Savyasaachi

Yes, I am more than happy to say that I was born a Malayali. Hailing from the “Queen of the Arabian Sea”, Cochin, I never even dreamt that I would end up in the flamboyant city of Mysore. Thus began my journey of conquering this beautiful language, Kannada. I must admit the journey itself has been interesting and fun-filled – sometimes making me laugh out loud due to my foolishness; other times my helplessness at learning new words landing me in trouble. Here is my own account of the learning curve for all the non-Kannadigas who know what I am talking about and to all the Kannadigas, who helped us in this adventure, with their timely corrections and warnings.

I remember this incident in my first year, when I was still clueless about the language. Once, while traveling in a bus, I happened to catch the eye of this sweet lady seated across me and smiled at her politely. But then something horrible happened – my worst nightmare then. Taking it as an invitation to speak, the lady launched into an animated conversation in Kannada, not a word of which I could comprehend. On hearing ‘railway station’, I gathered from her facial expression that she wanted me to tell her how far ahead it was. Being a regular commuter, I knew it was just 3 stops away, but only when I opened my mouth to tell her did I realize I didn’t know the Kannada word for “3”! Knowing that it was impossible to tell her all this, I just gave her a weird smile and shrugged to show ‘I don’t know’, which she thankfully acknowledged and remained silent further. When we approached her stop, I nudged her and pointed her towards the station. It was wonderful to see that grateful smile on her face. That day, I reached college with the intense desire to learn Kannada as soon as possible. The first thing I did after meeting my friend was to pester her into teaching me the numbers till 10. The entire day and for weeks following that, she had to bear the brunt of my learning, as I burst into “ondu, eradu, mooru…”every now and then, completely out of the blue, to ensure that I had memorized the sequence for a lifetime!

Due to my enthusiasm, by the end of first year I had learnt a few words and how to place them in a statement. I was excited that people could understand what I spoke. Later my friends told me that more than my ‘perfect’ Kannada, it was actually the excessive use of my eyes and hands that helped them make sense of what I wanted to say but my gurus decided to play along to spare my feelings! However, I was equally eager to show off my new skill; I would speak to everyone in Kannada whenever given (or grabbing) the chance – my sincere thank you and apologies to all those who went through that torture!

It was one such day, when we had Orthopaedics postings when a ‘Paapa Ajja’ had come into the OPD. He acknowledged everyone with a very respectful “neevu”, even us 2nd year students, when we weren’t even half his age. But the chatterbox in me failed to grasp that he was using a word I had not learnt yet. As soon as he asked me for his OP slip, I jumped at the opportunity and told him, “Neenu kotilla.” I was so into the conversation that I did not realize my friend was elbowing me to let her do the talking. But where do I listen, I took the Ajja’s flabbergasted expression to be due to his inability to find the slip! He finally found it with my friend’s help and left the OPD, but not before giving me a sad look. Only when my unitmates pointed out the big disrespect that I had shown him did I realize the fundamental difference between their language and mine! In Kannada, the nature of ‘you’ changed to give respect to elders, unlike in Malayalam where the pronoun used is universally same. Thanks to my friends’ guidance, I give special attention to this detail even today while framing a sentence in my mind. I apologize from the bottom of my heart to the Ajja I had disrespected, who probably assumed that it was just the way of “Kalyug.”

With the passage of 2nd and 3rd year, my command over the language only improved, no longer having to rely on facial expressions and gestures to convey meaning. During our inter-college fest, I got to test the waters with my broken Kannada and I managed well! At the risk of sounding like I am boasting, I am happy that I have learned at least a bit of this amazing language. Now, I am in love with it.

Still, there are instances where my over-enthusiasm has left me the laughing stock in my circle of friends.To quote another one, once we had gone to the canteen for our lunch. When the waiter arrived, I gave him our order, “Ondu mealsu, matte ondu dahi paapdi chaatu”. He looked at me like I had asked for something that was not in the menu! Luckily, my friend intervened and repeated our order in proper English. Soon as the waiter left, she burst out laughing, teasing me to-date about my skills at “Kannada-fying” English words!

All these incidents just remind me how much further I have to go to know and understand Kannada fully. Looking back, I realize the process till now was enjoyable and easy, thanks to the immense support from my friends.

So, dear juniors, learn Kannada. It is not as difficult and scary as it seems to be. And with perfect gurus all around you, the journey becomes all the more wonderful. Learn it, you will love it!