Paanch... paanch... paanch

Two days ago I was flipping through channels... when I was on a Japanese channel (curtsy DISH network, by far the worst blood sucking good for nothing network) I got a call, so I was talking on the phone and walks in a friend of mine and asks me what I was doing watching a Japanese channel. Not the one to give a straightforward simple answer, I asked him why should I not watch a Japanese channel and told him that language should not be a barrier and it is people like him who think that language was a barrier that actually hindered the concept of global village.

It felt very nice lecturing him that way, but it did pose a question if language was actually a barrier. Then suddenly I remembered something that my mother had done long back. For some time I was lost in memory of my mother. Although she is no more, she still is a very strong driving force in the decisions that I make in daily life.

This happened around ten years ago.

My mother's interaction with Hindi was minimal. The Hyderabadi hindi that my sister and I spoke sometimes at home was her introduction to hindi and anybody who speaks or knows hyderabadi know that it definitely is not hindi. And all the Raj Kapoor movies that were broadcasted when he died didn't teach her much either. And then a score of Telugu channels started and she never had to learn hindi.

During that time Naxalite movement was at full swing, so any industry which was earning "some" profit was provided protection by CRPF. It so happened that a few people were given quarters to live near our house. My dad was the happiest because he could buy liquor at the discounted prices of their canteen, he made a few friends in CRPF. Now there was this particular Rajasthani couple in those people. And quite odd as it sounds, they were the only people from North India and everyone else was a Malayali or a Gulti. So that Rajasthani lady who found my mother the most hospitable came to our house every now and then and stayed there talking to my mom for hours together.

Now this might happen anywhere and is not a big deal, except the non-tenable part is that my mother didn't know hindi and that lady didnt know anything except Rajasthani or hindi. So the two languages that my mom knew (Telugu and English) were out of question. So my mom wrestled with the little (which was very little) hindi that she knew.

I witnessed the fact that they talked for hours and hours together and when I asked my mother how she managed, she smiled and said that she understood pretty much everything that the lady tried to tell my mother and vice versa (I asked that lady about it and she told me).

I wasn't home much, but my sister narrated a very funny incident to me.

When a vegetable vendor passed by our houses, the lady screamed on top of her lungs,

"Oh sabjiwale bhaiyya, idhar aao".

The vegetable vendor who did not understand that it was intended for him just moved on selling his stuff. So this lady ran out and stopped him. Well my mother also had to buy some vegetables and she did just that.

My sister at this moment went next door to meet her friend. After my mother and the other lady bought the vegetables, the vendor asks her for fifteen rupees. Now the only problem being, he said it in telugu. Now the lady looked at my mother enquiringly.

My mother looked around for her escape route (my sister) and obviously didn't find her. Now that the onus was on her, she took an easier route. She paid for both of them. The lady took the vegetables home and came back with the money. She asked my mother

"kitne paise hue didi?"

Now my mom understood the word paise. She was about to say that it was okay because she didn't know how to say fifteen in hindi, but then she came up with the neatest thing that I have ever known.

She showed her five fingers and said paanch, she closed the fingers into a fist and opened them and again said paanch and finally for the third time she said paanch. Without blinking the lady gave my mother fifteen rupees.

After I heard this episode I never again asked my mother how she managed to talk to the lady for hours.