Hunger Pangs

The drama of life, for a majority of population is all about quenching this demon, the inevitable hunger, ironically, even in this era of advanced technological developments. A grave as well as a predominant issue of concern which is to be addressed is “Food for all”. But who is to take care of this issue or who is to address? Who is to be made responsible? You or me or a third party or officials or the governments? We have innumerable schemes and projects sanctioned every year, some times renamed (old wine in new bottles) with the objective of appeasing hunger of millions. The driving force of life, governing all our activities such as earning money, is to appease this feeling. Life becomes dreaded and miserable than death itself.

The hunger demon keeps torturing hapless millions, some xy% of the population (statistics and estimations, let them find a place only in official records, maintained diligently for formalities and for launching yet another worthless scheme bereaving the public fund to further the interests of so-called ‘beneficiaries’). What is significant and thought-provoking is that even when our great nation is progressing with ‘so and so’ % growth rate in GDP and economy, a majority of population still doesn’t have means to satiate hunger. The privileged (minority) are engrossed in their own world of merriment or preoccupied with trivial issues, gossips, personal affairs/ exaggerated sensational news of celebrities, soap operas and reality shows either unaware or not really bothering to be aware of the saga of real life. This is no reality "show", but reality itself, for which unfortunately, the audience is sparse. India is shining or made shining by shutting eyes to such harsh realities of life, plaguing millions. There is no wide media coverage on this aspect, for it doesn’t interest the readers nor there is any sensationalism in the routine affair. Such dreaded stories remain in dark, in the backyard. We are not oblivious of this reality but purposely insulate our selves from the miseries of the empty stomachs and opportunistically forget/ be oblivious of such sufferings. But reality doesn’t vanish or cease to exist by closing the eyes. Let’s look around, watch/ pay attention to our premises, our own neighborhood, the people we know, the less privileged, for whom poverty and hunger are part and parcel of life.

Hunger, what is that? For those in ivory towers, for those who can afford all luxuries of life, who live an extravagant life of richness, a life of posh and pomp, for those who check diligently every now and then on their calorie intake/ find ways out to burn out the extra fat deposits on their obese frames for maintaining their glamour quotient., hunger and poverty belongs to some alien world. Pangs of hunger are best understood only by the hungry, people who struggle for a morsel of food! How many of us have remained hungry for even a day, since we cannot afford food or otherwise?. Hunger pangs are to be felt to understand why and what for people fill their stomach with water, mud and ash (as a recent report goes).We are fortunate. The food wasted everyday in urban households can otherwise feed million mouths.

Armchair philosophies will never suffice to solve/eradicate the deadly disease of poverty and hunger. Conferences, consortiums and meetings are held even at international levels but without a creative solution. “Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man”, goes the famous words of Swami Vivekananda. But ideologies, theories and philosophies are not for empty stomachs and the 'less perfect' lives. Education is for enlightenment, but education for the poor is a means to find food, at least for once a day. ‘Daily meal programme’ in schools have to an extent helped the children from poor families. But, what after such a glorious education? Child labour is one of the severe forms of human agony in the society. It exists with the informal approval of even the authorities who are responsible to curb the menace. Children are employed to do petty jobs or sometimes dangerous jobs as they need to be paid less for the same lump of work and can be exploited/ harassed without any complaints. The attitude of the privileged towards food in this context deserves mention. Narrating facts from real life is going to raise many eyebrows and fetch some amount of enemity. But to be frank, those students/ future diplomats/ HiFi educated class, and future scientists responsible for the food security of the nation, need to introspect when in hostels they shout for food from a particular state/ region or complain of the bad taste.

A meagre amount/ food given may be a silver lining for at least one in a million. Let good things begin with each one of us.

From ‘Jeero’ to ‘Seero’: Speaking English the Indian way

Wondered anyone, why you don’t have the privilege to read a word as it is written in English? Certain words have to be pronounced altogether in a different way, different from how these are spelt/ written.

The word education is to be read as ‘ejucation’ and not ‘edewcation’. Mirage is not ‘mi-rage’ or ‘miraage’ but ‘mirash’. Rendezvous is ron-day–voo. The word Director is to be enunciated as Director or ‘Diarector’? The dictionaries do often guide us on how a word is to be pronounced. Certain letters are silent whereas certain letters need to be emphasized. If a letter is to be silent while pronouncing, why at all it is inserted in the particular word in the first place? Foreign origin of the words may be one of the reasons for the unimaginable way of pronunciation. The British should acknowledge us Indians for contributing nearly or more than 700 words to their vocabulary!!! The words such as jungle, bungalow, catamaran, curry, ghee etc of Indian origin, have found a place in the Oxford dictionary. The Indian authors who write in English have equally contributed to this enchanting language. Think there still will be more additions to the dictionary, given our obsession with English.

We are obliged to the British for this beautiful, enamoring, universal language. Though officially Hindi is our national language, a major chunk of urban India communicates and connects through English. Speaking English is considered to be a matter of pride. If you are educated, you should definitely know English, irrespective of your knowledge on the subject of study or irrespective of the fact that you have studied in a regional language. Infact, if you happen to be a student or even parent of a student studying in a private school, you will learn to respect English by always speaking English. If you dare to talk in your mother tongue, you will be fined or punished. Dressing up to the occasion in a gathering is not enough to command reverence and to be considered as polished/ refined. You should utter only English or wherever possible, even if others fail to make anything out of what you speak. Such is the “colonial” influence. Speaking English is a symbol of education, dignity, prestige and superiority.

India has 28 states and 7 union territories. But more than 1500 languages exist in India, with 22 languages being classified as “official” languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. One need not speak the regional language to make out his/her place of origin. The extensions added to the “English” words in the local slang or speaking the local version of English, can effectively identify the region where the person belongs to. Non-functional syllables may be mutated in local languages to evolve into myriad words which symbolize the same thing, thus enriching the English vocabulary. The word zero can take any form from ‘jeero’ to ‘seero’ depending on the region/ locality. It can be i-ron rod or an I(r)on rod, the letter ‘r’ being silent in the latter but correct version. In the Eastern parts of India, ‘O’ and ‘B’ are more predominant in places of ‘A’ and ‘V,’ respectively, while pronouncing words containing the latter group of letters. However, in southern parts, ‘O’ is opportunistically forgotten and replaced with the first and foremost ‘A’. The letters ‘ed’ often added to signify the past tense of a word, is pronounced separately to sound something like ‘learn-edu’ or ‘learn-idd’. For many, ‘the’ is ‘Da’/ ‘Dha’, ‘against’ is ‘aginist’…..so and so. These are not exaggerations. There are numerous such examples of mispronunciations (?) sometimes drawing chuckles if one carefully listens. No wonder, some of our abroad-educated ministers always land in a soup/ controversy for exhibiting their english skills., we the colonial Indians failing to grasp the ulterior meaning of such comments/ slangs.

We are Indians and can never be expected to speak the British English and show our still-persistent servility. After all, it is 62 years of independence from the British!! So we have our own version of English. It may be hinglish, binglish, benglish, gunglish, punglish, tamlish, manglish, kanglish etc. But it is a fact that we fare off well when compared to people from other non-English speaking countries of Asia.

With all such confusions, does any one of us speak the language the way it is to be spoken? After all, a language is meant for communication. Why bother of the jargons when it can serve its purpose of conveying messages and as long as we can understand only our own version of English. So let’s leave the pronunciations to the literary circuits or language experts and enjoy speaking English, the Indian way….