Anaivarukkum Tamizh Puthandu Vazhthukkal!!! - Wishing you a very happy tamizh new year(for those who dont know tamizh)!! I tried a lot to write the below one in tamizh, but i failed to some issues with my OS. So, those who can read tamizh bear with me and join with others in reading this.
Today is 1st day of Tamizh calendar. Like english calendar, most of the Indian language based states have their own calendar. But the good thing is most of these new year begins either by end of march or middle of April. Looks like ancient Indian was trying to say something on this, which I am yet to understand. To be more specific, today is Tamizh New year and Vishu (malayalis n tulu new year). Jus couple of days back we had Ugadhi(Telugu new year) and gudi padwa (marathi new year), I believe Bengalis have something on tommorow and I am sure others should be having something. I think this is the time when Sun changes its position so, there should be something related to it. For many of us we remember April as beginning of the accounting year and Mar is the Accounting close period, which I believe we took from Britains :-).
Lets call all this new years as Desi New Year. How many of us really care about these Desi new year. If it is Jan'1st, most of us celebrate it in grand way. All the hotels will have party starting from 8PM on 31st Dec and it will go until 2AM or 3AM where in at 12AM there will be fireworks and celebrations. At chennai near beach you cannot roam due to the so called youths. They will make our life crazy by doing many rediculous things which can sometime damage themselves and others physically. But the same hotels or people doesnt even bother Desi new year. But there is one group which cares about it in a different way. The TV channels. They will celebrate all the desi celebrations and are very careful in making people not to move out of the house by showing all the latest movies and celebs interviews :-) I dont encourage this, bcoz they are not celebrating it rather making everyone in the families to stay in their houses without meeting and greeting the people around them.
Since today morning, I was greeting people in proper tamizh (my mother tongue) and I got all the responses from them only in English :-(, except some in "whatsapp". I dont understand this. They all are born and brought up of tamizhnadu and they speak tamizh on their day to day basis. But when it comes to third person they are more comfortable in speaking in English. To my shock, few kids asked me why I am greeting them for Newyear. I smiled at them and explained about it. Even at the vegetable shop, when I greeted the shop guy he says "same to you". Why are we not ready to celebrate our own celebrations and ready to speak our own languages. Couple of weeks back, when I met my friends father he asked me how my daughter managing the language as she was in abroad for 3+ years. I told him that, that is great part of Tamizhnadu. She doesnt struggle bcoz all the kids speak only in English and not in tamizh so, there are no issues at all. Kids are so amazing that they will pickup the language quickly than adults. After almost 4 months @ India, my daughter started picking up tamizh from small kids who are yet to go to school. Though she doesnt have fluency, shez trying to manage. It looks like the adults are more resistant and forcing the kids in learning the new languages like English :-(
As my daughter grows she is asking lot of questions, so I decided to Introduce the culture. Yesterday night I explained about a tradition that we follow on the tamizh new year morning, called seeing visukani (I believe it came for Kerala). We will be keeping mirror and in front of it we keep god photo, fruits, rice, dhal, money n jewellery. On the morning of new year we will wake up and without opening the eyes (it is tricky one, but there are work arounds) you need to reach the place where mirror is kept and open your eyes on the mirror. If you ask me what is it, I will say nothing much. But it is a belief that on the first day of the year if you see good things such as god, rice, fruits the enitre year will be prospourous. I am sure someone will have better explanation for this. After explaining these stuff to my daughter by yesterday night, today morning she woke up and with her smartness she came to the mirror and started saying "thanks god for everything and let the new year be good". I immediately became emotional and felt proud of her.
At office, when I tried to speak in English considering the fellow non Tamizh speaking people or so called office etiquette I get bouncer where everyone speaks in Tamizh. People call me in local nick name called "Peter" - a person who speaks only English though he knows Tamizh But many of my friends who are parents doesn't bother if their kids didnt speak in mother tongue. Whenever I meet my friends kid, I will ask them whether I can speak in Tamizh or not. They proudly say YES. But once I start the conversation, they will start asking questions in English and encourage the kid to respond in English. Why they are doing this??? Like other states in India, tamizhnadu is a state where majority of the services providers (like Gas, EB etc) being managed by tamizh people who doesnt speak English properly. But those people are proud of making their kids to speak in English and we also make our kids to do so and enjoy it.
You can ask me whether I am not the one among them who shows that they are good in English. Yes I was. When I was in College I used to converse with police officer in English try to project that I am proud of English than Tamizh. Slowly I changed myself, wherein I ensured I converse in Tamizh with the local people wherever possible. It gives comfort both of us. If I can bring the change on myself why cant others do this. Another funny thing which I noticed is, whenever I meet a fellow tamizhian they are happy to converse in English, though I ask them whether they are tamizhian. I feel like laughing, but due to manners I need to control myself. I used to say during my college days that "I m comfortable in English". But after joining corporate world and meeting my friends like Adi, Nanda I felt I m nothing in English. That remembers my school teacher who used to say "tamizhili thathinganathom, aangilathil araikurai (Knowlege on tamizh is kind of dancing without knowing it and half baked knowledge in english)
I felt that we can learn any language if there is no other option. Good example is my wife. When we got married, she moved to chennai and as I said you must know tamizh for the survival, as for each and everything she cannot depend on me. Soon she started converse in tamizh where in she is able to manage the quarrel with her mother in law :-) She also started reading tamizh. But look at me, I am no good in Hindi except managing it to an extent. I used to think If I had moved to Northern India after wedding, then my Hindi would have improved since I must converse in Hindi only with the local people. I am still not good in classifying the verb based on gender. While reading this I am sure one of our friend will be smiling or laughing who always pull my language for my bad hindi, especially on the gender. So, what I do @ Home. We speak tamizh, hindi and ofcourse english.
The idea is simple. Speak the respective language at the respective regions and celebrate our own culture. Give respect to those languages and cultures. I noticed that in European countries people are proud of talking in mother tongue than in English. Especially Italy, France it will be bit challenging in communication bcoz they dont know much English. And they celebrate Christmas, new year to a great extent with family members.Many of us are proud of making our kids in learning those European languages and celebrate those functions than making them to learn our own Mother tongue and celebrate our own functions. The kids are not needed to do Phd in our mother tongue, at least they should read, write and speak the language with fellow same language speaking person.
All said it is up to Individual to decide it. Many of us chose not to speak in mother tongue (tamizh) with the third person though we know the other person knows tamizh or celebrate our functions. It will be good each one of us understand that need of speaking in mother tongue and celebrate our desi functions and ensure we keep our mother tongue & Culture alive for next generation, else our desi languages/cultures will become obsolete in next 2 - 3 generations. Remember it is the belief that keep us moving, so start to believe our languages and cultures like we trust English. I am sure soon we will be proud of our languages and cultures in no time :-) So what do u choose????
There was a say that "Mella tamizni...." which people will fill with "Saagum" ("slowly tamizh will die"). But I always say "Mella Tamizhini Valarum" (slowly tamizh will grow)!!! Have a wonderful new year!!!!
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