Ravi Speaks:
Updated on 15.11.2022
How I Picked Up Punjabi
When I was going to college in Jammu, I was a very fluent speaker of the Dogri language which I knew besides my mother tongue-Kashmiri, English, Hindi, and some extent Urdu. I used to speak clearly Dogri-language since I have been brought up literally from my Kindergartens till my post-graduation there in Jammu only. Dogri is the local Jammu language-which, of course, differs from the Dogri spoken in interiors like Interiors of Udhampur, Kathua. The language of Basolli and its surrounding areas is altogether so different and difficult as compared to Dogri of Jammu proper that even a Jammuite would not be comfortable with. Yes, one thing is there that I could not write the script or even read Dogri from the script. I even did not know which script was being used for expressing Dogri. At that stage, I didn’t know Punjabi at all. Although we had quite a few families of Punjabi speaking language there in Jammu as well. Even this Punjabi was varying in its wordings and pronunciations from one area to another area. Mainly, this distinction was very clear in interiors and city areas.
In 1982 when I finally left Jammu and started my career at Ludhiana- I was in a different city and different atmosphere, so to say. I did not know Punjabi that well, but could make out from their language the meaning and manage my works. I remember I had literally to ask my co-passenger or the local guy in the Bus stand to tell me the name written on the front of every Bus-which was the name of the destination -where that bus was going. All the boards, notices on the roadside, big banners, and so on were all written in Gurmukhi, and I did not know the same initially.
Punjabi was also spelled as Panjabi, is one of the most widely spoken Indo-Aryan languages. The old British spelling “Punjabi” remains in more common general usage than the academically precise “Panjabi.” In the early 21st century, there were about 30 million speakers of Punjabi in India. It is the official language of the Indian state of Punjab and is one language recognized by the Indian constitution. In Pakistan, Punjabi is spoken by some 70 million speakers, mostly in Punjab province, but official status at both the national and the provincial level is reserved for Urdu. There are also important overseas communities of Punjabi speakers, particularly in Canada and the United Kingdom—were in the early 21st century they respectively made up the third and fourth largest linguistic groups in the national populations—as well as in several parts of the United States.
Easier options one can use:
One of the most useful ways to learn the basics of a language is to read children’s books in that new language. After all, the content is shorter, and the vocabulary is basic, while the sentence structure is simpler to understand, making it useful for novice speakers. The illustrations or pictures in the books can also help you guess words, which makes learning more fun.
Once you are familiar with the commonly used words and also the basics of the script, you can go ahead with the reading of the daily Newspapers-which initially may look to be very challenging.Yes, if one tries to go ahead directly with the newspapers, it would be very difficult. Diving into tougher materials, such as newspapers, can be demotivating, as you may constantly look up words, which can frustrate initially.
One informal way of familiarising yourself with a new language is by watching TV series or movies. You can turn on the subtitles to help you catch the words if the characters speak too quickly. This prolonged exposure may help you learn new words and phrases.One informal way of familiarising yourself with a new language is by watching TV series or movies. You can turn on the subtitles to help you catch the words if the characters speak too quickly. This prolonged exposure may help you learn new words and phrases.
How I used the above options:
I was lucky to have a rented accommodation immediately after landing in Ludhiana because of my predecessor, whom I replaced in Ludhiana-since it was the same accommodation which he was occupying. There, I met my landlord and his family. They were a pure Punjabi Sikh family. My landlord had a small son aged around 8 years and his name was Prince. He started coming to me frequently and in no time, a special affinity towards him was naturally developed. I just jokingly told him that if he could teach me the basics of Punjabi, which he was himself learning in his early classes-I would take him as my teacher and would give him some prize for the same. He was very young, started jumping around and ran directly to his mother, saying that the uncle had become his student and he would teach me Gurumukhi daily.
So, I at the age of around 21 years became a student of 8 years old Prince. He used to teach me the basic ABC of Gurmukhi on the small book which he had managed specially for me and I too seriously started picking up those alphabets. I suddenly realized that I had become very fluent with the reading of the Bus-Boards which depicted the place of destination for the particular bus. I realized Prince was going in the right direction and I was picking up the language slowly.
Another very important factor that made to pick up this language quite fast was the local discussions and usage of the Punjabi language. Nobody would discuss or even talk in any other language besides Punjabi. Even the big doctors and chemists to whom I used to go frequently would talk in Punjabi. It was just a matter of a few months that I became a perfect Punjabi-speaking guy and nobody could make out that I was not a Punjabi.
The extent of using Punjabi went so deep into my daily works that even in my Home at Jammu whenever I came for a few days, I would use the Punjabi words while talking in Hindi or even in my mother tongue. Initially, I had to cut a sorry figure many times for not understanding the Punjabi language. I remember one such occasion when I was standing on the Bus and there was no seat for sitting. There was a very good crowd on the bus and it was going to Khanna around 50 km from Ludhiana. An old lady was standing just beside me and whenever there was any change in the bus’s speed, she would fall upon me and try to catch me for getting the support to stand in the bus. After some time while the bus was moving, she told me in Punjabi” Veer Gahan Ho Ja”. I did not understand what she meant. She repeatedly said the same words three-four times and since I could understand nothing out of her repeated statements, I just gave a deaf ear to her. After some time, another Sardar ji who was also standing on my other side told me in Hindi what that old lady was repeatedly trying to convey to me. She was requesting me to move slightly ahead towards the front side of the bus. I immediately moved ahead and asked for an apology from the old lady for not doing the needful for quite some time.
People used to crack jokes often in Punjabi and one would love to listen to all that stuff frequently. There was a very famous story about the precise impact of this Punjabi language and it was regarding an interview-where the question put to the participants was “Who could use the minimum words in asking for permission to come in for the interview”?. Everyone tried his best. The first person who came in simply asked the Team inside-“May I come in-Sir?” The second one said” Am I allowed to enter-Sir?” and likewise many people came in and asked in their style for permission. Finally, a Punjabi Boy reached the entrance and simply said loudly “Waddha?”. And that way he used only one word and got the permission for the entrance-clearly showing the extent to which Punjabi can go in making good innovative jokes out of its variety. Then everyone knows very well-How the Sikhs who are the real Punjabis-crack various jokes in Punjabi upon themselves? Even the rest of the people also crack such jokes in special functions and change the atmosphere of such events to a happy and casual one for all.
Slowly and steadily, I developed so much interest in the Punjabi language that I started reading the Gurmukhi state level newspaper daily and that helped me in consolidating my grip on the Punjabi language even more. In 1990-October-see the irony, I opted for the transfer to Delhi in those days. The Punjab situation had gone bad because of the Khalisan movement and even the terror attacks happening. I came down to Delhi with my family because until that time I was married as well. The Punjabi language here in Delhi was commonly used since Delhi is known as the Punjabi dominant state, although it is the reflection of the cosmopolitan setup. Knowing Punjabi, especially in Delhi, helped a great deal in my profession in handling the Punjabi dominant markets and getting the due business from them.
Punjabi-Language helped me a lot here in getting to know certain people more and getting a connection with them. Today I feel that out of all the languages which I speak, Punjabi is the most common and predominantly being spoken by me, even though we still try to talk in the home of our mother tongue-Kashmiri.
Even I, along with my family members, have a collection of Punjabi music and hit songs, which we very often play and enjoy that way. No doubt Kashmiri music too is very fascinating and especially my wife gets automatically attracted to any Kashmiri song whenever she listens to it either on the net or on TV. After all, that special affinity towards our mother tongue would always remain there.