My plea Mr. Chairman...........

        Whenever I think of entities like ‘greatness’ , ‘virtue’ and ‘principle’, I imagine them as sturdy rocks, nay, boulders, keeping their stand rock solid amidst the flowing waters of the rivulets of fame and honour. I think they have to be so; for when these entities lose their stand and become one with the flowing water, they cease to be themselves in the same way that a river loses its identity when it meets the sea.

        The purpose of giving a long introduction was that, in my mind, there was seated a person, whom I did regard as ‘a great one’ until the time when he was made the chief chairman of Konkan Sahitya Parishad; a designation much eyed by many of the doyens in Marathi literature. “The conservation and upliftment of the Marathi language and of Marathi Manoos” was a tongue rolling topic in those days. The dias of the Sahitya Parishad was honoured with the presence of Mr. Chairman, the paragon of Marathi literature. Lending their eager eyes and alert ears to the dias were the who’s who in Marathi literature. At that moment of time ,what I felt was that, there rested a great responsibility with the dias, and perhaps greater one with Mr. Chairman to design and suggest some pragmatic theories and ideas for the conservation of the Marathi language and culture, which was, as they said, becoming extinct, as the giant mammoth some millions ago.

        Now, Mr. Chairman did rise to the occasion of saving his “mayy Marathi” by suggesting to banish “Madam English” out of Maharashtra. “For the upliftment of mayy Marathi, all the English schools be closed down” was his mantra. On hearing this , I pitied Mr. Chairman. It was really sad, that a well wisher of a language and his people should think of such a solution. When you say you love a language, you actually love the people who have gifted that language with necklaces of their thoughts. Otherwise, any language just consists of some words and some mundane rules regarding the same. When you water these words by strong thoughts, the words blossom out into beautiful flowers, each conveying the fragrance of the thoughts beneath.

        I am a Marathi speaking person who did 12 years of his schooling in an English medium school. For me, Marathi is my mother tongue. My mother has loved me in this language, scolded me in this language and sung lullabies for me in the same one. My culture is Marathi, habits are Marathi and even my thinking is Marathi. When I was a school-going teenager, like any other guy, even I had my first crush. Her name was “English”. I have loved that language Mr. Chairman. If Marathi is my mother, then English is my fiancée. And as you will agree, every guy doesn’t start hating his mom when he marries; not in the matured folks at least.

       As a child, I have enjoyed the nursery rhymes; I have hummed the poems of Wordsworth; I have seen “the Daffodils” from Tennyson’s eyes; I have felt innocence after reading Blake; And am totally ready to say “Death! Thou be not proud” after reading John Donne’s poetic harangue. These are my deities Mr. Chairman; as are you for many a folk in my mother tongue. If we implement the solution that you proposed some years back, many guys and gals like me, would be devoid of the love which English has given us.

       And nevertheless, I get angry when a guy or a gal (especially!!) directs his or her tongue to speak in English with the objective of aping the west. It isn’t their fault; nor the fault of the English schools which taught them. If anybody is to be blamed, they are their parents! Today, the most dominant threat posed to Indian languages, is by the IT culture, which is already rooted firmly in the country. The IT culture (why call it culture!) is more towards aggravating the youth to break the bonds of culture, tradition, language and religion under the false pretext of Globalisation. If parents dump their mother tongue for a language which makes them look bombastic in front of their faddist cronies, then what can you expect from their children?

       Nevertheless, bringing the English schools in front of goddess Marathi’s sacrificial altar is not a path to be treaded; not for Maharashtra at least, which is counted as one of the progressed states post independence. Why become unnecessarily chauvinistic when the root of the problem is not in the language but in people’s mindset. It is the responsibility of every Maharashtrian to guard his mother tongue and enrich it if he can. By murdering English in Maharashtra under the guillotine of chauvinism, we ourselves would be blocking the path of our children to progress, which leads directly to the external world. Now, the ball is in your court Mr. Chairman and the accused “Madam English” in front of you. It’s your decision now as to let her go or to pull the switch.

                                                                                                                           ----Saurabh