Hello everyone and I am really sorry (to anyone who still reads my blog) for posting this late. This was supposed to be in April but I got busy with some stuff and as you can see I missed.
As children we all wanted that our report cards showed nothing but “A” grades and nothing less and if possible an “A+”. Many will agree that they want to be in the top notch and its just not studies that I am talking about. All of us would have and still would do anything to say that sentence to our parents and watch them swell with pride, not to mention a boost that it would be to their egos as well as ours. I feel that this urge for and extra “A” has gone beyond grades and seeped into our vocabulary as well.
As an Indian I feel truly hurt when we ourselves malign our heritage. I don’t know the exact cause of this but it seems that we still want the admiration from the west or should I say we are wannabe (as far as the languages are concerned). Before you read any further I suggest that you pick up that old Hindi dictionary that might be infested with termites or if that is already received its final rituals go and buy a new one (alternatively you can get and online Hindi dictionary too...thank god for making people who made Google).
You would certainly not defer that “Yoga”, “Rama”, “Krishna”, “Karma” and many other words like these belong to Hindi’s treasury. Now can you tell me what are those extra “A”s doing in those words? Its:
Yog : conjuncture which truly describes the union of mental and physical self
Ram : Before diving deeper...I should ask, Do people say “Ram Naam Satya Hai ” ? or “Rama Naam(a) Satya Hai ” ? and some people say (Satyaa...remember that Ram Gopal Verma movie and more recently that Pepsodent Ad ?) Well Lord Ram’s was an Avataar of Lord Vishnu and His name has been derived from Lord Vishnu and Agni.
Krishn : dark/dusky coloured
Karm : action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation.
So people nowadays don’t do Yog they do Yoga. It seems doing Yog is not only harmful but so “middle class” and they would be looked down upon in the society if they did that. Its actually a status symbol of you do Yoga. The Gods or at least the learned men who wrote the sacred scriptures must be wishing that shouldn’t have written those texts and epics which was supposed to guide and enlighten the generations to come had they known it was to fall into the hands of descendants who can’t even pronounce the name of their Gods correctly. What is even more shameful that we take pride in using the same words even though its the west which has moulded them to suit their tounges. Anything that is from India is supposed to be shipped with an extra “A”.
The point of writing this short article is that my dear friends if we don’t stand up to the world and tell them what is correct who will and if this continues it wouldn’t be very wrong to say that we are already on the path of losing our identity. I ask you what is stopping us from doing so? Heck ! we are the ones who gave the world Yog which has made the likes of Madonna, Ricky Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meg Ryan and the list is endless.
So next time before you do Yog or go and pray to Lord Krishn do Analyze Thisa !... Oh ! Sorry I mean...Analyze This !
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8 comments:
well....another "antidote" frm u....the title sure doesnt give away wts in store fr further readin...n dats wt makes it so witty n crisp(as always:P:P).....gud goin...
hey thx a lot ashi...i think u are d sole person who has admired my posts throughout...else i seem to be on peoples hatelist.hope u liked it...n ill try 2 write better in the future
I contest that in most South-Indian languages, it is 'Rama' and 'Krishna' etc. Surely you are not implying that this is some attempt to 'mimic' a western way of saying it? If not, are there certain parts of Northern India that pronounce everything right and the rest of the country is simply expected to follow suit?
Please let me know.
George I think you got me wrong. This topic isn't meant to be some kind of regional bias. All I am trying to say is that we all (Indians collectively) are to blame because we are unable to preserve our heritage . This is not some kind of Anti-South Indian. We all belong to same community and strata. The scholars who wrote the four Veds and other holy scriptures never intended the names to be pronunced like this. If you disbelive me read those text in its original form (Sanskrit) and you will understand. Anyone who says Ram and Yog as Rama and Yoga is incorrect be it a North Indian or a South Indian. Surely we can try to be correct atleast and hope that the rest of the follows suit, if not its their loss.
I hate that this has to be my first comment on this blog. But are you implying that any Indian language that doesnot follow the phonetics of sanskrit is wrong?
That way there are lot of words in Hindi that are the distorted form of Sanskrit words. So why arent they a wrong way of pronouncing? Surely the so called 'scholars' who wrote those words in Sanskrit did not intend them to be distorted either.Or did they?
(Btw keep writing.. we love it)
Nice to hear from you Ankur and thanks for both critising and appreciating. The article was not intended to state that Sanskrit is the superior language (though I am sure you might agree that it is considering that most of the Hindi words and many of the English words also spawn from it). Im not implying that any language is wrong but only want to point out that what belongs to a paticular language must be spoken that way. Like for exmaple if some one in English pronounces "s" as "yes" and "M" as "yum" we all can't help but feel that the person has a little knowledge of English and might even have a good laugh but im sure nobody in the US would start staying yum and yes. But here we ourselves are degrading what is "Made in India" and Im sure the scholars never intended them to be distorted(Im sure no one wants their work to be distorted).keep all the criticism coming (and taarif bhi kar dia karo yaar :( )..Its good to see that atleast you guys are reading it.Enough said.
Dude .. you are again missing the point. The Rama and Krishna of south Indian languages is as much Indian as the Ram and Krishn of Sanskrit and its not an anglicised version. Its just how they took it. And as you might well be aware there exist so many versions of ramayana etc that it would be wrong to treat them as being the sole property of sanskirt scholars.
dis is an awsm effort dat u made it through a small text, what i think is dat we need to read n analyse it atleast once, so dat implications of grammar n scholistic articles,phrase,or even a word should be proper... i would nt criticize but would hold ma thumbs up fr such a gud effort..
gud goin likd it keep writin
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