Baabe di full kirpa

English-Vinglish

'British diplomats in India are learning Hindi to develop a deeper understanding of the country and to identify business opportunities for British firms – BBC news item'.

Firangis have completed full circle. They were looking for business opportunities without learning Hindi 150 years ago & coming again this time equipped with Hindi to identify business opportunities!

Last time they were keen that every Hindustani learnt English & left without learning Hindi. And now?

It’s business stupid!

I gather from internet that there are 6912 ‘main’ languages in the world. Hindi is spoken by 4.46% of world population i.e. by approx 300 million people & by number ranks 5th in the world. And in India there are 22 official languages. As per one estimate there are 398 living languages & nearly 2000 dialects in India.

For deeper understanding of any country learning their language is a good tool. Now any language has alphabet, grammar & phonetics or spoken words. As regards alphabet English & Hindi have similar styles as both are not pictorial like Mandarin. But a few differences are there – Hindi ‘ta’ as in Tandoor or ‘tu’, Hindi ‘da’ sound as in ‘Dada’, Hindi da as in ‘Vada’ or in ‘chidia’ are missing in English. Nasal sound as in ‘kyon’ or ‘Doston mein’ is missing in English, Pnwaar becomes Panwar, Kunwar becomes Kan wara etc.

Another peculiarity a Firangi must understand about Hindi is dual words spoken frequently such as Khana-vana, Chota-mota, Aana-jaana, Dekha-bhala, Davaa-daaru or even English-vinglish!

He may learn good, grammatically correct, bookish Hindi in Goraland & land up in Delhi having following dialogue. It is doubtful if he would understand the reply in FULL:

Firangi: Aapkaa kiyaa haal haaii?

Yours Truly: Baabe di full kirpa jee!