Dejection of own language and culture.

This is an unstructured write up. Just a few thoughts on a topic here and there without much links.

Years back – I was in 11th std – when the remake of \’Neelathamara\’ released, the song \’Anuraaga vilochananayi\’ became an instant hit. It topped every playlist and will be always one of the best songs in Malayalam composed by the legendary Vidyasagar to the lyrics penned by Late Gireesh Puthenchery. Even people who weren\’t a fan of Malayalam music started getting addicted to this particular song rendered soulfully by V Sreekumar and Shreya Goshal. It was on one of these days I encountered one of my classmates who was of the opinion \”Malayalam music and movies are shit compared to Tamil and Hindi. The two superstars here are nothing compared to the actors from other languages and songs are too dramatic.\” Back then, I wasn\’t really into films much but this statement annoyed me. It was a debate and I shot back at him but due to my lack of knowledge, I was forced to resign a bit earlier.

Year 2011. The first days of my college life. I consider myself to be extremely lucky to end up in a college where Malayalam was available as a second language and also a group of Malayalees with the same taste but from different places. During one of the first Malayalam classes when I was slowly discovering my classmates – well, there were only 6 of us – I realized only three of us; Dan, Swetha and myself are talking in Malayalam and the rest three are talking in Tamil. I was kinda surprised by this because basically they are Malayalees and secondly we are having Malayalam lecture!! Why would you talk in a different language then? More than that, when two Malayalees meet, why don\’t you talk in your own mother tongue? As days passed, I understood that this is a very common thing between Malayalees who are brought up in TamilNadu.

Back home, at the same period, I came across few guys who were just amazing western music artists. But the amount of respect they had for local language was too less to type. I have seen people who struggle through their 12th std and just want to fly out of this state saying this state is too conservative and doesn\’t give any freedom. Hello ladies and gentleman, Kerala is not just the conservative place you have in India. I have lived in Chennai and Mumbai. I have been to Delhi, Goa, Bangalore and Jaipur. Trust me when I say this, when a girl and guy walk holding hands, people stare at you everywhere. When a girl and guy hug in public, people frown at you. May be, Goa is an exception.

I am not here to talk on conservation or freedom or moral policing but to criticize the parental love most of the Malayalees have for their state and language. Some guys listen to Western music, date several girls at the same time, walk on the streets with a wireless headset, pitying the local music and the people who walk past you wearing lungi, think they are cool. Believe me guys, you people are a shame. Its understandable not everyone has to like everything and opinions differ with everyone. But why do you have to pity a culture, a language, a state? Dating several girls at the same time doesn\’t make you cool. Spending money on every girl you date doesn\’t make you an excellent boyfriend either. Watching all the English movies and singing along with Akon doesn\’t make you a new generation boy.

Some of my friends are shocked and surprised with me because given the love I have for films, I don\’t follow Hollywood films much. I have a very strong reason behind it. I see films as a realistic representation with a little bit of fiction/fantasy. I love such films because I love to relate them. But that doesn\’t mean I ask people not to go for Avengers or pity people who go for Spiderman. It doesn\’t mean that that I don\’t get along with people who love zombie films. Its simple. I don\’t like fantasy but its my personal opinion. But this is not the general concept with everyone.

Why go to Bollywood and Hollywood when films from the nearby industries are received with more praise than a Malayalam film? Its in this context, I am extremely proud of \’Premam\’. In Trivandrum, \’Premam\’ got two of the smallest screens in the city and a superstar Tamil film got three huge theaters. Guess what happened? The Tamil film is hardly playing in any theater now and \’Premam\’ has become one of the biggest hits in the history. I think its a common thing with Malayalees. We love to deject our own language and culture and talk high about the neighbors. I don\’t know what pleasure lies in it but this, for sure, is not a good concept. There are also few who proudly says that they don\’t know Malayalam, they don\’t know to read or write their language but they know to read and write some other regional language. Ask them whats their mother tongue and they tell you \’Malayalam\’. \”Enik kurach kurach malayalam ariyam\” is the only sentence they pretend to know and they take immense pride in it. But keep in mind, when someone hits below your tummy the first words which is going to escape your mouth is always your mother tongue.

Pacha malayalathil paranja kumbinit kuthu kittiya nee okke ninte maathrubhaashayile karayu!!!