Tamil – The language and people

The above title would probably make the reader wonder if this is some sort of thesis? No Sir this is no thesis on Tamil it’s a mental recall of my observations of the language and people associated with it.

I have heard many people say that Tamilians( as the Tamil people are popularly known) are very crazy or obsessed with the Tamil language to the extent that apart from learning the English language they are least bothered to learn any other language.

Earlier I used to agree with the above and used to get into an argument with any Tamilian I met that why don’t they learn Hindi language as it’s the National language of India. It took me more than 25 years of my life to realize that Hindi is not the sole national language of India there are 21 other national languages in India, Hindi is one of them. If you find it hard to believe, please check (http://indiaimage.nic.in/languages.htm). When I learned this my view of the people and their language took a full U-turn.

It made me wonder that when we see any European country and its citizens, they are so protective and proud of their respective languages our immediate reaction is “Wow these guys really know how to preserve their language and culture” and when we see the same scene re-enacted in our own country’s state we label them as people who are rigid and stubborn with a nasty attitude.

Having stayed in Chennai for 2 years and having observed the people and their culture from very close quarters, I feel the entire country should be proud of them, they are the sole state as far as I remember who carry their language and their culture proudly on their sleeves as they are proud owners of a language which is one of the oldest languages that exist in the world today being more than 2000 years old and also one of the very few Indian languages totally independent of Sanskrit.

Think of Chennai and what comes to mind is the unbearable hot and sultry climate, but Chennai, the heart of Tamil-Land is also an unparalleled land of Passion.

Chennai is the sole city in India which has the largest Rock-Fan following throughout the country, want a visible proof of the same? Visit Saarang, the IIT-Madras annual cultural festival, no other cultural festival in the entire country has an entire pavilion dedicated to the rock stars who come in from various parts of the state and perform live, day-in and day-out for 4 days at a stretch.

Chennai is the place where you would find Bike-Crazy guys who exhibit a hitherto unseen or unfelt love for the sheer thrill of biking, driving endlessly on the endless ECR road for hours at stretch, performing stunts with their bikes which ends the line between “Man and Machine” and they are one entity in total, talking and breathing to each other oblivious of their surroundings doing just one thing, Enjoying the sheer thrill which is born out of Passion.

Being an Indian who has spend most of his life in North India I was a witness to strange forms of dance in parties or festivals, dances which never made any sense to me as I perceived them as a drill with some music in the background majorly of two forms – Arms high up in the air and jumping up and down and secondly of people dancing in a circle once they clap out and then they clap in. Chennai and its people taught me as to what sheer Passion combined with the right music can do to the art of dancing– It can give a “high” unheard or unseen before by both ways – Either by just watching them perform or jumping yourself into the fray.

Now after reading this you can do 2 things – Either ignore this and move on or jump in the boat with the “Tam” gang and learn there is much more to life than the monotonous routine, there is “Passion”.