Indian Languages

Indian Languages



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On the sandy bank of the Ganges near Rishikesh, Mark ran into a man who lived in the nearby ashram. They stood on the beach and talked for a few minutes.
Mark: Which Indian languages can you speak?
Guy on the Beach: Which language?
Mark: Which Indian languages? Yeah.
Guy: Aah maybe Hindi and this ah Telugu, Kerala, and Rajastani, and this ah Punjabi, Tamil, Malayalam, Assami and Bengali.
Mark: Everything? You understand everything?
Guy: Yeah yeah yeah.
Mark: Bhutani and Nepali?
Guy: Bhutani and Nepali same-same.
Mark: Wow!
Guy: Bhutani Nepali Timputi. Same. Same.
Mark: Same ok ok but when you were … when you stay with your mother and father…?
Guy: My mother and father is (are from) Nepal.
Mark: So at home you spoke Nepali?
Guy: Yes. Sometimes my parents lived in Bhutan. Then I spoke it no problem. My mother tongue is Nepal(i). But for a very long time I stayed in Rajastan. Then I was speaking (Rajistani).
Mark: How old were you when you left Nepal?
Guy: Me?
Mark: Yeah.
Guy: My parents?
Mark: You.
Guy: Me. Maybe fifteen years. My mum. Just my age now. Thirty-five years. (When my mum was just my age now.)
Mark: And you lived in many places in India?
Guy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark: Study?
Guy: Study, no. Sometimes business and sometimes as a tourist. Only for tourism
before I am a doctor.
Mark: Doctor?
Guy: Medical doctor…chemist.
Mark: And now you stay in an ashram?
Guy: Yeah. I like it. Meditation.
Mark: Six years? Oh good. Thank you.