Language Extinction and its consequences on us

According to UNESCO, a language is lost every two weeks. Cultural and linguistic diversity is of the utmost importance to build sustainable societies. Every country realizes how preserving and nurturing the mother language of their people is vital to their holistic psycho intellectual development. In fact, it’s the most important cultural asset around which the identity and salience of a community are built.

Since 2000, UNESCO has been celebrating International Mother Language Day every year on February 21. It serves to remind us of the importance of language as a cultural asset. This date was not chosen at random though. It was a tribute to the Bangladeshis' (former East Pakistan) battle and the sacrifices made for their mother tongue in 1952 when Pakistan imposed their language of Urdu on them as the official language of the country.

Ms. Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Director-General, highlighted how four out of 10 children worldwide do not have access to education in the language they speak or understand best, meaning the foundation for their learning is more fragile. "Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities" is the theme for this year 2022. This year's theme focus is to advance multilingual education based on the potential role of technology and support the development of quality teaching and learning for all.

The language we see today is the language that has evolved from the past. It's a product of development and cross-pollination from its lateral languages through voluntary or involuntary infusions. Languages like so many things have their typical life cycle. They evolve, develop, stagnate, and die. Many languages in the past had reached their peak and they are not in use now. Rich language like Sanskrit which has influenced so many others is now in the archives. That shows that languages evolve and get enriched when used by the masses across their various layers of application and it dies when not used or it becomes the preserve of the privileged few.

Language Extinction is real and the consequences of it befall the society which is responsible for its extinction.

Is our language endangered? Are we aware of it? Are we allowing the demise of our mother language in our complacency, or we are doing it out of callousness that looks almost as if by design? Let us see the state of our language in comparison to the global and national trends and evaluate what, where, when, and how we need to intervene to stop its extinction and lead it to an enriching evolution.

Globally seen, of the world's 6,000 languages, 2580 (43%) are estimated as endangered. On the other hand, just 10 languages account for over 4.8 billion (60%) speakers of the world population of 7.9 billion. If the top 3 languages are analyzed; English 1.13 billion (Native 379, Non-Native 753); Mandarin 1.11 billion (Native 918, Non-Native 199); Hindi 0.61 billion (Native 341, Non-Native 274). That shows that few languages are growing at an exponential rate over the demise of many. Let us see our national trend. From 1991 to 2011 Hindi spoken as a percentage of the Indian population has grown from 39.29% to 43.63% whereas from Bengali to all other languages it has remained flat. The percentage of Odia has dropped from 3.35% to 3.10%. What are the factors behind this trend of the rising popularity of English and Hindi which is being adopted by the non-natives with such ease?

Globally English language has positioned itself as the bridge language for most non-natives. For the last few centuries has been the language that gave people access to higher economic opportunities. Electronic communication which shrunk the world into a global village with only the different time zones rode on the internet which was in English. Various language contents were made available in different languages on the web, but the highways, lanes, road signs, and driving rules are in English. IT has reduced personal communication to structured and mechanical business languages for easy processing and unambiguous facilitation by the service providers. The need for creating subtle expressions has been shunted out and the participants are encouraged to choose keywords that allow easy numerical evaluation at the processing level. Spellcheck, Grammarchecker, Predictive texting, Autofill, Emoticon, and GIFs are helping people not to go through the grind of mastering this language of opportunity and start using it and get the bulk of their needs met. In ease of adoption lies its popularity.

Coming to the rise of Hindi at the national level, the IT industry since 1990 has fuelled massive migration both at the national and international levels. English has always been practiced by the privileged few and has remained aspirational for many. The later cohort who was not very comfortable with English because of their medium of education and exposure adopted it with glee as the bridge language with their adoptive state. The soft power of Hindi movies and easy availability of entertainment content familiarized itself to the new generation from their time of birth. The kids of the current generation are as much at ease with Hindi as with their mother language. Hindi now enjoys the same fashion quotient which English enjoyed 4/5 decades back. This multilingual trend has a negative side too. This has given rise to a hybrid language which is a mix of Odia sentences peppered with subaltern Hindi expressions which is a pain to the ears of practitioners of classic forms of our mother language.

Despite the depressing trends of most languages, multilingualism does exist and is thriving. Prof. Jatin Nayak says that there hardly is a profession or sector in which one can survive with proficiency over only one language. He rues that education is the only sector that has callously neglected our mother language from primary through post-graduation. Be it in terms of improving the quality of language teachers, empowering them with newer tools to encourage students for creative expression both in its spoken or written form; the downward slide has been worryingly steady.

The discussion above is more on the spoken form of the languages.

But is the role of a language limited to communication between two entities or it's a tool of learning of the evolutionary past of the society?

Anil Dhir one of the leading conservationists of the state feels that invaluable knowledge exists at the community level which verbally gets passed from generation to generation. It has stood the test of time. But the recent trend of migration and remaining detached from their social context is doing irreversible damage to the knowledge base as these pieces of knowledge are not documented anywhere. It will die with the death of those persons. As migration for economic prosperity is unstoppable; he strongly advocates that many tribal dialects need help to develop their alphabets and lexicons. And with the advancement of AI technology that is very much possible. But it requires support from a compassionate state and sponsor. That will help them document those pieces of knowledge for future generations. The loss of this knowledge is a loss of humanity.

Let’s think of a scenario where the rock edicts of Ashoka had not been deciphered because the person who could read them was not available at that time. The world would have been so poor without knowing anything about Ashoka and the political life of that time. The same is going to happen soon here when the contribution and sacrifice made by our forefathers who could carve out a state based on the languages we speak will be lost in oblivion because the texts which have documented the past will be incomprehensible to most of the current generation. Who will be the loser? Not them but we as the society for sure.

Study shows that usage of mother language for reading, and writing is now limited to senior citizens who are well past 65 years of age. Most of the groups between 14 to 64 have no practicing contact with the language. Many of them can speak and not write well. Most of them don't read anything beyond the local newspapers. While the practicing population is 5.3%, 63.6% practice this haphazardly. The ones below 14 years which are 28.6% stand to see no better scene. Imagine a society where 92% of its population are disconnected from its heritage literature as there is no need for this either in their daily life or profession. It is not fashionable, nor does it assure any reward or career advancement.

We connect with our past from our heritage literature and the only way to get it is through our mastery over our mother language.

By not familiarizing themselves with the heritage literature of their language, we don't acquire a sense of the socio-political identity of the society we belong to; no knowledge of the major milestones in the past as no history book talks about the history of our state. We don't know about the evolutionary cultural processes our ancestors have gone through. What do you call such an ignoramus community and what would keep them bound together in the future?

It's said, never erase your past. It shapes who you are today and will help you to be the person you'll be tomorrow. We learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

Preservation of mother language should be as important as our instinct for self-preservation. Where have we lost our humanity? That leaves everyone in some position of privilege with a set of very uncomfortable questions to answer on this International Mother Language Day.

How safe is our future in the hands of such people?

Is economic development the only sign of sustainable development of a society?

Can we risk such a scenario in the future?

What are we doing about it to prevent it?

How big should be the efforts?

What is going to be the roles of the state, society, and individuals?

Benne Masala Dosa and COP26

As I sat in this neighborhood restaurant in Bangalore enjoying my sinful Benne Dosa dripping of hot butter I saw the picture of a smiling face on the counter, garlanded; It seemed familiar. It was the picture of Puneet Rajkumar the heartthrob of millions. He had tragically died of a heart attack while working out in the gym; he was only 46. Today happens to be the last day of COP26 Glasgow, where the world leaders had huddled to declare the world of their commitments to take actions to save the world from overheating – which is projected to rise by 2.7 C by the end of this century.

My mind sensed that there was something common that connected these two events. It started brewing in my mind triggered by a cup of freshly brewed filter coffee. I let my mind wander.

I am no doctor but the new age obsession to build a six-pack herculean body fed on a custom-made diet and exercise regime is what our body evolutionarily perhaps was not designed to take. Some of us have redefined what once was called fitness and have replaced it with the picture of a roman wrestler whose sole purpose of existence was only to eat and fight. Nothing morally wrong in what Puneet was doing one would say but did he overdo his fitness bit? His fans and friends must be wishing what if he had not overdone this.

The climate change situation is alarming, and it’s said that there is no time, and we need to act fast. The world leaders chose to stay non-committal and have let the slide continue. We have clearly overdone many things in our pursuit of comfort and convenience over the past two hundred years. And I am sure that soon we will regret that we didn’t act in time in the past.

A friend from the past had called up yesterday and we spoke long over the phone catching up on things after years. This once used to be a daily routine between us till things turned sour. I was awkward and not comfortable speaking to someone after a long gap. After years of detachment when I look back, I realize how I had overstepped my limits and overstayed in that space. This is a pang of guilt, the burden of which I carry even now.

Many of us live with a sense of loss after losing someone dear, emotionally scarred, harboring the feeling of hurt because of broken relationships. The earth with its air, water soil damaged irreversibly because of our own lifestyle and realized in hindsight that all these things which have damaged us today could have been avoided had we paused or stopped at the right time.

Not that we didn’t know, there were dozens of omens, alerts, and advice of the impending danger but we had chosen to ignore for pleasure or short-term gains. Why do we choose to do so? Why do we miss that right moment when we should have slowed, paused, stopped, or stepped back and prevented things from worsening further? What happens to the rational man at these critical junctures?

Ignore all these discussions; should I, myself not have opted for a regular dosa instead of this buttery treat? 

 

Riding on a broom to the Moon

Many would have heard this story of JFK visiting NASA space center. He spots a janitor with a broom, introduces himself, and asks him what he is doing. 

"Well, Mr. President," the janitor responded, "I'm helping put a man on the moon." 

To many, this janitor was a menial worker just cleaning the building and his contribution to the stopped there. But the larger story unfolding around him in the background, he was the proud member of a team that was helping to make history. Is it not?

Here is the point. It's not the janitor but the leader behind this mission who had injected that sense of belongingness into the team which aligned everyone with a higher purpose which the organization is pursuing.

Was he an aberration or we can find such motivated members across organizations? How many people do you feel we would bump into in an organization who have that sense of pride because of the purpose of the organization and also for the direct and indirect contribution of their role to the organization achieving its objectives? 

A trip in public transport, a field trip or a visit to an organization offers beautiful opportunities to us to observe people and their relationship with the organizations they work for. More technically speaking if they are aligned with the purpose of the organization they are working for.

A question about their work mostly does not elicit anything beyond the department and their job description at the most. The relationship between his role and its contribution to the organization in achieving its goals will always be missing. No matter how large or small your role, you are contributing to the larger story unfolding within your life, your business, and your organization. Why is this lost on most of the members?

What do organization leaders do about it?

Dr. John Paul Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, author, and founder of the management consulting firm Kotter International created this organizational change business strategy.

[Read more at: https://www.experiencetolead.com/three-methods-of-organizational-alignment/]

It’s one thing to hope for such alignment in an organization but very difficult to achieve in its totality. Many variables at each of its constituents and the ecosystem it is being tried in make it a challenging task. But when your entire team embraces that type of attitude and belief system, incredible things can happen.

So let us give it a try!

The Culture of Quality

A few days back few of my friends got into a casual conversation over someone’s posting on his Facebook wall on this slogan ‘Make in India’.

I commented that our country will continue to remain hopeless if there is general feeling and accepted belief that to excel in one's chosen field, he has to leave his own country. Because we have not produced anything worthwhile after giving ‘0’ to humanity, hence we do not get the world’s investment attention. To which a friend quipped, quality is available to people who Value quality, and we don’t value quality. 

Don’t we value quality? Don’t we expect quality? Yes, we do.

Most of our cribbing hovers around the falling standards in every sphere around us. From relationships, the education system, organizations, and society at large. Start any discussion on quality everyone jumps into this trip – how they only see mediocrity and averages around them. This blame narrative is mostly heard in the academic communities which now are infamous for their dangerously falling standards.

When everyone expects high quality, then why don’t we get it?

If our chat on Fb both of us were talking about the same thing - about the culture of the society which values quality, but I additionally was hinting at our behavior which contributes to the collective societal value system. Around that time, I chanced upon a video snippet by the author Simon Sinek where he was breaking down the society with its Culture as Value + Behaviour. 

Though the value can be at the collective and individual level, the behavior is always individual. I had this personal experience recently which is relevant to this issue of individual behavior and how it evolves in its ecosystem.

I had written a small note on my project as a primer. Though I felt that this is good enough for the immediate needs, something deep inside told me that this needs improvement. And only experts from this field can help. I sent it across to two academician friends who work in the related space; expecting them to find that elusive scope for improvement.

One sent back after few hours with few corrections which were nothing more than typos - was expectedly disappointed. The other sent it back a day later with detailed comments and suggestions. Enthused by the feedback, I joined the editing effort and made changes as suggested and sent back hoping that it’s the end of it.

No! she sent back with more comments. That went on more than 4 times.

If one compares the product with the first version; he can see two different documents – both classes apart. The end-product bore the signature of that habit of someone to naturally push things for excellence and not to stop before achieving it.

Was the former insincere? My answer will be no!

Both are the product of two different cultures. One culture values quality and the other does not. Because the former does not let average pass the gate; she has grown in the culture of striving to achieve excellence in her work and that has formed into a habit that now manifests in her behavior. Thousands like her are produced in that culture and contribute back to the culture through their behavior. Quality is a by-product of what our Society collectively values and nurtures and the discipline to which we individually agree to submit ourselves to.

Let us face the truth and bite the bitter pill. To expect a culture of quality or excellence in our own lives, in our organizations we need to start practicing it ourselves. It can only happen by first not accepting the average quality just because there are people around us who accept it. Let us submit ourselves to the grind of polishing our work through umpteen iterations till it reaches a higher level of excellence. When we expect it from our employees, our clients would be expecting it from us.

The Same Dawn

Predawn sky.

Motley birds waking up building up a chorus of their own,

Few morning walkers on the road,

Few minutes left for us to grab the fresh air before the city wakes up.

The bleating of a herd of goats as they are eased down a carriage,

The eerie sound of the chopper grinding against the sharpener,

Few minutes left for the goats to breathe for the last time before the city wakes up.

The same dawn!

Balance Sheet 2020

As a year draws to a close, one is always tempted to look back at it with clinical detachment.

Towards the end of 2019 with 2020 on the horizon, I saw the approaching period perhaps as our time which has come. I have always been partial to a number composed of 0s and 2s – 2020 was simply perfect in its composition. 2020 with its rhyming and symmetrical look somehow assured me of a better time ahead.

2019 was a mixed bag of personal losses and successes. Many events in the first few months of the year reaffirmed my hunch that good times are indeed ahead – the bounce in my gait was visible. And towards the end of March what hit us like a tsunami was unprecedented in its global impact and unbelievable - now even after 9 months of being thrown under it. But the most amazing thing is that we have survived underwater.

That is a victory of human survival instinct and resilience. I must thank my clients and colleagues and friends who stood by us. 

If there were occurrences of unexpected deaths of close relatives rattling us at the core for a moment, the calm composure of their nearer ones in accepting the inevitable was inspiring; giving us the message that life has to go on and the story of life is made of such episodes.

All our masking, sanitizing, bunkering in our own silos, distancing from everyone to escape the dreaded virus came to naught when my whole family along with most of my colleagues were found positive in a gap of a few days – almost collapsing our organization structure.

The source of infection is still a mystery but our spirit and ability to fight together and win was the new discovery.

We could sail through the period with many friends who stood by us like a rock helping us with our treatment and supplying us things as basic as meals three times a day, forging a lifetime bond. That period also made us see the worst of some friends; their insensitivity and callousness helped us to finally take a call to pull the plug on them.

Removing toxic elements from life is like doing periodic maintenance of your car if you want it to last longer.

If there were voids created by the departure of few close ones, few like Lalatendu Jena, Biranchi Panda, and Manoj Behera breezed into my life giving it a completely new meaning and direction. The road ahead and the journey with them looks so promising and exciting.

Before I realized, they had occupied their space in my heart with their goodness and had almost become family.

If the year before we lost Mikey, which we are still trying to come to terms with and get over the grief; this year we had Simba, a Dachshund, and Kai, a Pitbull Terrier enter our family making our house look like a joyous menagerie. What is a torn sofa cover to our guests, seems like a hickey to us.

They still do not comprehend why a torn pair of socks and a gnawed pair of sleepers make us smile?

God has an amazing way of compensating our losses and to make us look forward and stay hopeful in life. Today, on the last day of the year I am in deep gratitude when I see my family unscathed, my business getting back on its feet, and for all the new friends and lovely pets who have entered our life and have come to stay with us.

God bless and wish you all a Happy New Year!