Remember the title of that ShahRukh film, "Main hun na?" Actually, propah Allahabadi speakers of ideal Hindi would find that question cringeworthy as it is the typical Bambaiya Hindi. Compared with it, our titular question is absolutely okay.
It does open up a very important issue, moreover. Most all Indians love to hate English in public, though they crave for it in private. As a result, in a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual country like ours, English is the lingua franca.
Actually, we do have a link language of our own. That is Hindi. On the Hindi Day at least, people need to acknowledge it. Yet given the Indian tendency to politicise everything, it has become a bone of contention between the South and the North. The southerners consider the use of Hindi an imposition, it seems. Personally I believe though that such an attitude widens gulfs that could engulf our unity, our togetherness.
As a result of such bickerings, the three language formula dithered at the school level, and we have managed to produce users who speak their own mother tongue with a dash of Hindi, given the bollywoodisation of the very existence. So neither are such dodos good at the mother tongue nor at Hindi. Their English is nothing much to write, forget home, anywhere about!
Actually, Hindi has its own sweet allure. Most Hindi speakers have a very polite lingo. Listening to 'native' speakers of Hindi, whether it be the shudh Sanskrit version of the Allahabad type or the urduised Lucknow variety, Hindi is real sweet on ears.
The gangajamani Dakhni of Hyderabad is hilarious though. Wanna know why? They use a combo of Urdu, Hindi, Marathi, with some Punjabi. In Dakhani, they say "nakko" and "hau" (it sounds like the English 'how') for 'no' and 'yes' respectively.
Let us end our celebration of Hindi with the Dakhani juban. A Britisher comes to Hyderabad as he has heard a lot about the Charminar. He reaches quite near the four minarets. Since he has come such a long way off, he just wants to be quite sure. A typical Hyderabadi Mianji is passing by. The British fellow asks him"Is this the Charminar?" Prompt comes the answer "hau". The British fellow is quite surprised. He repeats the question. The answer is repeated, too. The question-answer session goes on for quite some time, getting angrier by the minute! Finally, irritated, both go their own ways! That is the Babel of babble for you!
Pratima@ "A nation is dumb without a state language," said Gandhiji. Absolutely!
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