Friday, April 30, 2004

Hindi is weird O gultis..

I understand you, I completely understand you now O gultis of this world ! I now understand why you are so confused with this national language of ours - Hindi. And I shall try and never scold a gulti now for his wrong usage of this language.

Had this discussion with Aman, Sari and Taxi, and was completely blown over by the simple problems these poor gultis face (Taxi is a ghati , by the way!). There is no verb usage for a thing in Hindi. While one can make out that ladka aaya and ladki gayi, how does one know that ped kaata and lakdi giri ? For those of us who know the language well, it comes very naturally -- kind of a gut feeling. But for them, how do they decide ? What is the rule ? And I was bowled by their simple question.

And to add to it, we associate gender with words of English too, which are used commonly in Hindi. Therefore, how does a gulti know that bus chali and truck ruka ?!

And best is that ghaas kaati, but baans kaata !! Why ?!

Now at least I do not have an answer to it, except that it seems to be a gut feeling due to my close familiarity with the language for all my life. And I think it's fine if those poor souls do not have that gut feeling, as the rule behind it -- I don't know what it is. So my plea to the world is -- please do not scold a poor cute gulti who's trying to speak some Hindi !

Anyhow, am gonna find some Hindi stud and ask this to him first thing. It is something good, and I'd like to know that !

So gulti's of the world, rest in peace. Your Hindi is cool. :)

Ankur.