Read the editorial "English Endures" in yesterday's Times of India and couldn't agree more with it. It deals with how English as a language is going to be "the lingua franca for success in an interconnected world" to put it in the editor's words and that the parochial politics must be slapped down hard.
With the editorial as support, I take up on my pet peeve yet again – Bad English/SMS lingo. After all, no matter how well we as a country are placed in terms of no. of English-speakers, it's of not a very great use when the proportion of those who speak fluent (and may I add correct, grammatically sound) English is very low :-(
I never give up a chance to ridicule bad English. At my best behaviour, I'll let it go with a suggested correction. Needless to say, I'm not a very popular editor among my friends.
"SMS lingo" is an instant turn off, Facebook updates have to be at least grammatically correct, e-mails have to be properly punctuated and letters definitely have to be indented, justified and well-written. Information redundancy, the use or rather disuse of articles, improperly placed prepositions and unpunctuated sentences are all manifestations of poor language. There is no way I can say all of this without sounding like a snob. But then, if preferring a sandwich toasted isn't uptight, then why should preferring a semantically apt sentence be? The English language as I learned it from Ajoba, Baba and I dare forget my school Abhinava Vidyalaya, is dying slowly. I want to be all revolutionary and try to save it, but other than the occasional correction, I don't do anything.
I've begun to tolerate words like wat, wot, plz, bcoz, whr, fer, da, ma (Carnatic overtures?), rotflz, lolz (What is with the random letter addition at the end? How about lolg, rotflk?), skl (school), cud (not what the cow chews), wud (Scottish influence much?), l8r (I know alphanumerical, but whoa there...) and the icing on the cake - b, d, k, r, s, u, ur, v, y (be, the, ok, are, yes, you, your, we, why); just checking to make sure it takes me exactly one millisecond more to type the actual word! Even in the times of the telegraph, where each word cost the sender more, people didn't mess with spelling so much as we are doing it know.
With the advent of the computer, one would think that since it takes less time to correct mistakes (with software actually prompting spellings and offering grammar checks), people would make less of them. Baba was right in asking me to not expect things, especially from the technologically pampered. I still remember one of the earliest gifts he gave me - a Wren & Martin + a huge old lexicon which has been in circulation in the family through generations! For fear of it going out of publication, I have mine tucked away safely in a chest with other classics like Pu La's Vyakti aani Valli, Mario Puzo's The Godfather and such…
The day isn't far when there will be two types of English - official and colloquial. Further down the lane is a twenty page dictionary. Maybe a couple of hundred years from now we'll resort to hieroglyphics! Reminds me of this article that I wrote several months back about "Save the Vowels and the Spellings movement".
I know the 'Marathi manoos' is bound to jump on me after reading this propaganda; but be rest assured for my love and proficiency for Marathi isn't affected even one bit. Moreover, it's time for those with an insular attitude towards other languages (leave aside foreign languages, local languages too) to really ask themselves the question: How good are you people in Marathi then? Can you come up with a single flawless paragraph in it - written or spoken? Can you go beyond a certain vocab in Marathi? Are you even aware of any Marathi literature? Any of you even bother to read a Marathi newspaper? I know people opting for a Michael Jackson over Hridaynath Mangeshkar or Shrinivas Khale or Pt. Jeetendra Abhisheki. What more, people even give me the raised-eyebrow look for praising Saksham Kulkarni's acting prowess in the Marathi film Pak Pak Pakkak and least bothering about watching 2012. Phakta Jai Maharashtra mhanun kam nahi hot. "Nachta yeina angan wakda", asa jhalay thoda!
PS: Mala attach janavala ki lihinyachya oghat, me eka dagdat don pakshi marle"! :-)
