International Language Day!!

Today, 21st Feb, is the international mother language day, antorjatik matribhasha dibosh, as we call it in bengali. It is globally observed to respect and preserve all languages spoken by people all over the world. Some of the countries have declared it as a national holiday. Amazing, isn’t it? It’s not only showing respect to your language. You are actually showing respect to your mother tongue.

Most of us are multi lingual in modern times, given the fact that English is the official language of everything professional and that for Indians is not the mother tongue. So it becomes even more important for us to understand the significance of our mother tongue. How many of us can proudly claim that they are equally well versed in all the languages they know? Quite a few yes, and quite a few not as well, right? We may have many youngsters amongst us, who may or may not have fluency in reading, writing and speaking their individual mother languages. I can read and write Bengali, but am not very fluent in either. And my Bengali handwriting is horrible!! My mother has a very beautiful handwriting and every time she sees my hand writing, she just nods her head in frustration and has that sarcastic smile on her face. She wants me to write blogs and stories in Bengali, but I have not succeeded yet. Actually I am ashamed of this fact. This lack of expressing myself in my mother tongue may be due to the fact that I hardly studied Bengali in my learning years as it was not a part of my curriculum. But I did read novels written by great Bengali authors. In fact my favourites include Feluda series and Kakababu series like any other bong kid.

I once asked my dad why is your birth language called mother tongue? Why not father tongue, since everything else is from your father’s side of the family, your last name, home town, etc. His answer was because you are a part of your mother and since she is your creator, you speak her tongue and so it is known as mother tongue. Sounded quite convincing to me. Like the fact that every time you are in trouble, your mother somehow knows without your telling her, every time you are taken by surprise or get hit or are in pain, the first reaction always comes out in your respective mother tongue. There are certain expressions which can only have the satisfactory response if spoken in your mother tongue. There are a few phrases or words which will only have the desired impact if expressed in your own language. If these particular idioms are translated to any other language for the sake of explaining to others, it will never have the same impact or effect and there will always be something missing. Especially for slangs, if you are frustrated, you will feel relieved only when you can burst out in your language.

This day should remind us to celebrate the freedom to speak your own language which is every individual’s birth right. What can be a bigger reason than the fact that all of us known by our mother tongues, Bengali, Marathi, gujarati, Punjabi, kannada, etc. There is actually a huge struggle and a lot of bloodshed behind this day. Prior to the establishment of Bangladesh as a free nation, it was known as East Pakistan and the national language was Urdu. But all the people here were Bengali speaking. These people fought hard to have Bengali established as their official language. Many precious young lives were lost in the process. Like any other mass struggle, they bravely faced death and barbaric tortures to gain the freedom which was rightfully theirs. On 21st February 1952, Bengali was established as one of the two national languages of the then called East Pakistan. In 2000, this day was marked as International mother language day to promote peace and multilingualism and awareness of cultural diversity. Still there are certain countries where people are struggling to establish their language and obtain the freedom we already have. Just imagine what would happen if suddenly you do not have that freedom anymore? Hard to even imagine right? So, it naturally becomes our responsibility to respect this freedom and act apt to maintain it. It also becomes mandatory to know more and try to overcome the shortcomings you have in your mother tongue proficiency. If you are already well versed, congratulations to you, try taking up a classic by a famous author written in your mother tongue. If you are, like me, not so well versed, take up that novel which is there at the corner of your bookshelf and finish reading it for once. Try to enrich yourself with the literature of the lingual diversity that you are blessed with. Appreciate the depths of  this language. I will at least try to avoid silly spelling mistakes which I do while writing bengali!! I hope one day I could truly enjoy the rich varsity of my mother tongue, bengali.

Wish you a happy international mother language day friends!! Let's celebrate the language which gave us the power of speech!!