An Ode to Languages
A differently personal account of how languages play a predominant role in my life.
(Image Credits: Aarti Krishnakumar, Aarti’s Substack)
This flash essay is part of a collaborative, constrained-writing challenge undertaken by some members of the Bangalore Substack Writers Group. This month, each of us examined the concept of ‘LANGUAGE’. At the bottom of this snippet, you’ll find links to other essays by fellow writers.
Plainly, I’m no expert in any language: not in my native language, not in the widely contested, disputed or labelled national language, not in my state’s lovely language and not in the language which the colonials introduced to our nationalities. However, I still strangely take tiny bits of each of these differently oriented languages to frame a thought-process which sometimes translates to rarely perfect communication, sometimes misconceptions, sometimes casual laughter or frequently plain-speaking.
Can you imagine a world without languages? From the basic housekeeping needs processed via languages to imagine not being able to find the expressive or any literature? Imagine standing with clutter or clarity and still dying in the grip of speaking to communicate? I can’t imagine it because cries, laughs, growls, screams and sounds would be reductive and poorly handy to navigate this chaotic mind.
Ideally, language is the everyday solace. How would the loquacious person survive? How would a voracious reader find texts to read? How would the depth of a music translate? How would a foolish or expertly smart scholar deliver her research? How would you convert a cold conversation into warmth? How would we layer complexities? The mere existence of a language is no less than unique as the existence of this planet.
The languages in my bank are: English, Hindi, Kannada, Armenian phrases and some native dialects. Every linguistic communication delivers a different level of understanding and feeling. I cannot talk personally with my family in any language, except for Hindi or native dialect. Each language delivers a certain amount of qualitative affection in different circumstances. Apart from personal conversations, English is so indisputably ingrained in our academic domains that my native or non-English languages sometimes do not give the idealistic feeling of a formal structure or academic discourse. While at the same time, I just naturally converse in Kannada whenever in Bangalore vicinities or areas. And learning Armenian phrases adds this daily fun where others fail.
(Credits: A 10-rupee bill with a list wise representation of Indian languages) (Image from: https://tvtropes.org/)
All these languages in my bank have evolved to occupy some deterministic framework and domains in my mind that naturally I only find communication fulfilled in those circumstances when I employ the use of these languages at the right time and at the right place with the right people. Indeed, this couldn’t have been possible without their existence, “A celebration of languages”!
Thank you for reading my article. Don’t forget to read these insightful essays by our Substack Writers Group too!
Loss of a language By Rakhi Anil, Rakhi’s Substack
Beyond Words and Dialects by Aarti Krishnakumar, Aarti’s Substack
In search of my lost mother tongue by Siddhesh Raut, Shana, Ded Shana
The language question by Rahul Singh, Mehfil
Geography & Language by Devayani Khare, Geosophy
The Dance of Languages by Haridas Jayakumar, Harry
Poetic Silence - From Anand Bhavan to 3039 and back by Amit Charles, @acnotes
No Garam Aloo in Tamil Nadu by Ayush, Ayush's Substack
Lost in translation by Vikram, Vikram’s Substack
I’ve been thinking a lot about tongues, again. by Ameya, (Always) Ameya
The Language Beneath Words by Mihir Chate, Mihir's Substack
What does this mean? by Nidhishree Venugopal, General in her Labyrinth
The Language of Murder by Gowri N Kishore | About Murder, She Wrote.
I have no words by Richa Vadini Singh, Here’s What I Think
Jal-Elephants, Thread-Navels, and Other Sanskrit Beasts by Rajat Gururaj, I came, I saw, I Floundered
Of Language, Love and Longing: Politics, Mother Tongue and Loss by Aryan Kavan Gowda, Wonderings of a Wanderer
The Bengaluru Blend by Avinash Shenoy, Off the walls
Thanks for sharing so many wonderful resources 😊👍