Languages have their own impact

This morning, the bus I boarded was quite a crowded one than the usual. I was standing and holding the bars, which was above my head so that I dont fall.

A lady , seated near the window got up to move to the front to get down from the bus, as the stop which she wanted to go was nearing. She was sitting near the window and she kept a big bag underneath her legs, when she got and moved from her place , another lady who was sitting beside her moved to the seat of the lady who was going to get down,so as to give room for the other passengers who were standing to sit in her place.

While moving to the seat near the window, she found the big bag which was kept by the one, who got up first. The second lady found the bag very inconvenient for her to keep her legs.

This lady yelled at the first lady in Tamil saying that she does not have sense to keep the bag here etc etc….the argument heated up, when the first lady used a 15 letter foul word in Tamil and the other lady who yelled first got up from the seat and tried hurting other one with her slippers and a lot of foul languages in Tamil were exchanged. Other people in the bus started agitating and a few came forward to stop the “Bajari sandai”( very commonly used in Tamil during such situations) It means big fight, I am very subtle in using big fight, as it is little worse than that.

I associate this scene to that in the Tamil movie ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’, where two heroines would verbally fight and use all possible foul language in English. But the fight scene in the movie did not have much impact as it was in English, but the meaning was same as used in bus today. But the impact of a regional language is more than a foreign one. I found it more glaring and I was very annoyed by the way the two women were fighting in the bus. I was also irritated in the same manner while watching the movie when such language was used, but was little discomfortable during the bus scene than in the movie.

I still remember, in school, my biology teacher told all of us in our class that “If I call you Buffalo , you will not take any offence , but it will not be the same if I say ‘Erumaimadu’, which means Buffalo in Tamil.

I have seen in lot of instances where people take a lot of offence when they are harassed in a regional language than a foreign one. For eg, people don’t mind when some one calls them a fool than Muttaalle( means fool in Tamil) ( I am taking example in Tamil , as I am not much fluent with other regional languages)


I have finally arrived or derived to complete this post is that human brain is tuned to be swadesi :)