Look at the title yet again. "English as we do the talking of her". Confused? Well, yes, i, too was. Believe me though! There are geniuses who come up with such gems!
Literal translation of Marathi/Hindi the horrid 'sentence' is. Believe me, there are people, highly educated at that, with a Ph.D. in English literature/linguistics, moreover, who produce such wonders as the sentence above or "come and do signature"!
In a well-known college, known once upon a time for its Dept. of English, once this lady, the Head, asked me to "put your sign on the backside." Honestly, I was thoroughly confused, given the ribald implication staring at me, and especially because my preferences are absolutely straight.
More fun was to follow. Another senior professor, too, was to be 'involved' in the 'procedure'. She sent me on an errand. "Go, call Sir. He did the sign only on front. Forgot backside." Dutifully I asked the great guy to see "Ma'am".
He was irritated as he was in a tearing hurry. Said he,"Which backside? What backside? Show me the backside. I do the sign fast"!!! I have not as yet fathomed the strength within me which helped me not to burst out laughing, rolling on the ground with unbridled mirth.
People murder English every moment they choose to use it. "According to me", "more better", "let us gather for a party", "collecting postal addresses of all faculty members with their phone numbers" are dropped like birdseed, with nary a consideration for the decent, correct usage. Full of ambiguities and ambivalences, for example, the sentence quoted here is.
How do people go for a Ph.D. with such a 'hold' over English? They, moreover, have the gall to blame their circumstances. Everybody has huge difficulties of all sorts in the personal arena. Why tomtom such constructs? Instead, why not spend a year working thoroughly on the basics of English, and only then think of a Ph.D.?
Let me give you my own example. I know Japanese rather well. I have studied it up to a level of proficiency which can be considered equivalent to M.A.-I. My score was a decent Distinction. Even then, I will not think of a Ph.D. in Japanese.
Even if I were to go for it because some lucrative position was on the anvil, I would spend at least six months (or even a year) working on, improving my Japanese. I would surely not blame my origins, my so-called poverty, and so on. As it is, if I could study up to my post graduation, it would mean that there was a support system in place.
Why play the victim card? Who stops you from working on yourself or from improving your usage and grammar of the language at least for thirty minutes a day? Why be, for example, a Science student with a doctorate in microbiology if you cannot understand the fact that the contents of two brands of analgesics produce the same result!
Such examples ruin the very meaning of a doctorate, and belittle the very concept of education, confirming the general perception that doctorates are for sale! In brief, such scholars may think of themselves as great successes earning huge salaries, moreover; but they reduce the very concept of education in to a total failure.
Pratima@True, the English ruled India very harshly. Does that mean we should ride rough shod over English via inane usage such as "don't open your mouth", moreover, calling our own poor grammar/usage as 'Indian English', all along glorying in our status and wealth, while all the while, we '"do the talking and talking of English"! What usage, huh!?!
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