Tamizha! Tamizha!

The recent "Ulaga Tamizh Maanaadu" resulted in much discussion. Many views were expressed, foremost being that it is a pointless waste of time and an expensive publicity stunt by the ruling party of Tamizh Nadu. Some others were worried that Tamizh Nadu is going the way of a certain "M" state of India where love for the native language and "son of the soil" pride has grown to ridiculous proportions, bordering on insanity. People blogged and tweeted endlessly about it and many jokes were made. The "Tamizh-isation" of everything English was rehashed (pun unintended), as was the re-re-re naming of several Chennai roads. .I don't live in Tamizh Nadu anymore but I can imagine how fanatical the state government could get about an extravaganza such as this, taking it gleefully to the level of a 3-ring circus. 

Don't get me wrong here...I love the language. My lack of fluency in sentamizh has been a big regret all my life. A large body of wonderful literature remains sadly unexplored due to this impediment. I grew up with a daily dose of pazhamozhis, kurrals and abridged versions of many stories. Hence, love for tamizh remains deeply rooted even though my ability at reading the language still remains snail-paced. I can sit through hours of pattimandrams and related programs on TV, alternatively mesmerised by the language and consumed with jealousy at the participants and their ease with the language. My problem is with this blatant use of the language for political gains. 

Tamizh Nadu enjoys a colorful variety of spoken dialects including the amazing Madras Tamizh....a wonderful amalgam of Tamizh and an unidentified alien language spoken in a series of mutilated sounds. Writing in Tamizh however still is in classic sentamizh. So, I am quite happy with people trying to emphasize the rich heritage of the language for fear of it being lost to the many non-indegenous influences that are omnipresent today. Also, lets face it, other Indian languages have decades of goodwill working in their favor. Tamizh is a very hard language, both to learn and on the ears....it needs all the publicity that it can get.

So, a website was built and "Aascaar tamizhan, thambi A.R.R" was brought on board to bring all the "feelings" to life with music in the spectacular way that only he can. Incidentally, did you notice the complete absence of lip-syncing kollywood stars? This is how its done, "phir mile sur mera tumhara" people, but I digress. All was well until the government started sending goons to various places around the state to have sign boards removed if they were not in tamizh. Really now, this is from the people whose families own companies called Sun Network, Sun Pictures, Red Giant Pictures  and Cloud 9 pictures. The mayor is still called the மேயர், isn't he and it is still the சென்னை கார்பரேஷன், isn't it? I am baffled.

As I understand, this is not the first tamizh conference....it started in the year 1966 with the intention of promoting the rich heritage of the language. The 2010 mega extravaganza was not even approved by the International association for tamizh research. So, my plea is that lets keep politics and personal agendas aside and celebrate this beautiful language in a manner befitting its majestic stature.

வாழ்க தமிழ்!