Yeah, been ages since i blogged...have got an earful from a couple of my loyal readers (read close friends :-p) for not having done so! but that is how work life is! the last 2 odd weeks have been really hectic; had to go to the office even on weekends! for the time being, i now have some breathin space and hope it continues to be so!
neways, had gone to get lunch today afternoon, and while waiting there was glancing through some magazine called swadeshi or something. one dude had written a letter to the ed regarding some article in the previous issue. The issue apparently was how in India too much emphasis is being place on the English language and the local languages are suffering due to this. I for one, do not agree with this at all!
The writer had mentioned that how the British had introduced it for their own benefit and how the other laguages suffered and now we should not give it so much importance!
I agree that the local languages may have suffered, but I think that we should thank the Brits for teaching us the English language! Today, India ranks as one of the most attracitve destinations for FIIs, we are an emerging IT super power, Indians all around the world are prospering and at some level India is shining (debatable but tat is another disucssion!).
And I think that we being good at the English language has a major role to play. If we just consider the example of the IT/BPO industries, the single biggest reason for our success there would have to be the fact that we have such a large population of English speaking people (cheap labour being one of the others :-D ) which no other competitive country can boast of. China has cheaper labour, but their people cannot utter one sentence properly. They are trying to rectify this by teaching English at the grass roots level, and in our country we have people protesting against it being the primary mode of education! I mean, how dumb can we get? Why do we want to lose the tremendous advantage we have? What will we gain by forcing kids to learn in the local lingo?
I have nothing against regional languages, but seriously speaking, how many of those protesting will send their kids to schools where the regional language is used as a medium of instruction? I think hadrdly any! I personally have experienced how tough it is to learn such languages,even to speak them...forget having to study all the subjects in them! In fact, I think it goes back to the independence period, when our first PM royally messed it up when he divided the states on the basis of language. That is what has given rise to the ridiculous demands of present day!
Anyways, enough ramblings abt the English language...time to welcome the gr8 - one n only - JJ Sarkar, who has made a grand entry into the world of blogging! now that he has made an appearance, i might have to leave the field :-p
for the uninitiated, he is one of the powerful personalities from the gr8 land of Sion , Mumbai; the uncrowned King of that region :-D
-uv
p.s. sorry sarkar, if u feel offended :-p
4 comments:
Not offended, but definitely surprised. King, gr8 land of Sion, powerful personality .... ?? wow, certainly not done anything worthy. But Thank you for your comments atleast I was mentioned. And kaka you certainly don't need to leave. We enjoy reading your ramblings, though you don't write as often as we would like you to, but whenever you do.
JJ sarkar, u r being modest here! we all know how gr8 u r and wat worthy things u have done :-D
since u have said, i shall not leave and will try to blog more regularly :-)
Dadasaheb.... good to read ur blog again... a very interesting topic in your blog..a question for you ...did the guy who wrote to the editor write in english or some regional language hehe:)
I did previously read some article on India and the english language and it was very interesting.India currently has a special place in the English language record books – as the country with the largest English-speaking population in the world. Ten years ago that record was held by the US. Not any more. Ya ..ofcourse we have more than a billion people but still i think its remarkable. Some survey said that nearly 350 million people (lets say one third of our population) speak or understand english in our country... which is more than the combined English-speaking populations of Britain and the US. ...
Anyways keep blogging ..we did miss u .. and ya I very much pleased to join you in welcoming Sarkar too...now the world will be enlightend with his thoughts
After reading ur blog...Ive fallen in love with you.
Lovely pictures.
Stopped by from Orkut.
---Your Admirer.
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