Gujarati Bhasha

Another striking feature of the Gujarat that I have returned to is the language..The Gujarati - in its absolute sense - seems to be dying. There is so much of influence of Hindi and English in all sphere from household jargon to public sphere as the 2007 state assembly election slogans for two major parties where not fully Gujarati..Chak De Gujarat (Punjabi) and Jeetga Gujarat (Hindi) seemed like slogans of some northern states.

At micro level, within households too, we are obsessed with teaching our children angrezi. We teach them to recognise nose and eyes instead of naak ane aankh. Our children doesn't recognise gai or kootaroo as they only know what cow or dog look like (and mind it, they ain't being taught to say a cow or a dog, jo beta, cow is what they are being taught..a typical Gujlish).

The other day, I was standing at a medical shop near a paediatrician's clinic and I overheard a young child of six something asking her mother 'mummy, pandar etle'?. The proud mother said, 'beta, fifteen'. And then with mixed sense of pride and embarrassment said to the shopkeeper (and also to us) in Gujarati that the boy has yet to learn 'Gujarati' as a subject in his school and she was sure that the little one would pick up the language soon.

Even if he doesn't, he would not lose much as whether you read a Gujarati newspaper or look at the hoardings of new trendy super markets like Big Bazaar, there is so much usage of english words that you can definitely manage to get through the meaning. Ex, "aavi gayu monthly bachat bazaar" " dar mahine super savings" "aa mahine pan rehshe gharnu budget controlma"...

We have been watching hindi movies making mockery of Gujju accent while attempting to speak English..( Kal Ho na Ho..Bagbann..and also the latest hit Jane tu ya Janne na). I too heard usage like 'kartun ma saaman bhari do' (kartun is here used for carton and 'kitchen ma self to lagadva chhe ' (self to be replaced by shelf/shelves)..

The fascination to use English word is also very high across age groups, especially among the mid-age people, who are shyly attempting to match up to their younger generations who is more confident speaking flawed English at their best. I am perfectly fine watching my little girl being complimented but it pricks when the compliment is 'smart girl chhe'!!! Call her a smart girl, fine..but say it in one language..she is a smart girl..or..chatur/samajdar chhokri chhe.. why play around with language.

I try consciously to speak pure Gujarati with my people and once I became mindful, my Gujarati vocabulary too increased along with the improvement in English. I request my wife to speak Gujarati and use Gujarati words to my little daughter..she is trying consciously and calling 'saslu' what used to be a rabbit to her! My little chota baby too is smart enough to scream 'pa...' when she hears a bird chirping outside her room..she has been taught 'pakshi' and not bird, thankfully!!

But, there seems to be more positive examples too. Yesterday I met an old friend with his family including a five year old child..He was insisting for his third chocolate and her mother was arguing against it. The child pressed for his demand saying ' hu ten plus ten twenty gargles karish'. I instinctively told him to speak it in Gujarati and he promptly replied 'vis'.. I was glad!! I knew her mother has been trying to deveop him as a bilingual since his early days..I was delighted that she is trying it relentlessly till date!