At a
recently concluded conference on the Northeast of India (btw, I'm a
little baffled by the sudden attention paid on the Northeast, though
I'm one of the 'unashamed' beneficiaries) organized by a well-known
government agency, an old lady made a comment which refused to leave
my mind. After a paper presentation by a scholar from Assam she said,
“I couldn't get much of your presentation because your
pronunciations. You didn't speak like a 'normal' Indian.” I was
like, 'did I hear that right?' Thankfully, the members in the
conference hall were gracious enough to not react to her ignorance,
else a war of language would have begun. Anyway, my mind wandered
off...
I began
to ask, “Who's a 'normal' Indian?” Living in Delhi for almost
half my lifetime now I've realized how hard it is to fit into the
larger society if one is not originally of North India. Harder still
when you have a different racial orientation. What's even more
daunting is when even the language you speak becomes the point of
discrimination. Often I've heard young people from the Northeast
seeking BPO jobs in Delhi/NCR being rejected at interviews because of
heavy “mother-tongue influence”. Ironically though, and over the
period of time, these Northeastern youths seem to have sustained and
dominated the workforce in BPOs, for whatever reason. Naturally,
everyone has “mother-tongue influence”. But seemingly even in the
language scenario the culture of the dominant community is considered
the “correct” spoken language. Take for example, most people in
North India interchange their 'W' and 'V' as if it is normal (ve are
going to vatch a wery nice mowie!). Yet, you wouldn't find such
spoken languages being laughed at because most people speak that way.
On the
other hand, I have often been 'un-understood' of my English because
of my accent. I realize that I am a bit influenced by the Hollywood
movies in my English that I got a bit Americanized in my English. For
instance, the use of the narrower (American) 'a' rather than the
rounder (British) as in 'cǝn't'/'cAn't'.
(I've not studied in an American school, fyi.) English, anyway, is
only a second language to every (or almost all) Indians. Yet,
ironically, in a country with such wide linguistic plurality like
ours it is difficult to understand when one's English is
categorically stated that it is accented! It is truly difficult to be
'normal' in India.
