One cannot deny the fact that certain expressions find a way of being more strongly expressed in certain languages. The most direct reason can be the richness of vocabulary that these different languages carry, to allow one to convey a certain sentiment in most accurate and direct manner.
The above argument is rooted in many conversations that I have had with people in a professional or social context.
For me the only two languages I can call myself modestly conversant in, are Hindi and English(real bitch I tell you). The other two languages I am very fond of are Bhojpuri and Bengali, and proudly admit to have mastered the expletives and colloquial terms in both. But beyond that I can only understand the routine exchanges in them and no more. For example in bhojpuri, 'mehraru' is 'wife', and 'gadaraya' is somewhere close to 'voluptuous'. Well I guess you get the idea of how I learn.
Coming back to the comparison of conveying a sentiment in the two languages I am comfortable with, I find that for obvious reasons Hindi always has helped me to connect with people when I didnt have to bother about the element of sophistication or propriety of articulation . In short, Hindi gave me the dude quota in my friend list. This is the language between friends, the nurturer of empathy and trust and understanding that brings two troubled souls close and makes them connect. This is how one can open up to a friend saying, " Abe yaar meri waali ko wo Mech wala pasand hai.. abe ab nehli nahi aayi to kahan se laayein.. ", and you go like, " (mother sister invocation.... ) jaane de be.. gayi to gayi.. tu daru lega ya beer ?" .. Now imagine this conversation in English, and you will appreciate the distance that comes in, for the fact that even after giving GRE twice and practically swallowing Barron's GRE guide like a potion, you still find yourself fumbling in your head for the right word to come at the right moment, and by that time the moment is gone. Phrases like " Man, i can understand.... life is tough... it is what it is.. Bugger !!!. ", sound too incongruous or farcical in such situations.
It is not just in personal encounters that Hindi has been merciful, but also in many professional encounters it has been a saving grace. In many such exchanges of which few I can remember, whenever I had to confront a person of a far reaching insight and academic wisdom, I had to resort to being the desi rustic to convince him of my ignorance. One such case is whenever I am discussing a technical issue with my teacher(s), they would get very passionate and emphatic about the topic and start throwing jargon like cannon balls, and cannon balls hurt like hell I tell you. So if he starts to go like , "..yeah the natural way in which such invariances manifest in a theory are the result of certain symmetries... blah blah blah... " , I answer with a very honest and modest, " Sir, ye root 2 hoga ya minus root 2.. ?", and would keep looking at his face with the curiosity of an imbecile. Such moments of glory would leave the other guy pretty much baffled and frustrated, for I can see the look on his face, a look of pity mixed with surprise at the sheer level of incapacity at display. But all is well that ends well, for he now has to come down from the higher rungs of enlightened genius to tell me.." minus hone se to galat ho jayega.. isliye plus hoga..". And that would be my eureka moment.
But all this is said not to belittle the virtues of English. English is the language of the elites and more importantly pseudo elites. If you have read Camus, or Kafka or for that matter wiki quotes on Camus and Kafka, start farting your interpretation of them wherever and whenever you can. English is the only language in which you can talk about the ' vagaries of life' and the ' element of anguish in human existence' to the dame sitting cross legged before you, mistaking you for a street romeo, before you start hammering her confidence and judgement with words like ' counterproductive' , 'incognito', or 'insinuation', if you can remember all these.
But even after all is said and done, I still feel Hindi makes it close and intimate for me, just as anyone's mother tongue does for him/her. It is the medium to express and bare your troubled soul, not the charming and structured facade of a persona, but the real you. I cannot in my sane mind imagine one to be praising his wife of ten years with words like " you look pretty in that blue sari..". No Sir. No can do. For me it has to be like, " Kya bulbul.. aaj to katal hi kar dogi lagta hai.." This is what intimate is to me. Honest and to the point. But as they say, to each his own.
Kyun bhaiya.. theek ba na ?
