Where are the roots?

The weirdest thing happened today, me along with my friend went to an institute for some promotional marketing deal of our upcoming workshop, and post that on our way down to the building we came across this man or let’s say we came across this another institute, named as, “Oxford English House” with the slightest idea of what’s waiting for us in there. With a sceptical and reluctant perception, we entered and were then asked to sit and wait for the “Sir” to come.

1 minute and 30 seconds and we were called by an ‘Old Youngman’ cherishing in his 70’s who gave us a rigid yet welcoming look. His fragile yet alive expression made us start our pitching process, but before we could have said anything, we were preceded by his ‘wanting to tell’ us tale about, ‘What a language means to us?” and in around 2 minutes and 45 seconds, we were thrilled to our roots. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, roots I said and as we are forgetting it already, I am very much sure that this might have sounded strange and unfit here. Right? But, apparently, this is the problem that we are facing nowadays. Must be thinking, “thoda off track chala gaya” Right? Wait, read more and you will get it.

So, the conversation was about how all that depth, all that warmth and wisdom of education is lost lately and how education is no more a service but has turned into a business. His intensity of speak had such a vigour and profundity for the issue as he made us witness his various researches and projects on children education that he has done pertaining to English language and its learning. Not just English was his concern, but he did have a thing for it when he said that all we do now is “a mere translation” and know nothing about its true essence. He affirms his theory by portraying a child’s learning ability as an infant when he learns to talk and speak without any formal teaching of grammar. He said that "भाषा लिखने या पढ़ने से नहीं बल्कि बोलने और देखने से सीखी जाती है"and regretted on the current education system wherein even graduates in Engineering or Medical or Business, or any other prestigious courses, lacks the basic knowledge of “Spoken English”. On asked about his inspiration for this institute, well it tracked back to almost years when he came to Jaipur from a small town of Jhunjhunu and found it hard to speak and communicate in English.

“The situation back then was very different, I even had a colleague who did MA in English but even he found it difficult to impart this knowledge and this was then, when it occurred to me, that it’s not the grammar or technicalities that need to be mastered rather that art which goes behind it, most likely as a born infant” he added.

Well, after around 30 minutes or so, we took his leave but that left us both in a strange awe and amazement and here I am writing about it to tell the world about him.

..and there it all began; a 15 minutes ride back from that place, we paused at a café, Tapri, on our way back; known for its peculiar ambience which I guess was a cherry on our cake of thoughts which I would like to share with you all.

(PS: Do visit to Tapri, if you ever come to Jaipur City. PPS: No I have not given any money for it xD)

So let’s not move away from the zone, Right? The conversation with that old Youngman made me think that how ironical is our society, that are we even actually evolving or are deteriorating? Do we need all that modern life and technology? Is it even making things easy for us or are we getting blindfolded and trapped by it every day?

Just think for a moment that what good are all those high-end technology and development if we find it hard to even strike a “real” conversation with someone. It’s quite ironical that on one end we talk about reviving our culture and tradition and values but on the same hand, we are losing those roots, those depths where it all came from. Our generation has this obsession of getting everything quick and our insanity has gone to such an extent that we even want our foods to be FAST.

Lately, there’s this strange and naïve artistic vibes of travelling or writing or blogging among youngsters these days, which is quite evident from every other wannabe unique social being uploading his/her status as “Travelling gives me solace. #Wanderlust”. Not that I am against any of those, in fact even I am a great admirer of travelling, but all I am saying is aren’t we losing all that depth that should exist before getting the real meaning and essence of the word, ‘Solace’; for instance we want to become writers but are reluctant to read, we want to be good orators and speakers but lack those basic listening abilities.

This thought ignited an entirely different perspective in me and that is the ‘Generation Gap’. We often talk about it and how our parents are unable to understand our passion and dreams and how that “generation gap” kills us and our dreams. Right? Nothing new, though, but if we think once and ask ourselves, “Do we understand passion or dreams?”

Rather than blaming our parents for their old thinking we should actually learn from our past generations about what true passion and dedication mean, what the term, ‘Hard work’ stands for, or even worse, what the word LOVE means. We will chuck up and scrutinise through all those, “7 ways to success” books and will watch and attend all those Young Leadership forums or meetups searching for true ethics but will fail to recognise when it has always been in front of us.

"हम दुनिया जहान के लोगो से मिलेंगे, पर साला असली हीरो तो हेमारे घर पर बैठे होते हैं। वाह कभी ध्यान जाता ही नहीं है।”

The true commitment was when your father used to go to that all-day-shitty job just for you to have a good and happy life and true love was when your mother used to wait for him with a glass filled with water as the clock used to strike 7 in the evening. We never valued it, we never appraised it. Isn’t it?

Not that I have a thing against modernisation but had there not been something wrong then there would not have been so much, “Post-breakup depression” or those “My life is all sucked up” situations lately. Why are relationships so hollow these days? Why are we not able to maintain or value human/professional relations?

Why is it so? Where is that depth gone? Have we detached from our roots?

And as Gulzar rightly said once that, “मेर को उस कुर्सी पर बैठने से डर लगता है जिसके पैर जमीन पर न टिक सके। ”. So, all I meant to say with this write-up is, do evolve, do modernise but one should never forget his/her root, because even the nature tells us to do the same, when we can see a bamboo tree to take 3 years to strengthen and build up its roots and then just a month to bloom and blossom.

Thank you!

Inspiration credits: Ankush Nagpal and Mr. Gopi Krishna Sidha

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Photo Sketch by: Nitin Chaudhary