Juggling thoughts

As I traverse the length and breadth of India, I'm constantly reminded of the deep-seated regional biases that permeate our country. The recent media frenzy surrounding the Meghalaya murder case has once again exposed the tendency to judge fellow Indians based on their geographical origins.  I feel this media stance has amplified prejudices that has long being ingrained,and fueled divisions which isn't even necessary. The Blame Game: A Two-Way Street When incidents like this occur even in our states, we often resort to blaming entire communities or regions. Unfortunately, people from the North-East , including me, are not immune to this behavior either, frequently stereotyping every Bihari, every Punjaban, every Bengali, every Miyas and to an extent that every one from UP, MP, Maharashtra,Rajasthan are all non-local Biharis 😄. We sensationalize and generalize, attributing negative traits to entire groups. But it's not every North-Easterners who do that. So are no mainlande...

 That morning, the city woke in steady rain I can't really stop to care about, when I saw that boy. The one with a chicken-plucked look across the rail track: his hairs were tufted circle on top. He was that caught my eyes in the madding crowd. He seemed even to know his place as unworthy striver, of the one no one would look away from for long. He lifted his sack to collect rags: a ticket to buy his bread.  The train was on the run but that would not stop him from collecting every bit of rag. People passed by him, pushing, dashing and the other boys smirked before the rain that was dousing and sweeping all of the rags stupidly into the gutter. I was half in love with his doing. Nine, or maybe ten he would be. He then twitched in sublime irritation, cursing, maybe ,the rain. Harder it poured, up again, hard to shelter his soaking head with the sack but he pretty much managed problems, and now came the move that got me staring on still. His twitch becalmed at last and he stoo...

 I once taught English to Korean students in Guwahati, and they asked, 'What kind of English do Indians speak? It doesn't sound American or British.'  I jokingly replied, 'We speak "Hin-lish" in India, a mix of Hindi and English with our regional languages.' As a Naga, I added that I speak "Nag-lish," influenced by my Naga-Lotha dialect. I asked them what they thought was the universal standard of English. Is it American or British? It is neither. Communication is about expressing ourselves clearly, not about perfect accents. Many students struggle with confidence due to fears of not sounding 'right.' There is no 'right' way to speak English – clarity and basic grammar are what matter. Using complex vocabulary like Shashi Tharoor's might impress some, but if your audience doesn't understand, communication fails. Effective communication is about being understood, not really about how good the accent is or to showcase your v...