?????

Love for Mothertongue

????????, ????? ???????!

?????????, ??? ??? ???????!!

(Trans:(Taking the opportunity to thank)First thanks to my mother- who made me see this beautiful world! and then to Tamil(language)- for giving the chance to understand the world, better!!)

This is how I always wished to start my speech in competitions/debate, during my school days. I am like one of you guys, who always came late to school so that will be able to get stand near the tree for shades for the 9:00 am sunny assembly session and also stand at the last, despite being short.

Early in my school days, there will be students delivering speeches most of the times in the assembly. I like speeches and debates but what fascinates me the most about that is, when someone gives the speech in Tamil or starts with the speech by the above-mentioned line, that will literally give goosebumps, every single time!

I had severe stage fright at that time, so I never tried to take part in any speech/drama competition. But one day, somehow got the courage & gave my name for the first time in the English speech competition. Maybe you guys could have guessed how it might have gone. Right! Exactly this is how it was

“Good morning everyone! This is Rajendra Kumar and the topic, am going to speak about is this……….”

And that’s it, stage fright confirmed. I think its fate may be that I have to give my first complete speech in my mothertongue -Tamil.

That was a mandatory competition, where I gave my speech and I still didn’t believe that it went good. The speech is still fresh in my mind, it was the welcome address for the person of one’s choice and I chose our now late Chief Minister of the State Ms. J.Jayalalitha. To my surprise, I got claps like 4–5 times between the 3–4 minutes speech, that too mostly from girls side than boys side! You know that right, how it feels! But later only I realized that I was the first boy to give a speech about a woman, thatswhy and of course, yes, good points were there too!!

Then there was this moment, where Tamil completely changed my perspective and understanding about education & how it should be learnt. During my schooldays, I mug up the subjects for the exam. At one time, I found it difficult to mug up an important question. Seeing me struggling, my neighbor Akka(elder sister) came for the rescue and tried to explain it but all in vain. Finally, she explained each and every point in Tamil, that's the first time, I literally understand everything and suddenly a clear picture, confidence came that you have got it right. Next day, as expected the question was there and I got the full mark. From then onwards, I never tried to mug up anything. That Akka is my guru, also an inspiration, say influenced me for being a night owl for studying!

The first time I realized how beautiful Tamil is, through foreigners when they spoke Tamil since my hometown is one of the main tourist attraction. The way they sounded, the flaws, the imperfection & the innocence made Tamil more elegant and like the saying ‘adding beauty to the beautiful’. During my higher studies, love for Tamil grown further when my Telugu/ Malayali/ Hindi friends spoke Tamil and also respect for that person grew manifold. That moment, I decided wherever I go to any states/country, first I must learn their language which shows that we are respecting their language and at the same time our language too.

Now I will give you guys, three instances where I find Tamil irreplaceable or for that matter any mothertongue is irreplaceable.

First,

Calling your parents

?????(Appa) and ?????(Amma)

feels more affection and love, even when we are shouting too, instead of father and mother. Similarly calling strangers as ?????(sister), ?????(brother), ?????(younger brother) and ???????? (younger sister) gives more personal and brings the feeling as we are all under the same one big family-oneness, instead of calling them as bro/dude/sis!

The next one is proposing/expressing love…

?? ? ????? ??????????!…???? ???????? ?????????????!

Which roughly translates to ‘You are, a lot to me- I like you!..will you marry me?!’ Here I am not getting the essence or the originality of this when I am using English or even say when I am typing this!

The final instance is when you, cursing/swearing.

Whether its known/unknown person, when swearing in mothertongue like

**, ***, ????(dog) & ????(ghost)

we will get the satisfaction, conquered & achieved-something-feel. We won't get that completeness when using English words like F*****, B*****. And yes, the first two words are really bad bad words! One trivial fact is that most of my other language friends always tried to learn curse word first, then the language second.

But there is one instance, where I wish I don’t want to use Tamil. It is when saying ‘sorry’, in Tamil it is ?????????. When I am using the word, I feel like I did something grave mistake, so instead of using Tamil, I prefer to say sorry which comes from mouth-feel and wish never to put myself into a situation where I use Tamil.

Finally, the main aim of this article is to take time to think about one’s mother tongue, to know her history and recognize its beauty in every small thing. Since there were people who revived their language(Hebrew) which once became extinct, simply for their love of language. I will end the article by quoting a famous line and also another line which I love,

?????? ??? ! ??????? ?????? !

-Kaniyan Poongunranar

(“To us, all towns are one, all people are our kin and kith”)

?

???? ??? ?????????? ??????, ??? ???? ?????? ??????? !

??????? ???????? ???????! ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? !

????? ???????? ?????? ????? ! ?????? !

-Lyricist Vivek (From ‘Mersal’)

Days may come, where change is inevitable and your language will fell, an adage!

But there will always come a Thamizhan, who will put forth the mother Tamil!

The language will be there till the last blood drop of the people of Tamil, and Tamil will only raise but never fall!

?????! (Thank You)

Note:

Today(written on April 14th) it's Tamil New Year here, so wishing you all a very happy and prosperous Tamil New Year to You and Your Family — ???? ????? ?????????? ????????????????!

PS: Irony — Speaks about Tamil but written the article in English. I will write in ????? one day, but the purpose is to reach everyone and make them think about their Mothertongue and cherish Her!

-???.????????? ??????

R Rajendra Kumar