Language at it’s Kerala best!!!

In the previous post I did try to bring out the differences that one can face in a single language. Which is why people may not understand each other despite knowing the same language. These differences are cultural and group specific.

Kerala is a state in India which uses Malayalam as it’s official language. Obviously the use of a single language should not bring about much confusion. But the way Malayalam is spoken in different parts of Kerala is indeed confusing with people finding it difficult to understand each other.

Mimicry has been a cultural activity which is now a part of a genre which is entertaining and thought provoking. For entertainment purposes certain things are bloated out of proportion but never the less the point is driven home. One similar performance outlines the Thrissur (a town in Kerala) slang. (http://www.youtube.com/user/malayalamcomedyyoutu#play/all)

The setting is a court room with the advocate examining a witness in a stab case. The witness gives his version of what happened… “Eecha kadayude kadai keri eecha navadi- therikkan nokunna machu ennu paranjapam chullanu kalichille- ee gadi oru boost ittu koduthille- appo matte gaddi oru bush ittu- oru jathi show ishta- gum ennu nenchil kittiyappol chullan madhillil veenu wall post aayille- ee chekkan chavarinaduthu paranjatha ee spot sheriyalla, skoot aakan nokan- avide, chullan skoot aayilla- ee gediye chindha padundo therichonnu, ellenkil medeyiyonnu- last-il pettiyinnu chuvannavanu pathiye vannu ara pacha thangiyappol chappada round vendannu kenji paranju eshta- oru kizhi kittiyappol avande arayil dushma veeshi andam kundam nokathe kuppiyeduthu pallayil otta keerangu keeri- panchayat pipe pottiyapole alle chora cheetiyathu.”

A bold but not accurate translation of this would be “one guy tried to act smart with another fellow and they traded words (beautifully put by using the words boost and bush)- it was a show off- the guy got it on his chest and flew to the wall (became a wall post on the wall)- we told the guy that this place is not good and so beat it (words used are spot sheriyalla and skoot) but he did not go- we told him not to fight a losing battle- but he took a bottle and stabbed the guy without a care- blood sprayed out as if from a panchayat (village) water pipe.”

For many in Kerala this won’t be a language that they will understand and yet it is Malayalam! And it is a way of speaking Malayalam with a special energy and bringing life to the language itself. This then is the concept of how a language is accepted by a people and eventually made their own. Indeed, language at it’s Kerala best!

Humans are story tellers: The power of the narrative and the Mumbai attack.

Picture: www.storycenter.org
‘Tell me a story mummy’, she said as she was being tucked in to sleep. And then her mummy did just that. Every night it didn’t matter whether the story changed a lot. Mummy just had to be sure that there was a twist here and a turn there. As children we loved to hear stories from our parents. Mostly our sweet mom’s would take the burden upon themselves to entertain us. It is a fact that we like and love stories, that everything of essence which is of value to us, is in the form of a story. Our scriptures, our history, our talks are all story telling.

The November, 2008 Mumbai attack has brought everything into the open for a reluctant but precise post mortem. The media joined the elaborate exercise only to realise that it could not escape from being the object of scrutiny. The allegations against the media are that it made the attack into a soap opera, it sensationalised this particular event while ignoring others, the emotion of the people was commoditized and it put the army and commando’s at risk.

I won’t go into all this but would rather like to talk of what humans like to do and want to hear. My journalism teacher Fr. Michael Traber would keep reminding his class that ‘humans are story tellers.’ Keeping the initial objection to this aside, we realised that it was indeed true. As preachers and teachers it helps a lot to tell people stories as they want to hear them and relate with them.

The coverage of the Mumbai attack by the media was also a case of story telling to entertain and make us think as well. The story teller has mainly two things on mind. One to make sure we listen. Two to give a message. For this, tried and tested narrative formula’s are used. The Mumbai attack coverage followed a simple formula. One, the attack itself, the hostages and the pain, tension and sorrow related with it. Two, the wait for justice through a saviour/s. Three, the coming of the saviour/s (in the form of the black clothed NSG commando’s). Four, tilting the balance again in favour of good as over against evil. Five, debating the lessons uncovered from the narrative. (This could take any form).

It is then true that after we criticize the media we should also look at ourselves. There is a saying in Malayalam which is translated as ‘What the patient desired and what the doctor prescribed is milk.’ So, we have to debate the collective responsibility we share in the running of our country rather than blaming one group after the other and then forgetting all about it again. It is also a time for studying the stories and narratives we propagate and whether they serve the purposes that we need or whether it is time to think about counter narratives and stories.

Beware of dogs!!!

One of the greatest days of a seminary student’s life is when he (unfortunately not ‘she’ yet, in a majority of Kerala and India) gets to wear the white robe of power. The white cassock which will open doors, attract people, and be a new life in itself for the person concerned.

The new pastor/priest who gets to wear the inferred cloth of greatness, many a time gets carried away with the concept. It is used to grab power, impose rules on a hapless people and erects a human being over and above everything (the concerned bishop would of course disagree:)).

My gaze turns towards one such pastor/priest. “His wait was over. What he had prayed for, and worked for was finally his. He felt a great transformation. In his white-y white cassock (maybe bluish white, because of the special cloth whitener used for washing it) he could feel the world was now revolving around him.”

As is customary, the mighty pastor/priest took his rounds to meet his subjects. He sometimes went un-announced, sometimes called to say “I am coming”, and sometimes went as an after thought, when the sexton (church assistant/helper) told him, “That is also one of our houses.” He thus “came, saw and conquered.”

What according to the pastor/priest was a very successful campaign so far then took him to a huge house with a huger gate. On it was a board, “Beware of dogs.” The sexton was sceptical but the pastor/priest would have nothing of it. “I have conquered the seven seas, all the people have bowed before my power, what is a dog going to do?!!”

Saying this he marched into the compound. There was silence and then………Aiyo..aiyo..aiyo (a Malayalam usage suggesting “Oh my”, or an alarm call). The pastor/priest, followed by the sexton, were running back towards the gate, the pastor/priest holding up his cassock and the sexton with his ‘mundu’ (dhoti)folded up. Following them with loud barks was a full grown Doberman, with its teeth exposed in full ferocity.

In one act of aggression, albeit not planned, the pastor/priest was brought back to earth from his heavenly existence. In one moment he understood that a cassock does not give one indemnity from all things in the world. An animal thus taught the pastor/priest what no human ever imagined to do……………………………………………… (Background score………. “Who let the dog/s out….woof… woof.. woof..woof.”)


(This is neither purely fiction nor purely reality. The young pastor/priest could be "me"......or "you.")

“Dubara mat poochna…don’t ask again…” (part 2)

To understand a nation and its people we have to look at the various culture industries and its tributaries. This is because the culture industries reflect the length and breadth of the people. Marx had other notions, placing the culture industries in the same conduit of economic forces in society. My blog yesterday put advertisements into perspective, each into a separate category. Categorization is problematic but unavoidable as well.
Advertisements form a part (some say the part that powers the media) of the media, which in turn is a part of the culture industry of the nation. So, advertisements reflect how society is moving forward (or backwards as some would like to say). To the run up to the independence day we can extract some meaning from these ads, which lead us to what India has developed into and what still remains unchanged despite all other claims.
India has been an oral culture (things have changed over the years). We do not necessarily write down what we have on mind (there are exceptions now), but we like to share it never the less. This is done through poems, songs and stories. Priyadarshan, a Malayalam director cum producer who then ventured into Hindi cinema was asked whether India could get rid of its song sequences in movies. He replied in the negative saying that songs and their cinematisation are what makes Indian cinema Indian. The vicks ad leads in this direction. We like verbal repetitions and therefore a catchy one-liner for the ad.
India despite being a country of diversity has been able to come together at times of war, calamity and sports. This is due to the patriotism which still exists in the minds of the public and how it is twisted and used by the media. Amul, the taste of India gives us an identification that we might be North Indian, North East Indian or South Indian, but we are ‘Indians’. So patriotism may have its low ebbs, but it comes back into the picture when it matters.
Globalisation has made changes the world over and similarly in India. Its negative outcome has been to sow doubts in our minds about what is good and bad. Coca-cola could be one of the companies who use marketing as a way of re-inventing concepts in the minds of the people. Doubt causes a void and the company tries to fill this void. India in this sense goes through a questioning of concepts syndrome.
In the midst of change certain things remain unchanged. Two of these are patriarchy and caste and class discrimination. The ads of Bajaj Pulsar and the like are full of male idealisms of power, strength, class and uniqueness making out the male species as ‘the’ species in the world today. What we use reflects what we believe in. Caste and class discrimination follows the same route. We may have come a long way, but certain things remain rock solid and stubborn.
What we have seen above is an India which has evolved from an oral culture (not entirely), with its patriotic sense but changing concepts and ideals, and having managed to continue with the discriminations that continue to haunt the world today.
India is trying to build a new image for itself. More participation in the affairs of the country (as being asked by Rahul Gandhi and other young political leaders) is being mooted and encouraged, but we also face a very impatient population of more than half of India, the youth. The picture is murky for the time being and therefore we cannot make grandiose statements about India as we climb the podium for the all important independence day, not yet anyway.