हिंदी में बात करते हैं!

Bollywood isn’t just entertainment, it is a way of life. There is no better delight than watching a perfectly entertaining movie with the right life lesson. Hindi Medium starring Irrfan Khan and Saba Qamar was one such experience.

It was pleasantly astonishing that despite the presence of a Pakistani Actor, Hindi medium managed a controversy-free release across the country. The fact that the theatres in a city like Ranchi were running a packed house on a weekday afternoon for an Irrfan Khan movie was even more remarkable.

I believe it was all about the timing

The regularity of debates on news channels entailing relentless bickering over Patriotism >> Art and Cinema was gradually subsiding. Hence the producers of this film were spared of the public flak coupled with onerous errand of getting a clearance from the authorities for the movie release.

Also striking the iron when it is hot, the makers could not have had a better timing for a release considering the Bahubali madness was nearing its end (Until the franchise renews itself for a third installment) and the audience at the end of their seats were eagerly longing for something more relatable and realistic.

I am not reviewing the film like countless other critics nor analyzing its trade and business. Hindi Medium for me was more like a remembrance of my personal experiences that continue till date due to my advocacy for speaking the language. I can make a proud declaration of my competency to count numbers up to hundred in Hindi, leaving aside the struggle of getting stuck on the confusion between unasi (79) and navasi (89). However, it seems problematic to harmonize my scheme with that of the world.

I can talk English, I can walk English (can’t do without my usual Bollywood References) but I’ll still prefer Hindi. Talking in Hindi comes easily, effortlessly and it gives the comfort, which English never has and never will. Even my “Angrezi speaking friends” who claim to “think” in English get their peace following a brawl only after uttering a few Hindi cuss-words. Still, the hypocrisy that this generation abides by baffles me when a language they’ve grown up with becomes a tool of embarrassment as they eventually grow up.

I am not here to criticize choices, everyone is entitled to his or her preferences and having command over more than one language is wonderful as long as they co-exist.I do believe that English as a language deserves all the importance it gets and a good command over the language is extremely necessary for survival in today’s competitive world (can’t do without clichés too).

But I wouldn’t want to leave behind MY LANGUAGE, my mother tongue in the process.

My problem is, not with people using English more, it is with not enough people talking in Hindi despite knowing the language. Having grown up in an environment with Hindi as my first language and English as a supplementary one for added ornamental value, I’ll always prefer talking in Hindi, at-least with people who are well versed with the language.  These days however, everyone seems to have a problem speaking in Hindi, they haven’t practiced it enough or it doesn’t come naturally to them.

Hindi Medium tries to address how English has become a language of the privileged and is your gate pass for entry into the world of elites. Amongst other issues, it also attempts to fix the mental block, that speaking in Hindi is unacceptable something even I have frequently come across in my social encounters.

As for me, talking in Hindi is my modus operandi that will savor an invariable continuance. Concluding my story bringing to the notice of my readers, the irony of penning an English article on glorifying Hindi.