It is my love and nothing more that provokes me to be like this today. Having said, or should I say after having written what I had written, I felt lonely and alone. I also felt a sense of unfairness in not saying much more and so I thought I would continue to punch in a few lines.

Why do we become like this ? Is it the lack of will of wanting to share something, or is it just that at times you want to do something that is not necessarily expected. It is expected of me to write for the 510th day, to be in touch with the hearts and the minds of this family that has grown within us. But if I were to keep away from it, I would have followed my own desire of not doing the expected, and ruined the expectation from those that wait.

Is it just me , or are we seeing the use of the word ‘expect’, more than what we normally expect ! There it is again !

Words have a way, and their development when researched, unfolds into diverse topics, converging eventually on a simplicity that we are never able to gauge when we hear the word for the first time.

Because we are in this maze of words and because we have been struck by ‘expectation’ at every turn, let us just look it up -

EXPECT ~

ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (in the sense [defer action, wait] ): from Latin

exspectare ‘look out for’, from ex - ‘out’ + spectare ‘to look’

(frequentative of specere ’see’).

How on earth did we ever discover that this is the word from which it is derived and how did we in the 16th century discover the word for look out and to look and for see.

The whole process of speech and meaning and the formation of words is such a fascinating subject by itself. But it does not end there. Words were found and brought into use to explain a moment an act and then as time went by, the words developed a motive of their own. Society brought in their use in not just what they meant but at times to express more. It was not important to merely use a word to explain factually. It became a handy tool to be used not necessarily for the factual.

‘Cool’ may have been devised to express temperature. But the urban lad uses it to express many other moments. ‘I think I shall be running late this evening’ exults one mate to the other. ‘Cool’, comes the response. Ideally the word would have been used to signify 10 degrees of centigrade, but urban mate is actually using it to say ‘Fine’ !!

And so on and so on …

The vocabulary is the same as in the dictionary. The meaning is the same. But its positioning gives it another character. This evolution then becomes a major factor in expression. If Latin can be involved why not any other language. Lets say Hindi for example. Because of our History there is no doubt that English has become a major source of communication, not just within the country but universally. After English, I believe the most widely spoken language is Spanish. But in a country ruled for over 200 years by the British, a part of colonial design was to impress and impose a language that would make it easier for the colonialists to function. In wanting to run and govern a country as vast and as diverse as India, I imagine their decision may have made sense to them. It happened with all the colonialists - the French, the Dutch all imposed their language. Then when an international functional language was called for, English reigned supreme. Yes, all the regions and their languages remained vibrant and alive but never found favor in the international community. Each nation and its people are fiercely proud of and respect their Mother tongue, but try flying an aircraft and radio the ATC(Air Traffic Control) in your Mother tongue and you shall perhaps be guided to the wrong destination. The language for the ATC is English, irrespective of which country the pilot may belong to.

The BPO revolution in India came about because the average speaking language in the country was English. International conglomerates found a cheaper and ready employee to work at their phone assist facilities. China, now realizing the importance is inculcating the locals to learn the international language for better commerce.

This is not to take anything away from the language one is born with. That shall remain with us always and shall have its presence and importance in our existence. A respondent on the comments yesterday wrote in Hindi and complained that I was not writing sufficiently in the official language of the nation, Hindi. I do write, but not as often. That is because the server was going to translate all I wrote in various languages of the country. I was under the impression that when it shall be done by the server, it was not necessary for me to indulge. That has been under some delay, so whenever I get a chance I do put in my few lines.I hasten to correct the commentator of his accusation. Every face page of mine has carried a portion my Father’s works in the language of the nation. My desire to only cater to an English speaking audience is not entirely true. There are many from the FmXt that are Russian and German and French and from the Middle East, they all have their limitations, but through effort and translation they come together to be on a common platform. That I think is important and most laudable. It would be most improbable if each nationality that came on the blog demanded to be addressed in their Mother tongue !

There are many from our own Mother land that have different tongues - Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kanada, Malayalee, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi. It was in keeping with this aspect that I wanted the blog to be translated in various languages. I have had some very constructive meetings with the entire team of bigadda and the respected personnel that shall be involved in the translation of the blog into these stipulated languages. When I get back, I shall push them again.

But to bring some closure on this topic, may I say that the presence of dominant languages alien to the mother tongue has at times brought about a very sweet pollution to our manner of speech.

When I was asked to fight the election from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, my campaign manager and sitting MP and State Minister, MR KP Tiwari, was asked on the first day what the condition of the electorate was. He replied, in his typical UP tone -

“Amitabh ji, confusion toh hai utter !!”

The ‘toh hai’ is the Hindi, the rest is English, but when speaking or expressing a point, in the way he did, it conveyed in some respects the severity of the moment to be greater, than it would have had he merely spoken it in pure Hindi.

Ah … what began as a two line post has achieved the distinction of going beyond 1230 words. That is quite a turn around.

Right now at the US Open, Rafael Nadal must be hoping for a turn around in his fortunes against Del Potro from Argentina, who leads 2 sets to love at 6-2, 6-2 …

अपने हिंदी भाषी प्रेमियों को मै इतना कहना चाहूँगा की मेरा प्रयत्न अपनी मात्रि भाषा में लिखना जारी रहेगा . समय समय पर मै आप सब को सम्भोदित करता रहूँगा . शीग्र ही अलग अलग भाषाओँ में ब्लॉग पे लिखा अनुवाद होकर आप के सामने लाने की चेष्टा करूँगा , थोड़ा सा धैर्य आपको रखना पड़ेगा . प्रणाम

love and prayers ..

Amitabh Bachchan