Warning to tourists - Do Not Laugh At The Natives.

While travelling through the streets of India, one might, upon observation, notice the bold banners saying - 

 I think you might just notice the haphazard crafting of a sentence in the picture above. Sadly enough, this is the crude reality of the English spoken and written in India.

English, undoubtedly, is one of the predominantly used languages in contemporary India. Hypocrites like myself , often find this situation of people using broken English downright hilarious. Although our morals teach us not to laugh at other's weaknesses or inabilities,  how can a person contain themselves from being amused to billboards like these -

However, in the era of modernization and globalization, we still struggle sorely because of the barriers of language. The battle against English colonizers have been long fought, but the question that remains is - Is it still being fought with English ... as a language ?

I am a student of 11th grade, in an English medium school. Yes, I do have a particular inclination towards English but the irony is, you'll hardly find me talking to my schoolmates in pure English. The language itself is something we take for granted. It's not the story of my life, but the millions of students out there studying in English medium schools. I do not blame the schools though, they try their level best to make us speak the language... imposing charges which we are supposed to pay after using a Hindi word. The money however, is never paid.

Some people in India believe , English is slowly replacing our mother tongue - Hindi. They believe the language has such an unhealthy impact on that it destroys the legacy of our heritage. Little do they realize that celebrating our culture with other's only enhances our own society and helps us to grow larger and bloom on the international front. If we can wear jeans and tee-shirts on a daily basis and still not forget about the 'Kurtas' and 'Pajamas', surely speaking English would not make us forget about our roots.

The affect that modern technology has had on the literature is quite remarkable. It's quite an irony, the fact that 'English' is snatched away from the present youth even before it is given to them. The first evolution of the phrase "What is going on?" was "What is up?", then it shortened a bit because people wanted to save time, people said - "What's up?". Yet, somehow, as the world grew busier and time was scarce, we shortened it further and said -"Whassup?". Now that we have no time to stop and listen to what people have to say, we ask-"Ssup?" and get it over with. 'You' has evolved into 'U', 'Them' to 'Dem', 'Joke' to 'Jk' and 'Good night' to 'Gn'. I admit, I am waiting for the day when they print our school text books in the "internet revised version", it would be less of a 'suffering' for students then.

India, throughout the years, has been constantly subjected to mockery and lampooning in terms of the English that is used, but the fact that it is also home to one of the largest English speaking populations around the globe, is often disregarded. It is true, that the quality of English that we use is quite dismal... But if we are really pertinacious and determined enough to elevate the standards of English that we operate in, India has stack full of potential in overtaking the world. We need push our perceptions aside and work for the greater good, for the development of our nation and individuals alike.

In the end there is only one thing that remains to be said -

*No offence intended.