Wednesday, November 30, 2011

'Soul' and Consciousness in a Language-less world

I began my journey of language with Hindi, my mother tongue. I guess I became quite good with it (if appreciations are a measure of that). I used to write poetry in Hindi, I used to think in Hindi. And then English came along. In the wake of the 'competitive' English dominant world outside, I was taught to speak, write and think in English. It was difficult initially, but gradually thoughts came along unabated, getting manifested in words that grew more and more ornate with time and effort. Then came the time when I perhaps stopped thinking in Hindi. A friend of mine, upon hearing this, told rather disdainfully, " तुमने अंग्रेज़ी को अपनी आत्मा बेच दी है (You have sold your soul to English)". It was disturbing. Nevertheless, I continued writing 'soulless' poetry in Hindi, for poetry never came out in English. I continued fighting with words to churn out poetry (शब्दों से लड़ लड़ कर कविता लिखती रही). But, yes the poetry was soulless.
And then this question occurred to me, "where is my soul"?
It is definitely not with English, for I still struggle to express myself coherently when I talk in English. I do think in English most of the times, though, and formulate arguments, discuss 'issues'. Majority of my readings are in English. Most of my writings (including this) are in English. But, everytime I hear my favourite Hindi song, my heart skips a beat. Everytime I read a poem by Mahadevi Verma, I am carried to a distant world, from where I do not wish to come back. Everytime I watch the outburst of OmPuri in the climax of 'Aakrosh' and the stoic expression of Smita Patil in 'Bhumika', I forget every English movie I ever watched.
My soul might be wandering in a language-less world, my heart still lies in Hindi.

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