February 21! It used to be a truly hectic day for us all in the PNG Language Lab. Yes, it used to be the World Mother Tongue Day! Year after year, often in the company of the Cultural/Heritage Department, we created, we designed, we staged a programme that celebrated the languages, especially the mother tongues.
In a way, the World Mother Tongue Day praxis begins in the Dhaka University, and the ill-treatment meted out to the local Bangla language.
Though our celebration of the day undoubtedly respected this tragedy, we were more in to the glorification of and respect for the mother tongue, much ignored, much taken for granted. We made all present in the Tata or the Cyrus Hall use different languages other than the immediate mother tongue. It used to be great fun. I have already written about one such extremely praise worthy performance.
Well, this year, i shall remind each one of my students to appreciate the relevance of the day. May be, that would give some solace to the languages literally dying by the second across this wide world of ours! Long live all the mother tongues of the whole world!
Pratima@ Who lives if the mother tongue dies? And who dies if the mother tongue lives!
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