Rethinking and Relearning the Devnagri Script
Reasons why you should learn other scripts.
In my last blog on reading, I mentioned how audiobooks, during those long insomniac nights, became my gateway back to reading. Some time ago, I listened to a few chapters of “Blue is like blue,” which, to my surprise, was translated from its original Hindi version written by Vinod Kumar Shukla, who is known for his vivid writing. He crafts descriptions of people, usually in the third person, to reveal how the characters think, walk, and what they fear the most. What do you think? These are not significant world issues, but common concerns for most people. For instance, what if the 10 rupees they kept are stolen by the hotel’s housekeeper? It’s a very real worry if you only received your salary a day ago. Would you cycle back halfway to check? Glorified characters might not, but here they do — these characters as Shukla describes them are smaller-than-life people.
I enjoyed the story so much that I searched for the original Hindi book but couldn’t find it. So I went ahead and saved “Yasi Rasa Ta,” another book by him in Hindi original,( which also has a translation, in case you want to check it out here.) And to no surprise, reading in Hindi was difficult.
I am a native Hindi speaker who studied in what we call an English medium school, meaning we only studied in English. Our native tongue was treated as just another subject.
I was brought up speaking Hindi at home, though I grew up consuming a steady dose of international entertainment. So, English was and is much easier for me to read. I can write, speak, and understand Hindi perfectly well, but when it comes to reading, I am a bit slower.
I can’t even read at half the speed of my English reading rate, which makes it tough for me to get into Hindi literature. Also, Hindi, or I should say local literature, hasn’t been promoted as much. Royalties are really low, so novel writing in Hindi was almost dead. However, there are writers like Vinod Kumar Shukla and Gitanjali Shree (whose book रेत समाधि /Tomb of Sand recently won the International Booker prize)
In my experience, I have now witnessed a rejuvenation of Hindi and Hindustani languages. Art festivals focusing on Urdu and Hindi writers are being held, and slam poetry is no longer exclusive to English. With the accessibility of YouTube, writers are actively expressing themselves in their native tongue.
And as for me — my reading speed will increase as I delve more into the Devanagari script. Perhaps Vinod Kumar Shukla’s magical realism will keep me going.
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