हिंदी - एक भाषा, एक अभ्यास

अपने राष्ट्रभाषा मैं ब्लोग लिखने का यह मेरा पहला प्रयत्न है। इससे मेरे मित्रों को शायद आपत्ति या आश्चर्य हो सकता है, परंतु मैं इसे अपने किसी इतर गतीविधियों के समान ही समझता हूँ। ऐसा लिखने मे थोड़ी दिक्कत शुरू मे जरूर होती है, पर ब्लॉगर की इस नई सेवा का कम-से-कम एक बार तो उपयोग सभी ने करना चाहिऐ, ऐसा मुझे लगता है। और मुझे बेहद ख़ुशी होगी अगर मैं अपने दोस्तो मे सबसे प्रथम इस सेवा के लाभ उठानेवालों मे से हूँ।

Irritating, what’s this, or plain NOT AMUSED…..whatever your reaction to this new exercise of mine is, is wholeheartedly accepted (like I have a choice here!!). I was planning to broach this subject for a long time; I guess Blogger feature was just a pretext. The usage of Hindi in daily life is undoubtedly evident. But how much Hindi as a language is to be read or written? Although this touchy subject ‘touches’ various issues like ‘Nationalism’, ‘Culture’, ‘History of India’, ‘Modern Life’ et al, I shall attempt to prevent myself from hijacking the main issue here. Reiterating, the issue here is ……written in bold above.

Today English is pervading in our lives from being the official international business language to a more personal, friendly, distortable language and a niche or a lifesaver when talking about competitive exams compared to the deadly Math section। SMS lingo, Marathi parents talking to their wards in English (broken) and this very blog which is the representation of your thoughts are all examples of acceptance of this foreign language. We (I assume many to agree with me on this, so ‘we’, not ‘I’) all grew from basic comprehension to understanding to enjoying to declaring ‘Boring’ the English tele-serials on Star World or Zee Café. We were happy seeing subtitles of western songs so that we could hum along, but Hindi was always natural, always assumed. During all this we never came across reading anything in Hindi (no, the signboards don’t count). Hindi was a part and parcel of our lives, so ingrained that we give no heed to it.

So why does Google, Nokia introduce Hindi feature in its blog or phones? How many of us use the Hindi feature in our phones or are going to use it in our blogs as prophesied by Google? Very few, can be counted on hand. Then why is this additional burden or trouble on their part? Do they expect the users to treat this feature as another novelty or are users actually going to be comfortable from now on in their own language? I, like many of you vote for the ‘novelty’ option. This attempt by the multinational is based on a false assumption that many would feel proud that their ‘own’ language is open for access. Hindi in India does not shoulder national importance like in other countries (especially China and Germany) where without marketing in local language is equivalent to selling canned beef to ascetic monks. IT SIMPLY WON”T SELL!! It should be noted that one is a developing while one is a developed nation. It is a must, an indirect enforcement upon foreign companies to comply with the national lingual climate and failing to do so would invite public ire or at least rejection. While in India, not only the products but also the tag lines can be launched in English. Does this make us more vulnerable or taken-for-granted in any way?

Not really. English here is now one of the commonly spoken languages here. So it is wise to gauge the public mood and market accordingly for these companies. Speaking English rather than expressing ignorance towards Hindi, speaks volumes of acceptance of the International language in our daily lives. But is Hindi spoken at all? Well, this is indeed a personal question (as personal as the regional language one has). Nevertheless, the fact remains: the lesser we speak Hindi, the faster it is going to vanish. People strike a conversation in English many a times, which I find sometimes unnecessary. If both the persons involved are not belonging to different nationalities, then why not make use of the common language. I mean it’s very simple; if we don’t speak, who will? Hindi has survived today less through literature and more due to movies. But in spite of a plethora of movies ‘bombing’ (pun intended) the box office week after week, we never manage to look at it from the angle of curiosity of exhibition of Hindi literature. Even the movie name font is in English. So where is the written Hindi after all?

Does it exist only in dailies and textbooks or in our lives too? It will be a slow process from speaking in Hindi to bringing the Devnagari to everyday use in products, advertisements, etc. Imagine due to the advent of an upsurge in globalization and heavily increased FDI in India, (which already is) Hindi is being taught as a foreign language outside India for better marketing communication in globally reputed B-schools. But how can this be possible without the local people speaking it repeatedly, incessantly and frequently?. Unless we make a conscious effort, there aren’t any takers for our national lingo. I personally try to restrict my conversation to anyone within the confines of Hindi or Marathi initially. Although whenever I am greeted in English, I make it a point to not switch it to another one. This prevents a lot of possible miscommunication and sometimes even misunderstanding. We all think in our mother-tongue; that’s a fact. And historically or rather geographically speaking (considering from the area we hail), no man of Indian descent can have his mother-tongue to be English. So we all see that it’s a big sham.

English still comes to me today consciously; earlier it was sporadic but pretty glib now. As of the people who are reading this, I don’t urge them to join me in a nationwide and radical move of a language changeover, or even suggest the use of Hindi in their blogs, but definitely request them to rethink on this issue. And yes, SPEAK MORE HINDI, if not write or read!!