ચકી ચકી પાણી પી. બે પૈસા નો બરફ લે!

I will consider those of u lucky to whom this bears some semblance of meaning, at least those of you who are Gujarati.

To me, it drags me back to early 1990s when i was just a little child being prepared to start schooling. I had this small slate on which i used to write using chalk stick. I would write the gujarati alphabet and numerals and wipe it off with a wet cloth and it'd be as good as new to be used again. It was while waiting for the moments while the slate dried that we used to chant the title of this post. Many used to do that in those days but it seems to have gone out of the window now. Too cheap in the eyes of the parents perhaps.

And it has become unfashionable for a child to be studying in gujarati medium as well. It is astounding that with the loss of such small things as "slate-pen" so much would be lost and yet no one seems to be concerned. The love for the western languages and western culture is killing our own culture. Who will explain to these wretches that,
"બ્રેડ-બટર નો બ્રેકફાસ્ટ હોય અને છાશ-રોટલા નું શિરામણ હોય."

So a child who has grown up eating BigMac and French fries can never appreciate nor understand what "લાડુનું જમણ અને કાશીનું મરણ" means.

The parents feel proud of showing off their children singing "Mary had a little lamb" without them or the kid having the slightest of idea what it means while nobody cares to teach them
"એકડો સાવ સળેકડો, બગડો ડિલે તગડો
એવી બથ્થંબથ્થી કરતાં થઇ ગયો મોટો ઝગડો"

And honestly speaking i find it astonishing that the patents who themselves havent studied beyond 10th or 12th standard enroll their ward in english medium where the child masters neither english nor gujarati and ends up speaking some language that seems like an illegitimate offspring of them both. I wonder what their children will speak!

It saddens me to think what we have done to our mother tongue."પાચ કરોડ સંતાન હોવા છતાં માતા પાંગળી બની ગયી છે".

Remember,when a culture suffers a loss,so does the language and vice versa. And it seems that we are adamant on bringing about the doom of both of them.

Mind your language

“‘Sup bro?” “Wad up?” “ROFL” “LMAO” “LOL” and the most disgustingly “LOLS” and “LOLZZZ” ….

Some of you might be asking yourself,”What the hell....” and some who know me might be wondering: “That’s right. Param has officially lost it”.

So to put you out of your wondering let me tell you that these are the very words and phrases that spell the doom of the English as our grandparents had known it

Their usage is seen in the population of the age group of 13-25.(I sure do have something against them. And to think that I also belong to that set!) The people belonging to this demographic group usually feel the need to use such language in order to establish their “coolness” since they have nothing else cooler to do. Without this, they are just another high school kid or an average college student. This usage is found to be employed excessively by those who have access to American movies and TV shows from which they pick up these phrases and then the thing spreads like HIV. One person tells another and in no time everybody seems to be using those words or phrases. Facebook and Orkut have their share in this too. They are basically the reason why this has gone worse from bad. People can visit complete strangers’ profiles and read them (which is a disgusting thing in its own). Now even those who don’t know each other can imitate one another and hence the outbreak of these words spreads even more rapidly.

This usage includes very out of place acronyms and abbreviations as well as mutated forms of original English words. I feel nauseated when I read such words. It is considered the “in thing” to corrupt the simplest words like “my” into “ma” or “mah” (I almost puked when I first saw this one.) And they always seem to cut away a few vowels and sometimes even a few consonants from the words. I guess they are no longer sure of the correct spellings of those words.

I see no reason why a language which has taken thousands of years of care of linguists to develop should be treated by these people as if she were a prostitute, as if they could screw her anyhow they wanted and anytime they wanted. The languages are the testaments of men’s glory. People have no right to debase something so sacred and so old.

“…No grammar, no punctuations. It is just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with the bunch of other stupid people in a protolanguage that resembles more to what cavemen used to speak than the King’s English.”

-Hank Moody. (Californication)

Trust me. It does not look cool if you aren’t comfortable with doing it(just like topless posing). And those who do it without adequate knowledge of the language wind up looking like colossal losers.

“I’d choose to look simple if the alternative was to look stupid.”

The Pied Pipers and the Rats

Fashion. The word pops the image of a few scantily clad skinny women walking on the ramp in a most bizarre manner. Admit it. You all thought of the same thing,didn't you? Some sicker minds might also have thought of wardrobe malfunctions. But there are enough pervert blogs out there if you want to read literary erotica and we don't want to add one more.
Yes. To fashion then.
What is fashion?
Fashion is an expression of oneself through one's cloths,hair other gear and the way one holds oneself. Since fashion in its truest sense is purely personal and individual, it must be unique or at least diverse. It should say who you are.To be fashionable is being comfortable about wearing something, even if it is only your own bare skin. That is what we call a fashion-statement. An individual's statement.
But right now what we find is that the individual voices have almost died out. Huge masses of people just repeat in unison what is told to them by "celebs". They copy the so called celebrities blindly. They imitate their hair style, their dressing and what not.
Yesterday i was reading an article in Ahmedabad Times directed to the first time college students. It was about style-check before going to college so that they look "Cool". The author of that article was saying what sort of tops and trousers and glasses and skirt and shoes and sandals are in vogue. He was basically telling them what to wear. I mean who the hell is he to tell people what to wear? But unfortunately this emotion is almost never reciprocated by the general public because they don't want to seem behind the trend.
A week or so ago when i went to a bookstore in a high-end mall, I observed that the male and female population of the age group 16-25 was wearing the same sort of cloths and accessories. It was as if they were all following a uniform. And a very costly uniform at that. And they seemed pleased to be doing the same thing as millions others do when the uniqueness is what we need the most right now.
The cartel of celebs, media and fashion houses decides what the urban youth wears.And nobody seems to have balls enough to swim against the current to keep their uniqueness in tact. They just don't want to be left out. They feel safe as a part of the crowd. For that temporary feeling of safety they are losing something very important. Their individuality. My heart bleeds for their loss.
Fashion is not all about Levi's jeans, fastrack watches and Ray-Ban glasses.So wake up you losers. There is still time to claim back your identity.