Languages
While on a train last weekend, there was an elderly couple discuss some family m atters in M alayalam and on my opposite was a businessman from Delhi talking to a client on the phone in Hindi. There were also a bunch of guys sitting on the upper berth and talking in Telugu. Before the train left, a group of eight people who were daily commuters from Chennai discussing their work in Tamil. WOW. So many people speaking so many different languages! Then as I lay on my berth I could still hear some of them talk and others whisper into their mobile phones. I began wondering about languages. First of all, how many did I know? I knew English for sure as it was my medium of study and the language I majorly spoke. I also did know to speak Malayalam very well for it was my mother tongue and the language I spoke at home. But I can only read and write Malayalam very slowly. Nor can I appreciate Malayalam literature. Then there is Hindi.. my second language. I can read and write in the langu