentioned about not learning english and only going with our mother tongue. Its only about giving importance to malayalam if a malayalee as we give the same importance to English. For your information the mother tongue is not prohibited in schools. :-))
@ mind curry: Thanks for dropping by. I do not agree with all the points you have put in.
"Mallu" is a name I don't like to be called as. Malayalee is a much better term. The explanation would best fit people who are just been in Kerala and not seen the outer world otherwise we wouldn't be here debating of such facts about Keralites. With the comments I'm pretty sure you or I don't fall into such categories.
The blog wasn't about the general behaviour about malayalees but the fact that we should make it a point to learn our mother tongue. I also did not mention that taking pride in our roots only comes by learning malayalam. We are the best community and only one in India that is spread out all over the globe. This only proves that we easily adapt to other cultures. English langauge is something that we cannot live without and as mentioned in my blog, should be given importance but never as a pretext to ignore our languages. What is wrong in having 25 languages and 100 of dialects? Does that stop anyone from learning English?
I was a NRK and now an NRI. I dont think it is fair to blame only "mallus" from Kerala as embarrassing. Growing up in Mumbai and Delhi, I know Bengalis and Kannadigas who were embarassed by the behaviour of their state mates. In the 80s people coming from Bangalore to Mumbai were not considered any better than people coming from Ratnagiri or Satara.
Now as an NRI, I see second generation Indian kids ashamed of the other first generation NRI kids. So it is fair to blame "mallus" alone. Such people are found in all states and cultures of India.
English words murdered by Keralites (Malayalees) and other Indians:
kangaroo (the worst offended word Malayalees/Indians pronounce as “kanGAROO” instead of “KANgaroo”)
mixed, fixed (pronounced as 'miksed', 'fiksed' instead of 'miksd', 'fiksd')
bear, pear (pronounced as ‘biyar’, ‘piyar’ instead of ‘beye’ and ‘peye’)
beer (pronounced as "biiir" instead of "biye")
auto (pronounced as "aaato" instead of "otto")
Queen (prounounced as “kyuun” instead of “kween”)
form (pronounced as ‘farum’ instead of “fom”)
biennale (pronounced as “binale” instead of “bienale”)
place names – Ohio, Seattle, Utah (pronounced as “ohiyo, seetl, ootha” instead of “ohayo, siyatl, yuta”)
Tortoise (pronounced as ‘tortois’ instead of “totis” )
turtle (pronounced as ‘turrrtil’ instead of “tutl” )
Mascot Hotel (pronounced as “muskat HOtel” instead of “MAScot hoTEL”)
heart (pronounced as ‘hurrt’ instead of “haat”)
bass (pronounced as ‘baas’ instead of “base”)
twitter (pronounced as “tyooter” instead of “twiter”)
birthday (pronounced as “birthaday” instead of “buthdei”)
garage (pronounced as “garej” instead of “gaRAZH”)
chassis (pronounced as “chasis” instead of “shasi”)
divorce (pronounced as "daiverse" instead of "divors")
February (pronounced as “fibruari” instead of “februari”)
one (pronounced as "onn" instead of "wun")
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