Karma sure is a chamelion. Marrying into God’s own country would “give me lemons” now… (never thought so… then🤔). Just me in Kerala wasn’t enough, it’s now an unwell me in Trivandrum. I am a commonly sighted person at the popular hospitals of Trivandrum, by-standing or patienting! Ailments come and go, but the pathos lasts forever😬
The desire to be heard by my doctor remains unquenched. Communicating in English literally kills it… my pain becomes a disjointed idea conveyed in English adjectives that come somewhere there( to my utter distress) ; all the while writhing in my heart is my …oh so lovely mother tongue.
As I finally manage to get the sole attention of the doctor, he also rejigs his knowledge of adjectives/adverbs and phrases of English. You see, we both rely on English in the absence of an interpreter. A recent conversation between both non native speakers of English went like:
“Do you get a boiling sound in your head?”
“No doctor, its a choked feeling, like the pipe is full and tight”
“No boiling sound?”
“No, sometimes I get a vaccum like feeling…”
“Oho, that is the boiling!” says he triumphantly.
“Do you get a pin prick sensation in your eyes?”
“I get boiling vision! As though the people, words, objects are popping up and down.”
Aghast! He feels he is somewhere there… and smiles in confused affirmation. I can read his expression- “women! North Indian or South Indian- all the same”!
Ward sister is prattling noisily, just above my head and I beseechingly raise my palm to request her to calm down,( as my jaws refuse to move) but she takes my hand lovingly presuming it to be an outcry for her comforting touch! and babbles on. Oh , anything for a few words of my mother tongue with its sing-song onomatopoeic words that would narrate my ailments and woes with the right impact and pacify me in return.
An Akbar Birbal anecdote comes to mind. When a visiting foreigner who also was an expert in several languages, challenged Emperor Akbar to detect the expert’s mother tongue, it was Birbal who caught him unawares in the wee hours of the morning; by splashing a bucket of cold water on the sleeping expert. He jumped up from sleep as well as the bed, exclaiming and cursing in his mother tongue!!
So mother tongue it is at the weakest moments… and is needed as a panacea…
Heartfelt 
Really it’s the mother tongue in which we think and feel.
Very well written and explained.
Keep it up!!
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Thank you. It is really painful to feel and express any other way😬😬
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❤
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😃💓
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Susmitha dear…you should have called me while going to the doctor…Next time don’t hesitate to call me…I will explain your problems clearly in our local Malayalam…
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😁😁 still will miss narrating my woes in mother tongue ! I will have to narrate it to you in English!!! Thank you dear Chechi…
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Very well captured..
I face it quiet frequently as I have some Chinese counterparts and at times feel like saying everything in hindi even if they don’t get it(they don’t get it in English as well) just to calm my frustrations of not being able to explain….
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😂 President Xi is in India, careful! Yes… you actually said it “calm my frustrations”! Thank you so much for reading and responding…
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.. A warm and sympathetic hug to that unquenched soul within u ..how well we all can relate .After religion it’s the Languages that has been the greatest barrier of all times..
Seems someone who went through similar trauma came out with this language translator app.. Hahahaha
God I guess has a huge role .. was wise in creating one world but something went wrong and he ended up with ..so many races .. cultures .. .and then came languages .. . We would have done better with just one but then .. def need to ask him on the other side the real reason behind creating so much confusion and chaos all around till then lets gather courage to face it all.. after all we have a long way to go😝😁
Unique choice once again Sush.. now to look at it we come from bhojpuri back ground to Hindi to English and I move ahead to Maithili to Bengali and u to Malayali and so forth .. as if being human wasn’t that sufficient .. .. summing up here by Rumi..Speak a new Lang so that the world will be a new world .. .waiting for another brilliant writeup by a brilliant mind .. till then Parnaam.. ..tata bye bye cynora..allahhafiz.. adios.. namastey my friend 😁🙏🏽
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.. “A warm and sympathetic hug to that unquenched soul within u ..how well we all can relate .After religion it’s the Languages that has been the greatest barrier of all times..
Seems someone who went through similar trauma came out with this language translator app.. Hahahaha
God I guess has a huge role .. was wise in creating one world but something went wrong and he ended up with ..so many races .. cultures .. .and then came languages .. . We would have done better with just one but then .. def need to ask him on the other side the real reason behind creating so much confusion and chaos all around till then lets gather courage to face it all.. after all we have a long way to go😝😁
Unique choice once again Sush.. now to look at it we come from bhojpuri back ground to Hindi to English and I move ahead to Maithili to Bengali and u to Malayali and so forth .. as if being human wasn’t that sufficient .. .. summing up here by Rumi..Speak a new Lang so that the world will be a new world .. .waiting for another brilliant writeup by a brilliant mind .. till then Parnaam.. ..tata bye- bye cynora..allahhafiz.. adios.. namastey my friend 😁🙏🏽”
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😁😁 this sure reads like an ode! Thank you for your valuable thoughts from “Down Under”. I take immense joy in conversing in Hindi that too with the dialectic inflections! The soul gets quenched only then!!
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Usually doctors and pt do communicate well in English bcoz medical education is in English.
Usually, talking to pt in vernacular language is more difficult.
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There goes one in defense of doctors! 😁 Thank you for reading and responding!
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Hope you are well now
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Yes! Thank you for asking and for reading…
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You deliver so well. Readers can directly relate to it. It is an ode to mother tongue!
But what exactly were you suffering from?
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Arpita
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Hey would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re working with? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different internet browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend a good hosting provider at a reasonable price? Many thanks, I appreciate it!
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