Looking Indian...being Indian...

Writer Sujatha

Hello...

Last night I was watching a wonderful talk show.The topic also, was one of my favorites;it was a debate between internet addicts and noobs. Many nice points and many new angles to the debate were given. At the end of the show, the addicts won! Which took me by surprise, coz here in India, especially in this state, Tamil Nadu, the internet is not so much into the lives of the people. It is still a commodity that only the elite and the tech savvy have discovered. The possibilities are endless but, people somehow miss out on all those and end up giving generic duties to the internet...like a teenager uses it exclusively for social networking...facebook or orkut...two of the numberous sites that are popular here in the south...parents use it to find a bride or a groom for their son/daughter (I'll talk about this later) ,and for the rest, it's either porn or email. 

So no one here is bothered about what else is possible. I see 8 year old kids who are perfectly comfortable with a windows PC and maintain such professional-looking facebook and orkut pages. Yet, many here, don't fully discover anything about the internet. And I have to point fingers to the IT sector. Usually, guys and gals who get into this sector are supposed to be tech savvy, but the grim reality is that most aren't good enough with word processors,but they can code programs for like forever.

I'm a mechanical engineer, and I rate myself as a decent blogger and a social networking addict, whereas many of my peers who work in IT and allied don't even know what a blog is!! Of course, this is not a crime, but word processors and spreadsheets?...hmmm... inexcusable.

The show had wonderful points. One of the main accusations from the opposing team was that most libraries aren't digitized yet. Well I can gladly answer that question. The answer begins from another question of how serious tamilians are about tamil.

Half a year back, myself and my friend Muthu were staying at a hotel in Chennai for our engineering project. And it so happened we were staying next to a whole group of dental surgery students who have come here for a presentation. We were jobless, and so decided to hang out by the door and look at those guys and gals like as if they were zoo animals. True...there were nice gals,  (only some of them) but I found something else interesting. These dentists were talkin in Hindi,and I don't know so much Hindi. I was trying to make out what they were saying. That is when I felt a bit ashamed and amazed too at the same time. 

In the 15 plus minutes of their wait for the elevator, I couldn't find even a word in english..naturally I was searching for known words, but nope...unsuccessful. They were even referring to many technical stuff,I'm sure, but still, they were comfortable with Hindi. 

If the same group was tamil, there would be almost a 15-20% inclusion of foreign words...english or hindi. Many here,especially teenagers,think it's uncool to talk fully in tamil. I have personally faced many bizarre looks when I use archaic words and try to talk fully in tamil. Sometimes I feel like a total jackass,but hey...atleast I know a few words more than the rest of 'em. So I move on.

So coming back to our issue, the libraries would be digitized if tamil internet explodes first....which in my opinion,will never happen. Even presently, wikipedia and google is available in tamil. Well, I don't think anyone uses them. Why is that you ask? Because most of the technical terms like save,forward,history etc. sound so lame in tamil. Anyway that is how it should be...you can't expect cool sounding names to key computer operations.I would say these lame translations may have resulted due to a poor technical and mainstream vocabulary. Now I'm not saying there ain't enough words, but there ain't enough technical words..surely not enough to teach engineering in tamil. Teaching physics in tamil itself is a nigthmare...so forget engineering.

One of my favorite writers is Sujatha. Besides being a writer, and an engineer, notable credit goes to him for introducing many technical terms to the tamil world and for coining many new terminologies in tamil. Nanotechnology for example has a cool name in tamil. (I'm sorry my memory fails me at times). So such vocabulary enrichments are not happening on a wide scale. The rate of growth of technical vocabulary is expected to be comparable with the growth rate of new technology. Only then can one expect any kind of technical writings in tamil.

Only after this happens, a bulk of the tamil youth can get a sense of belonging to tamil. Otherwise,tamil will just be left out due to it's inefficient process of extension of words. Now, one can question about digital libraries. Yes, with today's technology, its quite possible, but tamil scholars don't have enough technical know-how to convert a book into a pdf or something. The focus now turns to the youth and the vast number of IT employees. It is to be noted, that I'm not accusing IT for all this, but surely IT lifestyle has brought down interest in tamil. I'm expecting to meet a blogger,who belongs to IT and blogs around in tamil.It is these techie geniuses who have to take steps to ensure that nice scriptures and manuscripts aren't lost into the depths of a dusty old library building. Trust me, there are many people who want to read things in tamil. I,for example, would be delighted to see a copy of Sujatha's books online. Incidentally, Sujatha being a futuristic man, has made arrangements for that too. So now, I'm happy. 

There is a general dogma that tamil speakers are uncool among the youth,and now I can extend this sect to hotel security guards too.Recently,one of my friends was in need of an information about a hotel's tariff. So I,being a good friend,walked into that hotel to get him the same. I walked up to this security guard and asked him in a fairly feeble voice about where I can get info on tariffs and pricing. And I don't know if it was the way I was dressed,my walk, or the way I looked, but he was barking at me and treating me like some third world alien. Keen, on getting the information, I walk in,finish my job, on the way out, I catch the guard and bluntly ask him about his behavior,and as expected he profusely apologizes for his mistake. But it still left me puzzled and urged me to draw this prompt conclusion that one is judged by the quality of language that he uses. It certainly meant that I talked in pure tamil, which was not getting me any respect,and maybe another guy who talked half baked english might get the kind of attention that originally I deserved. If this is the state, I am forced to believe that the tamil language cannot extend into the future. It will soon,in the course of a few hundred years,become just another language. 

Appearances do count in today's society. I want to dress up like a 16 year old, I try and fail disastrously, but still,that's how I want to portray myself. My father is a banker. He meets so many odd people daily. Generally, bankers are considered as soft people who just live life to spend time on this earth. But my dad has his thing for bikes. He always looks for power and speed. To him, it's all about the quality performance that one can expect from a bike or a car. 

So one day this two wheeler salesman met my dad and my dad was asking him for suggestions. And judging from my father's profession and looks, he suggests a moped...for which my dad replied,as usual, that he needs a powerful bike. Similarly, all politicians go for SUV's and MUV's no matter what.So what does this imply? People go for stereotypes which are even based on looks. First it was race, then religion,class of people, now occupation and looks is a serious cause of branding someone? Is such a generalization even correct to some degree?

Discrimination is a national disease....a disease contracted way back due to division of sects based on profession. Yes, no one expected it to become such a huge poison of society, but now, on one side, there are many inter-sect marriages, but on the other side,there are these clans who in an attempt to not losing their identity as a caste or whatever, force themselves into serious in-breeding. This is in no way helping society,rather just encourages other groups to 'save' themselves from the mixing happening around. Actors are taken for granted here. From what I have experienced, actors who take on supporting roles,comedians,and serious villains, and so well read,more humane,and very intelligent. Some examples,to quote a few, are comedian Vivek ( can play keyboards,and a nice thinker),villain Nambiyar (personally I think he is a better human being than M.G.Ramachandran) and finally, comedian Veniradai Moorthy (only yesterday I realized that he's a great mind too!). So these seemingly dumb people,have so much to contribute to the world, but they are branded as dumb people, so even if they come out with good writings,they will be readily neglected by the masses.

And I have lost faith on today's youth. I know...I belong to that pathetic section of society too. But I think the youth of yesterday may not have had so much of knowledge on computers, the way the went out on dates, etc. But sure, they knew their priorities in life and knew how to take decisions. How many of us,so called youth, would like to become mayor or president? How many worthy men and women have that dream? Okay...lets not go too far. How many of you guys out there seriously want to get into the armed forces? Even if we want to, parental and societal pressure always wins. Pathetic.

Today's children,especially girls in tamil homes, and so pampered that they lose the ability to make worthwhile decisions. When they enter the nation's workforce,and are forced to leave home and lead an independent life, they suffer. Boys are no exception too. When will this sorry state change? Or rather...will this change? We Indians build bombs, launch rockets,steal most of the jobs in the world;but lack in moral values, basic ethical principles and etiquette What is happening to the quality of men and women in this country?

Still wondering...