Tapestry of Tongues.

Life is too short to be apolitical about the things that you are passionate about and examine with devotion (or as some scholars would say, the thing that you would consider your “love object”) You run the risk of living a stale life before you die, when you fear the prospect of others testing your convictions, and poking holes in them.

For me, language is that idea. It has shaped my identity in more ways than I can imagine and I have only just begun to figure just how much.

I am both the person who can speak many languages and one who gets confused by them all.

I am someone who learnt and unlearnt the way I spoke English three times over in my most formative years as a child, teen and early adult.

My speech is more of a spectrum, than a box with the label of an accent. It changes unconsciously and continuously depending on who I am talking to, the context, and the mood of my brain.

The wiring is confused. Words and languages, more often than not, escape me.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I'd rather be stay blessed with the passing knowledge of several tongues, than remain well-versed in only one.
Because languages to me, are not just tools for communication.
They are living entities. Fed by values, beliefs, and experiences…. swell with tradition, culture and religion.
Like a mother carrying a child. A bit of an elaborate view but I am drawn to it.

As you may have gathered already, I can’t help but view it with intense curiosity… and be political about it.

So here goes-

• Making international students and migrant workers renew their TOEFL/ IELTS English proficiency tests every couple of years is ridiculous. It’s a scam and that is a fact.

• Countries with linguistically diverse populations don’t need a single national language. Periodt.

• Colonisers never did anyone a favour wiping out centuries-old indigenous languages. Always acknowledge that. A lot was lost and stolen.

• The English Language is an imposition on everyone else who doesn’t speak it.

• With AI language models, we no longer need a single language to be the main vernacular vehicle.
  We finally might be at a fork-road where a second option has opened up to us. Do we continue to live in a world imposing a colonisers’ tongue on everyone or can we finally begin to think about owning our tongues?—-controversial opinion? maybe.

There. I’ve said it.

Now feel free to do what you will, making sense of threads and textures of this piece.

As always, poke, prod and push it along.