'Transient global amnesia'
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I had to write this after reading all those tweets and posts about the new government's move to make all official communication in Hindi, with Tamil Nadu being an exception.
A few days ago, I encountered a moment which a few hours later I thought was like a Murakami character. Loss of language, tongue, memory whatever it might be...not getting into a psycho analysis of that.
Asian Paradise Flycatcher, what is it called in Hindi, sure I didn't know. But had to make daughter write about five Indian birds in Hindi, a difficult task because either I didn't know the words or my memory failed.
Googling helped - figured out from one site that Asian Paradise Flycatcher the rufous one is called Husainin Bulbul or Shah Bulbul and the male white one Sultan Bulbul. Lovely names, should write in poetic terms I thought.
For, only recently I had seen them all over Gir forest, painting it bright with their lovely flight from one tree to another. When, the rufous one flew the red was as if a small streak of fire passed from one side of the road to other. But, the challenge was how to translate this in Hindi.
I couldn't come up with a single line. First I thought how poor my Hindi vocabulary is, will an English-Hindi dictionary help. Then, I wanted to construct the sentences first in Tamil and then maybe translate them into Hindi. That is when I started panicking. I couldn't write in Tamil as well. Is it failure of memory, or languages or words just fading away from me.
English was slightly better, but good enough for someone who studied literature long years ago. No deep words, no poetic sentence could I construct.
What would happen if I lost the ability to read, write or even speak. "சித்திà®°à®®ுà®®் கைப்பழக்கம் செந்தமிà®´ுà®®் நாப்பழக்கம்" - maybe not reading enough, not writing enough has an impact on one's mind. The mind loses its sharpness, its touch to grasp, to translate - or if I could think that I should write then in which language was I thinking? puzzle.
What is language, what is thought, getting ito deeper questions. Years of writing business news stories perhaps blunted my ability - a limited vocabulary was enought to pass the test.
Perhaps, the inhibition to write on any other subject also comes from this, lacking expression, words.
A few days ago, I encountered a moment which a few hours later I thought was like a Murakami character. Loss of language, tongue, memory whatever it might be...not getting into a psycho analysis of that.
Asian Paradise Flycatcher, what is it called in Hindi, sure I didn't know. But had to make daughter write about five Indian birds in Hindi, a difficult task because either I didn't know the words or my memory failed.
Googling helped - figured out from one site that Asian Paradise Flycatcher the rufous one is called Husainin Bulbul or Shah Bulbul and the male white one Sultan Bulbul. Lovely names, should write in poetic terms I thought.
For, only recently I had seen them all over Gir forest, painting it bright with their lovely flight from one tree to another. When, the rufous one flew the red was as if a small streak of fire passed from one side of the road to other. But, the challenge was how to translate this in Hindi.
I couldn't come up with a single line. First I thought how poor my Hindi vocabulary is, will an English-Hindi dictionary help. Then, I wanted to construct the sentences first in Tamil and then maybe translate them into Hindi. That is when I started panicking. I couldn't write in Tamil as well. Is it failure of memory, or languages or words just fading away from me.
English was slightly better, but good enough for someone who studied literature long years ago. No deep words, no poetic sentence could I construct.
What would happen if I lost the ability to read, write or even speak. "சித்திà®°à®®ுà®®் கைப்பழக்கம் செந்தமிà®´ுà®®் நாப்பழக்கம்" - maybe not reading enough, not writing enough has an impact on one's mind. The mind loses its sharpness, its touch to grasp, to translate - or if I could think that I should write then in which language was I thinking? puzzle.
What is language, what is thought, getting ito deeper questions. Years of writing business news stories perhaps blunted my ability - a limited vocabulary was enought to pass the test.
Perhaps, the inhibition to write on any other subject also comes from this, lacking expression, words.
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