jab we met ? or When we met or Jab ham mille?

hey all... me again.

you know the best thing about being in a foreign land is that you get to meet people from all walks of life and that too from the four corners of the world. well technically the world is round but let the blonds figure that one out.

And the first thing i realized after meeting some of them is that they are so very proud of their culture, their language in particular.

I mean you'd think that you would hear at least one English word that from them, like a place or something. Not that its scary that I dont know what they are talking about, but just beats the crap outa me. BTW it is scary.

But thats besides the point.

I realized it after meeting some people here, rather eavesdropping on some other immigrants speaking in a foreign language just to get a hint about the topic of discussion. ya i know thats rude, what are u gonna do? nothing.... i thought so.

Anyway, i met an Afghanistani elderly man on the bus the other day, who spoke with me in perfect urdu, complaining to me for some reason, about how the Muslims in Vancouver have lost touch with their origins, their language and concern themselves with "evil" things. And then he went into details which I really dont want to get into right now. lets just say, "all Americans will burn in hell."

And one thing i got from that conversation was that he was speaking in perfect urdu, that is to say that he did not use a single English word except for names of people, presidents and supermarkets. Although i didnt understand most of it, but it felt nice to talk to someone and know that all the other bastards didnt know we were bitching about them.

Then that made me realize that most of us Hindi/Punjabi speaking population dont really speak the language, we speak an amalgamated version of it. If you grab any teen from Delhi and ask him a simple question, the answer will be in Hinglish. you want proof? watch mtv or vh1 or what have you.

That is also true for Chandigarh's, Punjabi speaking, teen. For proof well... take my word for it.

And honestly it seems like an insult to the language. And i know many people my sister included, used to say just before moving to Punjab that " ugh, ill have to deal with Punjabi. oh god it sounds so illiterate. now I'm going to put some makeup on and dance around a little" scratch that last bit.

But i know many people are somewhat ashamed of it. somehow they feel that they will not blend in with the western culture.

But im not concerned with that, my main problem is that teens are neither speaking Hindi or English. Its like they are 'stuck' in the middle of a bridge, and instead of going either way, they have opened up a beach house there, and everyone is invited.

And the worst part is that most dont know either language to a respectable level. While the idea of developing a new language because you dont know the local language, seems ingenious, it really is stupid.

I was talking to my sister the other day and we made a deal that we would not talk in Hinglish. In fact we would speak only in Hindi.

2 sentences later we made a list of English words we need to find Hindi equivalents of.

If you want more examples, watch Japanese anime. they really screw with you.

Most of you (Abhay, Deepak) will point fingers at me and say that i myself dont know Punjabi. but atleast i admit it. and dont speak Pun-lish or Eng-abi or whatever. but really i am making an effort to learn Punjabi.

well thats that......

Tell you what, the next time you talk to your friends in Hindi, try to count the number of English words you used. you'll know what i'm talking about.

Ill leave with you this video. just watch the first 2 min. Rest is kinda stupid and anti India.

Just to be clear, i dont like this guy. He's a schizophrenic who managed to get a following.

I just like the urdu.

I'm just making a point..... :P