After moving back to India, living in Hyderabad, I used Hindi for practical purposes for the first time. I learnt Hindi as a school going kid with a private teacher in my home town Kovilpatti and passed many of the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha exams. All the way till Praveen Purvardh (had to leave Utharardh for post retirement). I think 12th standard intervened. The syllabus gets quite up there once you get to Vishaarad including studying a bunch of Hindi literature. I remember studying Tulsi ke dohe, Panchavati (portion or Ramayana from a poet whose name I don't remember) among others. The one I fondly remember is the short stories and novellas by Munshi Premchand. His stories were of the simple and soul stirring variety.
Ironically, I didn't use my "knowledge" until I returned to Hyderabad 22 years later. Whether you know Telugu or not, you can survive with Hindi in Hyderabad. For the most part. It was pointed out that what is spoken by the Muslims in Hyderabad is Dakkhani Urdu, not Hindi, but close enough. The dialect in Hyderabad did not sound right for many words ('kara' instead of 'kiya', 'kariye' instead of 'keejiye', 'mere ko' instead of 'mujhe'). But who am I to complain - someone who hasn't spoken Hindi to anyone except the Maukik examiner during my Hindi exams?
To this day, I haven't picked up speaking or understanding Telugu, because I have managed with Hindi. My wife on the other hand who did not know Hindi, has picked up an amazing amount of Telugu and converses freely with maids and our driver in what sounds like flawless Telugu (Telugu folks disagree). But I did something interesting; I learnt to read Telugu. During the first few years in Hyderabad, what started as a casual thing became an obsessive habit - as I drive I would read every name on the boards along the road written in both English and Telugu and started learning the Telugu characters. That over a period of 2-3 years reinforced with textbook consultation once in a while (most of the learning happened as I was driving), now I can read and write Telugu. I am a very slow reader, signs often go by on the road before I finish reading, but the thing is I eventually can, taking a few seconds per word.
So knowing Tamil and Hindi and now learning just the Telugu script, it invites all sorts of comparison about the three scripts, how they work, the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. And that would be the subject of a subsequent post.
Balaji
Ironically, I didn't use my "knowledge" until I returned to Hyderabad 22 years later. Whether you know Telugu or not, you can survive with Hindi in Hyderabad. For the most part. It was pointed out that what is spoken by the Muslims in Hyderabad is Dakkhani Urdu, not Hindi, but close enough. The dialect in Hyderabad did not sound right for many words ('kara' instead of 'kiya', 'kariye' instead of 'keejiye', 'mere ko' instead of 'mujhe'). But who am I to complain - someone who hasn't spoken Hindi to anyone except the Maukik examiner during my Hindi exams?
To this day, I haven't picked up speaking or understanding Telugu, because I have managed with Hindi. My wife on the other hand who did not know Hindi, has picked up an amazing amount of Telugu and converses freely with maids and our driver in what sounds like flawless Telugu (Telugu folks disagree). But I did something interesting; I learnt to read Telugu. During the first few years in Hyderabad, what started as a casual thing became an obsessive habit - as I drive I would read every name on the boards along the road written in both English and Telugu and started learning the Telugu characters. That over a period of 2-3 years reinforced with textbook consultation once in a while (most of the learning happened as I was driving), now I can read and write Telugu. I am a very slow reader, signs often go by on the road before I finish reading, but the thing is I eventually can, taking a few seconds per word.
So knowing Tamil and Hindi and now learning just the Telugu script, it invites all sorts of comparison about the three scripts, how they work, the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. And that would be the subject of a subsequent post.
Balaji
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