Monday, January 09, 2006

If you thought my Tamil is bad now...

I was born to parents who communicated through sign language. Both could speak and hear clearly, but different languages. Dad would rub his belly and mom would take a cue and cook for him. Mom would point at the neighbor lady and dad would buy my mom that saree. It went on for a while till they could take it no more. Dad couldn’t stop my mom from cooking every time he had amoebic dysentery or my mom didn’t know how to tell dad that the neighbor lady was stealing their mangos without having to receive the 20th saree of the same kind. Ok, they had poor enacting skills, so? Slowly, they started learning each other’s language and much to our mortification, came up with a hybrid language with some Hindi, Telugu and Bhojpuri thrown in for a good measure. This legacy, they would part to their children. Hence, the Pure Linguistic Gods didn’t shower their blessings on me when I came out wailing in adulterated Hebrew.

I was made to believe that the funny language spoken at home was Tamil. Moving like nomads around the world, and not getting anywhere close to Tamil Nadu helped my parent’s case.

What is your mother tongue? Tamil- I would say, innocently. ‘No wonder your Hindi sucks’, my north Indian friends would be quick to point out. ‘Well, at least I know Tamil,’ I would brag. Ppppfffft!

Leaving Mathura, we skipped over to Algeria. Still I thought I knew Tamil…every word of it. And an added language to boot; I knew how to count in Arabic after spending two years there. Algeria being a French colony, I learnt some French too. ‘Parle-G?’ Went around Europe and America and learnt a few more languages- American English and British English.

After this international stint, we were dumped in a forest in Andhra Pradesh… Manuguru (if you have heard of this place, you are probably a bear). My brother and I were a novelty in our little school. ‘Ohh look at those two belting out sentences in English with their cute accent.’ Laxmi’s mom told her to become my best friend so she could learn some English. In a year, I was speaking Gult and Laxmi learnt, ’Ware is the Paappar?’, which was more English knowledge than I had at that time.

But I still knew my Tamil was impeccable.

Fast forward some more places/ languages and we landed in Madras. Now to put my Tamil to some use.. finally! Having studied in Central schools throughout (except in phoren), I was a little apprehensive when I was admitted to a private school where 99.9% of kids recited Thirukurals and knew all about Rajani Kant’s contribution to Tamil culture. The 0.1% consisted of Jiggar Gupta and his Marwadi brother and sister who were the only non-brahmin, non-Tamilians in the whole freaking school. I suspect Jiggar knew the Thirukurals too.

From a dozen Tamilians that I met all my life till now- to a sudden truck-load of them. My Tamilness was put to test on my first day in Eighth Grade when they asked me, “Iyera, Iyengara?”

'Yemandi, adhi?' I asked in my Gult English. Had to figure out from nanagaru that we are Iyers. ‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’ I realized, Madras is the only place you will need to know that kind of info.

Classmates fell off the chair and rolled with laughter when I tried to talk in Tamil. 'Say- That old man is walking!'they would cajole whenever they needed their ribs tickled. What they spoke seemed to come out of that foreign movie I had watched long time ago where Kamal Hassan was the hero. Must be Iyengars all these people, I wisely concluded.

Next came the dreaded second-language selection. Big Deal..I’ll do the same thing I was doing all along. Hindi second, Sanskrit third language. With that safety net, I had changed 9 schools so far and managed somehow to stay above the water. But no, Avvaiyaar had probably put some curse on this school. There were only two options for me- Tamil second, Hindi third/ Sanskrit second, Hindi third. Hindi was clearly not the favorite subject around. It’s not like they were going to teach me Tamil from scratch. People, at that time I didn’t know ‘ka’ from ‘ga’ in Tamil. Actually to this day, I don’t.

Further investigation (my mom) informed me that I have no clue what Tamil is and it will be difficult learning it now. Current Mood: Cheated.

At least I had some head start with ‘Rama Ramau Ramaa’… So there I sat, with my Tamilian classmates in my first Sanskrit class. A priest walks in with dhoti and kudumi (tuft of hair tied in a knot). In fact, I was told he moonlights as our Sanskrit sir. Slightly shocked, I rose as everyone rose. As if they drank some elixir of life, all my dead looking classmates began to chant loudly ‘Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu…’ with the same dead pan expression, but in a sing-song fashion bobbing their heads up and down. Next he sat down, started pointing at people and making them recite ‘Guru Shabda’. You- Hari Shabda. And you- Mrignayani Shabda.

Shabdas came to these cretins like sarcasm comes to me. Un-fucking-believable!! What Sanskrit was I learning for so long? ‘And you new girl with boy’s name- say Rhishi shabda.’ I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. ‘Sir,’ I said meekly, ‘I know only Rama shabda… and I can’t sing like that.’ The worse was yet to come. Sanskrit sir knew not a word in English or Hindi. I had to communicate in Tamil. Somehow, I should have chosen to sit in the Tamil class itself.

I almost packed my bags and left to Never-never land when the Hindi miss walked in. ‘Main aapka Hindi adhyapika hooon,’ she stressed in Tamil accent. Thankfully she carried the rest of the conversation in Tamil. I opened my book to ‘Meri Abhilasha Hai’, the first poem in the 5th grade CBSE book with the picture of kala hiran (black deer) on the cover. I remembered every picture in that book. Insult! It was like flunking, going back three grades with a teacher who could very well learn Hindi from me. Me, who had to learn Social Studies in Hindi in one our previous habitats. My Hindi speaking skills impressed no one. Knowing Hindi in Madras was like knowing how to swim in the Himalayas. FYI, English miss spoke in English. Phew!

The only way to escape ridicule in Tamland was to call myself a Kannadiga. As long as Jayalalitha didn’t know. It was easy to pose as one as my dad hails from Bangalore. Illiba bitbidi enmadhuthaidiya nimajji….and they were all sufficiently convinced and impressed. My Hindi, along with my Telugu and Arabic atrophied while signs of improvement in Tamil surfaced. I stopped referring to people as inanimate objects. Appreciated subtle nuances of difference between pallikoodam (school) and palligoodam (lizard hole). Arasi (rice) and arasai (group). Magesh and Mahesh- actually they are the same thing. “Vazhai pazham vazhukki kizhavi oruthi vazhiyil nazhuvi vizhundhal” got me admitted to the hospital for sustainable tongue injuries while twisting it beyond its capacity. Never again! Who the hell decided that 'zh' makes complete sense to be pronounced 'iLL'?

As long as you can speak to auto drivers and shop-keepers, Tamil is easy. The minute you have to talk to thorough bred Tamilian Inlaws, it becomes one heck of an ordeal. I’m still learning. Mastered yennai and ennai recently. One is ‘oil’ and the other is ‘what’..Don’t know which is what.

Next, we moved to Mangalore and there I promptly became a Tamilian again. Gotto do it! Live the life of a language refugee!

77 comments:

Krish said...

Alpha avvaiyaarin thamizh pattrai yaam mechchinoam.

Avaiyore indha ammaiyaarukku yaam ponnaadai pottri aayiram varaahangaL parisaLikkindRom.

Vaazhga thamizh. VaLarga nin pugazh.

:-)

Anonymous said...

Thennavan: People like you have scarred me for life! I understood only the smiley. actually I didnt even try..wait..let me translate for my mom-tamil friends-

Alpha, Lets cook some Yam instead of talking about Avaiyaar's Tamil.

Avaiyaar will cook Yam if you stop talking about this girl.

Long live Tamil. Grow your fame.

Phew..wasn't hard.

Anonymous said...

*non-tamil* became mom-tamil...haha! I crack myself up!

Anonymous said...

Your dad bought the neighbor lady saree ? Or your english is as bad as your tamizh / kannada ?

Anonymous said...

anon: Changed before confusion ensues..of course you knew what I was talking abt in spite of my horrid English.

B o o said...

Arisi - rice. Arasi - Queen and Arasai? Is that a Tamil word? (Anti, Help!)
ennei - oil. ennai - me or I. enna - what. "Mastered", huh?

Also try this if you want a real tongue twister - Vyaazhakizhamai mazhai pozhindhadhaal vaazhai pazham kai nazhuvi kozha kozhathu keezhe vizhundhadhu! :))))

Hilarious post! I think I had the same sanskrit saar in my college!

Alpha said...

boo! Shucks! This arisi arasi is too much for me to take. I knew I was going to get into trouble for putting up words in Tamil and giving them meaning too. Cha! Stop those tongue twisters..my tongue is getting performance anxiety!

pingoo said...

lol ! I dunno what to comment....but yea I heard about Manuguru ! There was this chemistry tuition sir who hailed from that small town (err..village ?) and he used to always go manuguru in every other class..I mean every other minute in the class. Is it near Badhrachalam or something ? the paper mills town ? hmm nyways...looks like u have a good hold of tamil these days..I saw the other day ;-). The language they use to read news in Tamil ..is something that I can never understand !!

//pallikoodam (school) and palligoodam (lizard hole)

I could have never figured that out :)

Anonymous said...

hmm .. i always knew, if one has to speak with forked tongue, tamil is the easiest ... the next best is of course white man's language. i wud stick to hindi, gujrati, marathi, sanskrit, english, arabic tongues .. not necessarily in that order .... but then what's order in tamil? .. i cant explain, dont have a tamil galpal. some day in future, i may. insha'allah.

B o o said...

BTW, Palligoodam - lizard hole?!! Anti - where the hell are you? In a Palligoodam? ROTFLOL! :))

LEGOLAS said...

Shabdas came to these cretins like sarcasm comes to me. Un-fucking-believable!!

very true!

Anonymous said...

Isn't a lizard called 'palli' & a school as 'paLLi' - the diff. being the pronounciation of the 'l' & not in the 'koo' & 'goo'?
Hilarious... :-)
-Vasu

PS: Have replied for the previous post's comment over there, pliss to note! :-)

Aqua said...

hahaha, your post had me in splits alpha! My hubby is a tamilian (iyengara :) and when we got married i bravely bought a "Learn Tamil in 30 days" book from gangarams.
it's been 4 years since that day and i still can't speak a word of tamil, or rather, pronounce a word of tamil correctly.

shub said...

:))
lol @ "enmadhuthaidiya nimajji…." lonng time since i heard nimajji being used! :D
and yeah I can never ever be comfy talkin in Tam to anyone but family!! cos everyone else makes fun of it! n the one spoken in chennai is sooooooooo freakin different from the palakkad type we talk at home :(
and i get mercilesssly teased bout it! :-/

Mrudula Sreekanth said...

Gosh! This was soo hilarious. I just can't stop laughing. Your post brought back memories of 'Meri Abhilasha Hai'! I also studied in CBSE schools. :) You still remember the name of the poem of 5th grade. Wow! What memory!

anantha said...

One 12 hours, I spend trying to set up the cheapest wireless router that I can find in a 10 mile radius, suddenly I miss a Thamizh masterclass, rather the chance to deliver a Thamizh masterclass.
Boo: I am sorry. At this point, as VC said sometime earlier, too much effort is needed to teach my Alpha bua decent Thamizh. So me gonna stick to pulling her leg and also keep sharpening my tools just in case someone decides to link to a XXX domain from the comments section of my U/A rated blog.
And even pulling her leg is going to take atleast an hour, since the prospects are way too high. Mebbe I should just post a link to this post on my blog and let more ppl read it ;)
And I will go ahead and email a couple of my friends who have not updated Alpha's link on their blogrolls yet. Nice public service no?

Anonymous said...

Pingsie: You heard of Manuguru? Wow! I knew you were not human..I saw, no. You know that sneaky Chemistry teacher must have ran away from my school...traitor! Anyway, glad you think my Tamil is cool..and glad that I cud teach you a few words in Tamil. Anytime!

prasad from Dubai: forked tongue? tamil galpal? I am convinced now that my English sucks too. Order in Tamil is 'Amaidhi'.

boo: Hush now! You are exposing me. Nobody would have realised.

legolas: You know shabdas? Elvyn requirements?..no wonder I couldn't understand a thing of your language in LOTR.

vasu: don't even get me started on the different 'l' noises including 'zh' that is supposed to be read as 'ill'. where did the 'i' come from? That will be the end of me.

aqua baby: Long time! How have you been girly?! See, my mom tongue is Tamil and I have enough issues with the laguage..you should just give up.

shub: LOL, you are that type... Poor you.

Hardu: thanks. You will also remember if they made you read it for two years.

Anti: Don't you dare!..tease me, I mean. This whole post was to avert you merciless people from making fun of me. Nonsense, I say..staying in Tamland/or Malluland for all your life, you better have mastered a language. But masters have no rights to make fun of the underdogs. Hope that moral line did it and Anti is regretting his deeds.

anantha said...

Alpha: Now I know why I sometimes find myself humming "Piggy on the railway" under my breath at odd times. Hmmm, the perils of having to study Lower Kinder Garden twice! Ok wait, make that one and two thirds.
And as for the point of this post, there is a old Thamizh saying that an elephant throws mud on it own head and ends up dirtier than it originally was. Since your Thamizh is not as good as it should be, I will not attempt to type that proverb in Tha-nglish! You might probably end up mixing "yaanai" (elephant) with yennai (whatever you think want it to be..lol..)
Actually I *might* not be qualified enough. Recently some random anon troll of a commentor called me a TBCM - an acronym that supposedly stands for Tam Born Confused Mallu. I still am wondering where that one came from, especially when my knowledge of Mallu rivals your knowledge of Thamizh. Oh wait, I just explained it.. whatever!

Anonymous said...

actually you might have been right, yannai and yennai would have surely made me cringe like having a sour gummy bear. I hope you are still going ahead with the publicity. Don't make me stop you.

B o o said...

anti, I dont know the real history about you guys but where the hell do you get patience to put up with all that name-calling and patiently explaining your point? I gotta learn. I was cringing while reading all that and if I had nt seen your name, I wud ve hit alt f4.

BTW, is this the best you can do to alpha? I want more! :)

chava said...

u called me a bear :( ... if u lived in manuguru u must have been to one of these places .. regulagandi or godavari .. btw we had seen bears around our school. and they are friendly , even though i dont understand what their language ...it could be u .:)

Alpha said...

boo, even i am surprised myself..i think my moral speech did it..

and what comment..what cringe? what patience? I am brain dead along with language dead. *hope I'm not setting up myself for something*

Alpha said...

chava: that is definitely a bear's name. Godavari used to flow into our houses every monsoon. Of course I know her. Did we go to the same bear school?

chava said...

may be not .coz we dint have english medium . i think u were in Awsapuram not Manuguru, that was the only school around Manuguru( neither a village,nor a "small" town, Manuguru has a strategic significance ) where they have CBSE .

Anonymous said...

yes, was in Ashwapuram..AECS. So you a native..cool! The refinery my dad worked in was in Manuguru, HWP. Heard the school has a building now. We used to learn under the trees. Wish I cud come across some of my classmates through this blog. That would be nice. Laxmi, you there?

Vee Cee said...

No comments! :)

anantha said...

Alpha: Let me guess. That was a X rated comment that you deleted. :p

Boo: No history.. actually ya, recent history. I had the misfortune of being photographed.. ok wait.. why am i saying this to you and increasing the probability of ending up like the same proverbial elephant? Nah.. its nothing actually. I am only involved in driving traffic to my blog my commenting mercilessly on Alpha's posts. so much that she actually had to call me me and beg me to stop commenting like this. But I would have none of it.

Mrudula Sreekanth said...

Alpha: How did you manage to change 9 schools by the time you reached 5th grade???

BTW, did you have to attend the 5th grade twice due to your wonderful Tamil? :P

Looks like even my Tamil is better than your's even though I am not a Tam. :P

chava said...

nope i am not a native. who taught u englis at AECS? Gomati? dad used to inspect u r school to see if alpha is learning anything useful :)

Anonymous said...

chava: Shucks! You knew Gomati miss?? Oh wow! Yes, she is responsible for this English of mine. She was cool. What else do you know..and who is your dad..*pissing in pants*

anti: that x comment was from Chakri who praised me to the skies..I deleted it so that you won't have inferiority complex.
er..Chakri..why do you delete compliments yaar? *sniff*

vc: You better not!

hardu: I was in 8th std then..reading 5th std Hindi text books as standards were really low out there! Read properly.:P

Mrudula Sreekanth said...

Just read that - the 8th std. thing. :) Your posts are so long that by the time I reach the end, I would have forgotten the beginning. ;P

It has not got anything to with my memory. It is just the length of the post.:P

Quizman said...

I don't know Tamil, but a Sindhi friend in Bangalore was challenged by a Tamil friend to pronounce something like your example Vazhai pazham vazhukki kizhavi oruthi vazhiyil nazhuvi vizhundhal”.

He successfully did so after gulping down a half-bottle of Old Monk rum. Apparently, the zh sound can be articulated very well by non-Tams when under the influence.

Quizman said...

oh, btw, your post was a joy to read, as usual.

Anonymous said...

hardu: huh! insuzht from non-Tamizhhzzzhhians wizh not be tozherated!

Quizzie: LOL. Good idea. Must consider drinking while talking to inlaws. ..zhh...vazhapazham drink this..not azlcohozh..

For a minute I thought you actually spelt that whole deal out when I reliased, you did a good cut-paste job.
And oh, thanks a lot, as usual.

Anonymous said...

My original comments:

This is one the best posts of alpha. I thought she grew up in b'lore until now.

I still will go with that as she is from lovely chicago ;-)

heretic said...

THere's this nagging doubt that you're Lolakutty.

And yay for language refugees: I'm still waiting to be rekkernised as a true blue Burmese citizen masquerading as a Tam. :-))

Chitra said...

Bombat blog. Got to know from Chug's blog. Blogrolling you.

Mrudula Sreekanth said...

So now you claim to be a tamilian again is it as you are now talking to a kannadiga and cannot take refuge by saying that you are a kannadiga? :P

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

I havent stopped laughing. And i read the post 10 mins ago.
btw naandaan maanicaaa! yenga akka molly. Nonsense girl. Pechukka :P

Rhyncus said...

Hmm...and that is why I moved to the one region where I can improve my Malayalam. The Gelf.

Unknown said...

Hilarious post alpha :)) And since when did anti become the master of Tamil :)) :))

B o o said...

WA - Antis help was nt asked for his mastery in Tamil but for his mastery in pulling Alphas legs! :)

Did I say admire you for doing a fine job on that Anti?

anantha said...

WA: I'm no Superman, but i could be a Master-man..hehe :p

Boo: You are being too kind to me and too hard on Alpha bua. I am not sure whether *we* made even a scratch. But me definitely having some fun here, thanks to Alpha. :D

Alpha said...

amethyst: darn right you are..except I think Jill will take offence that we are using her name in loose context like this.

chakri: thanks. All that arm twisting worked.

heretic: good to see ya Sauran. 'lolykutti' bounced off my head.. Boo, please be helping in this regard.

chitra: thumba thanksu.

hardu: your memory might suck, but you learn fast enough.

shufy: hope you found what you lost. Molly and Monica? lol.. But why? HELP BOO!

rhyncus: sounds the the only thing that could be done.

WA: Must have been one of my weak moments when I called Anti the master.

boo: help me crack the above PJs and I'll put u on a payroll next month.

anti: alpha bua? this is the second time I am hearing this from you..Are you my brother's daughter???? I knew it! My bro leaving illegit chilren on the roads to fend for themselves. See how scarred poor Anti is! It's Ok kid, now you can show your face to the world. Alpha bua will take care of you.

B o o said...

Alpha - cracked one.

"it's ok i've been called monika for the better half of my life and my sister is often called molly... know who i am yet?" asked an anon in the comment section of your prev post and you did nt know. Now we know!!! :))

ps. Put me on half the salary now. You really did nt believe me when I said I am hooked on to your blogs, did you now???? :)))

Alpha said...

boo, that I figured..but the question is why were they called Monica and Molly? any significance?

Sorry, half is also not happening. But I do believe the other statement. Thanks for being so vetti.

Alpha said...

Duh! I got it now..*tch tch very slow I am becoming*

Shufy, that was brilliant!

Anyway, Boo, you cud have never guessed..you need to know Shufy personally for that. Sorry for the trouble and all that.

B o o said...

OH! LOLAKUTTY! and not lolykutti, alpha! I think Heretic is talking about the VJ in Channel V. I have nt watched her much but she talks in an annoying mallu accent and once she was interviewing kids on a Childrens Day special programme. My knowledge is limited to that! Now, wheres my paycheck? :)

Alpha said...

Boo: man, you are a work of art (PJ art)Trust Heretic to throw in some local stuff that I am not aware of. I am asking for re-evaluation. Question paper beyond scope of syllabus.

Paycheck, you do deserve though..Human-rights and all..we'll make Anti cough up some dough. He still owes me 'bua' fees.

B o o said...

Shufy, can we be friends? (I need to be on Alphas payroll badly!:)

Alpha, I hope Heretic does nt do a "windy windy one time" on me! ROTFLOL! :))

Mrudula Sreekanth said...

Alpha, so afterall I am not a poor soul with no qualities at all. :P

anantha said...

Alpha: Ummm... that was a dig at you. You need much more than just Boo, I think. The title of "bua" (aunt for all you non Hindi ppl) was bestowed upon you without much fanfare solely cos of your own words. And its perhaps fitting since you *ARE* growing old. Scratch your memory, I say. It all started when u called me Ravi beta and that was when you equated yourself to Lalithaji! LOL...And oh, definitely more than two times, you've been called.
As for being scarred, ya, that I am. Have you ever heard "Yo Mama" lines? Apparently there are "Yo face" jokes as well and I think i was one of the first subjects. Check this one out that was thrown at me - "yo face's so scarred that those nerds at NASA had to land on the the Sea of Tranquility". Ha ha ha.. err.. ok...Well that did not come out as well as I thought it would, but I could be a lot of masters, but being the master of pjs ain't on that list.

Anonymous said...

hey alpha, anon is back :) excellent post, no i do not blog, but i am a ardent reader of blogs. I have had worse experiences with tamil, inspite of it being my mother&father tongue. I have never lived anywhere in the south of the country and the only words of tamil i know are from my parents. So the first time i heard the word "Machchi", i was aghast that my cousin from MADras was calling my brother a fish!!!! but LOL at the tamil in your post...

afishcalledgoonda said...

to say that was funny would be such an understatement. i was laughing so hard that i got really wierd looks from people here at work. but i so understand. my tam is pretty rusty as well. i never had to encounter the madras-type tamil but did manage to have some interesting exeriences. we palakkad people say "vallam" for water instead of "tanni". at someone's house, after a particulary heavy meal, when i asked for water i got jaggery (vellum in tamil)!

afishcalledgoonda said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
afishcalledgoonda said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

wow u luk talented! nice post!

Anonymous said...

Is there a RSS feed for your blog?

chava said...

chakri: infact i was gonna ask the same ,but i found one myself
u can use
http://alpha-2.blogspot.com/atom.xml
alpha: dont worry i know what u did back then :D

Aparna Menon said...

That was super cool...belly belly is aching from non stop laughter and i hope some one will cook for me today seeing me rub my tummy....hee hee

Anonymous said...

anti: yo face? I guess I prefer your Tamil...seems like you are peeved or something. Only yo mama jokes from now for u.

anon: what do u mean you are back? Which anon were you BTW...you anons need a name..henceforth you shall be 'fishy' so I know who's who.

journeylist: you used to be goonda right? seen your around..welcome..When I kept saying 'no' in Hindi, I was poured more and more ghee in my plate.

gemnigirl: thanks gg!

chakri: not sure..wrong person to ask such questions.

chava: thanks for clearing that up. and you are one smartass :)..surely you couldn't have been a native. They were so much sweeter and innocent.

aparna: Thanks girl! Welcome. As long as no one thinks you are pregnant.

Swathi Sambhani aka Chimera said...

that was funny and i could relate to it a wee bit , 'coz i moved to Tamil Nadu from AP when I was in 1st Std and yes I was asked to speak in Tamil when the kids wanted some entertainment :-) (kids r mean, i tell u...)

Anonymous said...

hey swati: jeez, they tortured a first std kid..so sad..i feel for you.

Anonymous said...

Loved your post. All those language references escaped me, but this is one of your best.

phatichar said...

I just love the way you write! :) This was hilarious....

Alpha said...

leela: it feels fuzzy to know you like the posts that make no sense to you. Nandri and Vannakam.

phaticha: thanks ze master!

Pallavi said...

hhahah being a bilingual myself.. i faced similar though not that detailed problem..
In Assam, they laugh at my Assamese and in Bong Land they laugh at my bengali..

So i become the opposite that is Assamese in Bengal knowing Bengali.. and vice versa.. LOL

kuttichuvaru said...

hilarious post!!! I pity thy language refugee!!! there is a dialog in Hum Tum tat Saif says: "main tho sirf hindi main duniya bar sambhaal loonga!!!"... my observation is it, at least it doesnt work in tamland!!!

PS: first time here... u got a nice blog!!!

Ravages/CC said...

Yanai can also be confused with aaNai

Sundar said...

Why don't you try uttering http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Tamil_tongue_twister.ogg ? ;)

Ganesh said...

i rarely comment on blogs of people i dont know but this one was just too hilarious a read...Good read in the middle of my quizzes here at IITM ;) i think i too belong to your category in a way...My mother tongue is kannada (though my friends here will kill me if i say so), I have been in chennai since my birth(so my tamil, tamizh rather :D, is decent if not good), my father is from andhra(so i know bits and pieces of gult too which helps a lot in IITM) and to top it all, my native deity is in maharashtra..i still havent found anyone who is as indian as me here :D

Anonymous said...

Let me mention about the Tamil being practiced in the houses of Tamil Brahmins in Trivandrum.It is called Talayalam-a mix of Tamil and Malayalam.Iyers from Trivandrum stand out when they talk Tamil in Tamil Nadu and try to talk in Malayalam in Kerala.In both Kerala and TN,they are advised not to kill the language.

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The Visitor said...

α - I've wondered what hooted with laughter - today I understood. :D Hoooooo

ramesh said...

u r super funny...i am going to check out ur other blogs.

Jayanthi said...

to add some more to ur list:-
sneha and snega ,parota and barota, poori and boori are also the same thing .a very interesting blog ,i had a great time reading ur posts.