Is English language important?

Travelling by bus in this country enables an observant individual to obtain great insight into the attitudes of the average Kannadiga mind in general. 

A recent conversation I overheard was between a young man and a slightly elderly gentleman demonstrated the stupidity, myopia and backwardness inherent in a large segment of our population. 

The elder of the two, speaking in Kannada was describing an incident at the office where they apparently worked together. 'Magaa', he said "that new bugger was actually speaking to the boss in English. He even spoke to Priya.... in English, but then quickly changed to Kannada when Priya.... replied in Kannada. These buggers think they are big shots because they know that language. If he comes to me with it, I know what to tell him." 

The younger man agreed, adding that this was a kannadiga state and those speaking English should not be tolerated in their clique. 

I was not in the least surprised or perturbed listening to this conversation for I had come across this attitude to the language quite often before. What was amazing was that after a few minutes of silence between the two with previous conversation abandoned and forgotten, the older man says: "Magaa, now that my daughter has finished school I've enrolled her in computer and English classes and once she finishes these I hope to get her a job at.....". 

That incident fundamentally sums up the way in which the English language is perceived by the hoi polloi of this country; they fear it, hate it, but need it, like a key to a locked door. 

One of the most important legacies left behind by our former colonial overlords who granted us our independence was an educated upper and middle class society fluent in English. India has a great advantage in having had the British as our last colonisers, as opposed to the Spanish, Dutch or Portuguese in having bequeathed a language that was to become the `Lingua Franca'; the true international language of the modern world. 

The importance of English as a vital requirement for a majority of the jobs available in today's market is plainly evident by a glance at the `employment' pages of any newspaper. 

Even the villager in the bus was aware of this fact as was evident in his plans to educate his daughter.
The policies of the present Government makes English education a vital and indispensable tool for the development plans it has for the country. However, there exists a small but highly vocal segment of society that openly expresses its reservations and in some cases opposes the dissemination of English in our educational system altogether. This is especially true in the States of Karnataka, Maharashtra and some of the northern states in our vast country.

The rationalisation, motives and logic behind this school of thought is elusive at best, and seems devoid of farsighted reflection on the impact that the neglect of this essential medium would have. 

English is the language medium of computers, finance and commerce, trade, communications, industry, law, medicine, diplomacy, and virtually every facet of human activity imaginable. To be ignorant of English is to be effectively ignorant of the world. 

With regard to language policy, misguided nationalism reveals an underlying fear and loathing borne of ignorance. True nationalism would recognise that present policies towards the language tend to downplay its importance to the detriment of the country.

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Struggling With Digital Cameras

Maybe it’s just me or do other people have this problem too? For years I got mixed up with exposure values. The larger the number, the smaller the opening and the smaller the number, the larger the opening for the light to enter. I always found this confusing.

Digital SLR Cameras and Photography For Dummies
When I finally got it right, I changed to digital cameras, some of which no longer use the traditional exposure values or method. The feature most point & shoot digital cameras have, is called “exposure compensation”. This lets you increase or decrease the amount of light the camera captures.
The range is usually adjustable from -2 to +2, with 0 being the default setting. To allow more light into the camera, set the exposure compensation to a positive value, to allow less light, set it to a negative value. Now that is much easier to remember: + means more and – means less light. You can use this feature to shoot in very bright sunlight conditions (and haven’t we got plenty of these!). Set the value to a negative value and your image will be less exposed. You’ll generally find it’s easier to retrieve detail from an underexposed image that it is to put detail back into an overexposed image.

Some cameras have a feature called bracketing, which is an automatic feature that shoots a series of images one after the other at different exposure settings one default, one negative and one positive. If you’re unsure as to wether or not the light is sufficient to take a good shot, set the camera to bracket the shots (don’t forget though that your memory use on your card will triple).

Book Review: A Century Turns - William J Bennett

A Century Turns: New Hopes, New FearsTitle:A Century Turns - New Fears, New Hopes--America 1988 to 2008
Author: William Bennett
Published by : Thomas Nelson
Hardcover: 336 pages

This book is a rough outline of all the political controversies and lowpoints of America between 1988 - the start of the Senior Bush era, through the Clinton years and finally the Junior Bush era. Bennett offers his insights and comments of the good, the bad and the ugly on the political scenario in America during this tumultuous period.  The author has tried to summarize the events during this time, trying to stay as much impartial as possible (He is a strongly conservative republican), however as in all books of this genre, whether left wing or right wing, the bias will tend to float to the top.

ONE OF THOSE DAYS

Today it is one of those days
in which the stone in the chest weighs more than ever,
in which, with each breath, in each pore, it is a deep pain.

Today it is one of those days
in which the idea of death scares less and seduces more,
in which the tears struggle to appear and but remain in my eyes.

One of those days
in which love is a chimera,
happiness utopia, life an odyssey.

Today it is one of those days
in which summer is cold, still dark by day,
solitaires still in the middle of the multitude.

One of those days
about which one only thinks to destroy or to create monsters fabulous,
words more offensive, gestures more obscene.

Today it is one of those days
in which I watched the clock and wished that it finishes
and I requested that tomorrow it is not one of those days.

That is to say, it is one of those days that you would definitively like to erase off the calendar…




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Indian Bowlers are Weak?

Harsha, as always has hit the nail on the head. The tour to South Africa, for me, will determine if this team is capable of a sustained stay at the top, after the soon to be retirement of the Fab 3. However , I disagree with his saying that the present bowling is not good enough. I agree that on flat Indian pitches the Indian team's bowling has been found out, but, In South Africa, on helpful pitches, Zaheer and his merry men may be a handful.

I remember that, on the previous tour as well, the Indian bowlers were ticked off before the start of the first test, but how well they responded!! Without Anil Kumble though, it remains to be seen how Harbhajan responds. For me he has always been over rated. He has wickets, but I do not think they have the "Impact Index"!!
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