Wednesday, February 22, 2017

A subject to remember

Returning home late from work, I could hear the racket even before I opened the door. Nischal's mom is quizzing Nischal on Hindi. His assignment is to put words of a jumbled sentence in the proper order.
"Nischal - you've written काला ('kaala' - black) wrong! You've split it up as का  and ला ('kaa' and 'laa' )! The phrase should be 'काला गुलाब फूल' (Black rose flower) ! "

Now - that 'black rose' intrigued me. Not that I think Nischal's hindi teacher isn't poetic. But the rare times I 'help' him with homework, I compose hindi sentences and he quakes in fear. Apparently sentences like 'मेरे सर पे बन्दर बैठा है ' ( 'A monkey is sitting on my head' ) deepens his teacher's frown.
Another train of thought is Nischal's mom's hindi skills. She absolutely loves speaking in hindi, but friends firmly ask me to sign a 'No hindi by Anu' clause before they agree to come to our parties. People these days are way too health conscious, if you ask me.
So these two trains were on a collision course in my head and I had to wave the red flag.
"Maybe .." I ventured, but she cut me off with a wave of her long hand. She was already conquering the next sentence and dragging an unwilling Nischal behind her. He had given up already - mindlessly cycling through the 5P5 permutations : "है चाँद रात निकलता में "( 'Moon night comes out in') was his next try. Actually, hindi is such that most permutations would work. But he's a master at navigating through a minefield of proper answers.

But imminent train crashes do demand some persistence. I continued my frantic waving until the hindi professor took a breather.
" It's  गुलाब का फूल ला (Get the rose flower) ", I said " the का and ला (kaa and laa) are separate ". Nischal was already dreaming about his post-ordeal plans. I don't think a 'Professor Nischal, Hindi Literature' plaque will ever grace our house.  "Oh!", the mom smiled meanwhile. As usual, there was no guilt at murdering Hindi for the Nth time. A phrase from a Megadeath song came to mind
"And when you kill a man you're a murderer
Kill many and you're a conqueror
Kill them all and you're a God"

"Night at Moon comes" (में है रात चाँद निकलता) was Nischal's next attempt.That prompted the conqueror to turn back to her subject and her pursuit of divinity. So, I thought I'll try Nischal instead. "Nischal, what is the subject here in this sentence? "

Nischal looks at me, and after a small sigh he says patronizingly "Hindi"