Hindi Medium- A must watch movie

In a country where knowing English language defines your class, this movie certainly strikes a chord. Our obsession with English is so much that a country where we have 22 official languages, more than 500 local dialects, with rich literature still we feel the domination of English, a foreign language. I am a native Maharashtrian, and my love for my mother tongue knows no bounds. For me Marathi is not just a language it is like my mother. This is the reason I taught my son to call me 'Aai' and not 'Mamma'(no offence for those who call Mamma). If I had the liberty to choose my medium at school, I would have definitely opted for a vernacular medium, Although, I do enjoy the perks of studying in English Medium, but some where deep down my heart, I feel that no matter which language is in trend, you can always express yourself better in your own language. I used to place so much importance on my mother tongue and unlike many Indians who take pride if they mess up their vernacular grammar, I feel ashamed of myself if I am not able to converse in Marathi correctly. I used to see Hindi and English languages as outsider languages and kept propagating the importance of my mother tongue.

Then one day I landed up in Chennai and I had friends who spoke Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Assamese. I was literally stumped. Even tough I take pride in my Marathi culture I was always and will always be an Indian first. This was my first cosmopolitan acquaintance and I did not know how to react, I had to shed my internal inhibitions and accept the fact that though Marathi is my mother tongue, if I have to communicate with my fellow countrymen, I have to leave behind which language is better than which one and accept any language which will help us to communicate with each other and that is what is expected in national integration. So as time passed by language for me was merely a means of communication and I became flexible in choosing the language based on which language was required for communication. So now in the argument that which medium a child should be enrolled, I do support English medium, looking at a global perspective, but I do not deny learning your native language. You have to learn them both and be better at them.



Now coming back to the film, the film highlighted the real plight of current Nursery admission system. The competition to get in the good school is insane. Parents are really ready to go to any level for school admissions. I still don't get some of the clauses of this elite schools where parents should know English, parents should be highly educated. What are these schools trying to say that kids of the parents who are uneducated are not entitled to learn in elite schools? If a child has a spark, he can shine anywhere. I still feel that instead of hunting for the best school in the city, parents must try to enrol in a school which is near to home. They should stop spending on donations on these private schools and opt for school which has good staff and not good infrastructure. With the global acceptance of English, studying in English Medium school might be inevitable, but that does not mean that someone studying in vernacular medium should be considered as inferior. I would definitely recommend all the parents to watch this movie.....

Happy Parenting!!!!



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