Frost @ Midnight...

One Acquainted With Darkness…

“I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat. And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet when far away an interrupted cry came over houses from another street, but not to call me back or say good-bye; and further still at an unearthly height, a luminary clock against the sky… [that is the moon, I was told – ed.]

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. [I was one acquainted with the dark side of the right.]”

I don’t know if this is plagiarism: this is what Frost almost said. I cut out a few words here and there, which one should not do. I took the liberty to add a line in the end, which one must not do. But then, where is poetic justice in this world today? It is all poetic liberty, nay, licentiousness.

I am one acquainted with the darker side of things: like anger and passion. Yes, passion is dark and deep, like the woods the great poet was wandering through. I am bum chums with people of different persuasions and orientations – with beasts of a different breed. Of course all of us are beasts. Of different shapes and breeds; of rights and wrongs.

I have indulged in darker deeds than writing blogs and cursing people whom I dislike: I have been acquainted with forbidden substances and deeds. Oh well, I have had a not so bright past, and I don’t care if my future will be bright either. It is the will of god.

International Mother Tongue Day

This week, on the 21 Feb., we had the international mother tongue day. There is an interesting story about how this day was picked up for the mother tongue day. Four people died in Dhaka, fighting for separation from Pakistan – on the grounds that their language was Bengali (Urdu was imposed as an ‘official’ language on them – oh, how I cringe to used the word ‘official’ with reference to language.)

Interestingly, Pakistan was divided on the grounds of religion, and the people of East Pakistan (erstwhile East Bengal) fought for independence on the grounds of language; four people, apparently, died in police firing on this day (21 Feb.) and it became the international mother tongue day.

Today, many Indian elite are ashamed to let it be known that their children speak an ‘Indian’ language. Karan Johar, the son of a bachelor, is happy about not being able to count beyond 30 in Hindi, but is pleased as a punch to spit out some unimaginative, dirty line in French – Vouz les vous, or something of that manner. On a national channel…

Many Indian parents feel, and a friend who moved to Bangalore from Delhi actually said, that local languages can ‘pollute’ their children and hamper their English language acquisition. And so this gent, who thought the maid servant was invading their home with Hindi – moved to Bangalore. This is so obviously not true: if the right environment is provided, children can easily pick up 3 or 4 languages, not get confused about who to talk to in which language. So if the mother is a Telugu speaker and the father a Bengali – the child would never utter a word of Telugu to the father, and vice versa. And if they happen to live in Delhi, they will manage in Hindi outside the home…

Exceptions of course occur. I once found myself talking in Telugu to Sunil Sinha, who knows only English and Hindi. We used to converse in English mostly, maybe with a bit of Hindi thrown in. Perhaps it was because we were so close that I slipped into Telugu (which is my ‘home’ language). That is just one exception in the past 30 years during which I have been operating in Telugu, Hindi, and English. An exception, as the cliché goes, that proves the rule.

Mother do you think I should run for president?
Mother do you think they will try to break my will?
… and misinterpret my testament?