I grew up in a multi-lingual household. We all spoke English and Tamil quite well and often English ruled the roost. Probably it was because our family wanted us to get fluent in English. It worked and today, I am proud I speak good English and in fact one of my claim to fame is the perfect 6 for my writing skills in GRE. I have always surprised a lot of people – desis and non-desis alike here in US. The desis I assume, think a small town girl like me cannot talk perfect English and the non-desis live in world where they believe all Indians learn only Math and Science.

This does not mean I do not know Tamil. I read and write Tamil quite well but not as well as English. I am trying hard to incorporate more Tamil into my life especially for the radio show I host. I regret not paying more attention to Tamil literary works and I have taken steps to rectify the same.

And knowing Tamil gives me an added perk here in Houston – to comment about, talk about things I should not be saying in a social setting. I typically do it all the time with R – comment about people in the line ahead of me in Target or call from office to complain about my boss/co-workers all in the safety net Tamil provides me. R does the same with me. Like for example, when he gets a pay hike and is excited, he calls me and painstakingly repeats the numbers in Tamil to explain his joy without giving away much to his co-workers.

I also switch easily between Tamil and English when talking with my mother. This morning, I was talking to my mother about something and it was something I really did not want the people in my office to hear about. I struck to Tamil and we kept talking. Then somewhere in between, I had to mention a country name – China and so I used the Tamil version ” cheena naadu” and continued with the conversation.

And then after giving the necessary responses my mom goes, “addu enna stylea cheena naadunu solra“. Literally meaning, why are you being so stylish and calling China – cheena nadu? And it was my turn to start laughing. Growing up, talking in English was the stylish thing to do. Somewhere along, English attained heights unimaginable. Girls went “yes yaar, no yaar, is it yaar” in front of guys and guys did pretty much the same thing. It was hip and it was in! English news ruled over Tamil news and Tamil was banished as a village language which older people spoke. It was stylish to carry a English novel in hand but not a Tamil one. The mindset was that. And today, my mother remarks talking in proper Tamil as stylish?

Is Tamil getting its much needed revival? Is Tamil hip and in? or is talking in pure Tamil something so strange and restricted to newscasts that anyone talking it beyond media is considered a alien?