Check the review of Aitraaz here. From the standard of the review, I guess, Sudish Kamath recently joined Hindu. I am a fan of Hindu for atleast last 15 years. Infact, I owe my English knowledge partly to this newspaper. We never subscribed to english newspapers at our house. But my neighbour, Pannerselvam mama - as I call him, subscribed to Hindu. He made sure that I read it, sometimes by offering chocolates. I still recommend reading Hindu to kids as a source of good english. But if its standards are going to be like this article then I have to rethink my recommendation. This review looks more like a blog than anything in Hindu's standards. For example I can still see Malathi Rangarajan's review in Hindu standards. Can you see the difference between the reviews ? To see something like "local mirchi" and "desi masala" in Hindu is disappointing. I hate-phrases-coined-like-this ! Is English language lacking words for Indian sentiments. Can't you say pati-parameshwar sentiment in English ? What is this language - Hinglish ??? I will instead read TOI and rediff for these kind of articles.
2 comments:
ha ha!
I totally agree, Siva! You must read TOI, Rediff or Outlook. But, for good English, by now I'm sure you would have found out that there's nothing to beat The Guardian!
Also, the words mirchi, desi and masala have now been included in the Oxford dictionary... So I guess the Englishmen don't seem to have a problem!
If you can blog in Tamil, use words like mama ... when there is an equivalent in English... what is this language - Tanglish??? But why did you use that? Because of the flavour you wanted to convey, exactly the same reason pati parmeshwar did not find an English equivalent, it is a sentiment inherent in Bollywood's formula. I simply don't understand what is your problem with Hindi words used in a Hindi review.
Also, I don't know if you have noticed, the other reviewers too use Hindi or Tamil words in their reviews when required and not all my reviews have "Hinglish" words. You can find a complete list of my reviews on my site.
But then, this is the first time you seem to have noticed a story out of 1500 stories I have written in the last six years for this paper, in spite of you being a fan for 15 years!
I strongly recommend you read The Hindu before you recommend others to read it! It's been this way for a long time now! Language needs to be contemporary. Even the Englishmen themselves have realised that.
As far as your criticism comparing it with a blog goes... Dude, blogging is serious business too. It's not something you write to informally bitch out other people. It's something you write because you feel so strongly about. I take my blogs as seriously as I take my writing. Writing evolves with the times. If you've noticed, no contemporary writer writes like Shakespeare anymore.
Having said that, I must thank you for your criticism. I will keep in mind old-fashioned thinking the next time I write something.
Cheers!
Sudish, if you have written 1500 articles in six years and you are offended by the comment that you have recently joined The Hindu then the answer is I haven't noticed your name before. I do notice the name when I like/hate the article. So ignore that guess of mine.
The whole article is about The Hindu but not about, Sudish Kamath, the writer. That is why I used the expression 'joined recently'. I see this transition in The Hindu in recent times. But you say it has been like this for a long time now. (Is that by any chance 6 years :-) ?) May be it is because of the competition the newspaper faces from TOI or it is in a new market capture exercise.
If you have noticed, I chose two articles as examples, one by you and the other in the old-fashioned way. I never generalized that to all your writings or writings of all other writers. But I generalized that to the recent trend in The Hindu. So I said "I should think twice before recommending The Hindu" not before recommending Sudish Kamath.
Then about the question of use of a language. Ok, The words are in Oxford dictionary. So what does that prove ? A dictionary is just a reference to a language. An addition to that doesn't mean any usage of those words will be considered good english. The dictionary also lists every obscenity possible so that people can refer. How about using that ?
I agree, Language has to be contemporary, has to evolve. But it shouldn't be mutated. If you think this is what contemporary really means why don't The Hindu try its editorial in the contemporary language. I still see the editorial in "old-fashioned" English. It may not do it because the people who read the editorial may not like it. Why are there two different standards for two different columns ? Is it to cater to the literary needs of the lowest common denominator ? It wasn't this way always. Yes I do see some articiles like Beauty queens of chess. But again they are appearing recently.
Well then you will ask, why did I use Tamil? I have to do some self explanation there. I used the term mama, because he is mama for everybody, not just for me, but for my parents, grand parents. It is a strange way to call a person. It wasn't because of the relationship. An uncle there will be inappropriate. It was not for the "flavour". You can see my reluctance to use it from the prefix "as I call him". Further, I don't write India's National blog. But you do write in India's National newspaper which in some part of TN is (was?) famous for its English.
If you see my blog then you can see that I avoid the "evolution" as much as possible. But I do have the freedom of mixing Tamil posts with the English posts. That is what I meant when I compared it with a blog. It wasn't about the seriousness level. Like most people, I write only about things that I strongly feel about. I am sure that is why you are here responding to the post too.
BTW, nothing is informal. I assume you didn't stumble on this post informally. If you did then check The Hindu's comments mail box. To bitch out other people is neither in my language nor in my character. I do criticize but about things that are open for criticism. But I don't do it for my living.
Anyway thanks for the response, suggestions, and for keeping the old fashioned thinking in your mind.
Keep Writing.
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