|
Is this the Dawn of a new beginning?
|
A
month ago, the team of Sindhishaan received an extremely interesting
mailer from a fellow Sindhi member residing in the suburbs of Mumbai.
As we read through the mail, we felt a sense of victory, only to
later realise the journey has just begun. We salute the efforts
of this member, Mr Nand Karamchandani, who we hope with his novel
act has set a precedent in the right direction and hope other members
could follow suit. In this edition of PRERNA, with the aim of inspiring
Sindhi members, we have reproduced his correspondence herein. We
would appreciate if you could write back your feelings on the same
to us and/or Mr Nand Karamchandani himself.
Mr
Nand Karamchandani on his correspondence to Mr Ranjit Butani wrote:
|
18th Jan.
2002
Mr. Ranjit
Butani
Managing Director,
Sindhishaan (I) Pvt. Ltd.
Dear Sir,
I
am a subscriber of Sindhishaan from its inception.
While
I was going through the 'Foreword' of your second issue, I
felt that today's entire Sindhi community is sailing in the
same boat as you are. Today I am 56, I speak in Sindhi with
my parents and elders but with my children, I speak in English/Hindi,
which I think is incorrect. My elder son got married last
month. As the communication between me and my children is
in Hindi/English, naturally communication between my son and
his children will also be in languages other than Sindhi.
In this manner whatever Sindhi is spoken today will gradually
vanish.
In
order to keep our dear language alive, I have instructed my
daughter-in-law to use Sindhi at home. Hope it will work!
Lets see if my son and daughter-in-law speak in Sindhi with
their children. Lets see if we can keep alive our mother tongue!
You
must have noticed that even today, Gujaratis, Maharashtrians
and Marwaris and I think people of other communities print
their wedding invitation cards in their respective mother
tongues but not we Sindhis. Of course, it will not be practical
also to print wholly in Sindhi but at least we can print in
English as well as in Sindhi. You will be pleased to know
that this is what I exactly did when I got my son's wedding
cards printed and got many calls praising my gesture, not
only from Sindhi brethren but from non-Sindhis as well.
I
am enclosing a sample of the card and request you to print
it in your magazine so that others may follow suit. I invite
suggestions/criticism from my Sindhi brothers in this regard.
With
sincere thanks,
Sincerely yours.
Nand
Karamchandani
105, K.B. Lal Ind. Estate,
Linking Road Extn.,
Santacruz West,
Mumbai 400054.
Click to
view a larger image of the entire wedding card.
|
In response
to this eye-opening correspondence from Mr Nand Karmachandani, Mr
Ranjit Butani wrote:
|
Dear Mr
Nand Karamchandani,
At
the outset, please accept my sincere thanks for writing to
us.
My
happiness grew many a fold as I read through your letter.
I
am more than glad that Sindhishaan in general and my foreword
in particular could help dawn on you the realisation that
it is imperative for the community as a whole to increase
the usage of the mother tongue, and especially for members
of our age to take a lead and set an ideal example for the
youngsters.
I
must congratulate you on the wonderful example that you have
set forth to the community by having your son's wedding card
printed in Sindhi, which only further augments the usage of
our mother tongue.
It is a gesture that shall also further encourage the married
couple to use their mother tongue at every given opportunity.
Secondly,
your gesture of suggesting your daughter-in-law to converse
in Sindhi at home is also a step in the right direction. For
us to attain success in the struggle for cultural survival,
it is of extreme importance for our women folk to speak in
Sindhi, because, in doing so our children will also pick up
the habit of speaking in Sindhi more regularly.
At
the end, I would once again take this opportunity to thank
you for your monumental contribution, and for having treaded
on a territory, in which many others from the community would
be proud to follow.
I
salute your initiative, and hope that you as an individual
and me and my organisation SINDHISHAAN can spread the word
about this for the whole community to follow suit.
Best regards,
Ranjit
M Butani
|
|
