I have been living and studying at Tamil Nadu India for the past four years. When I got the news from Indian Embassy Nepal (I am a Nepali citizen) that I was accepted for a BE-CSE degree in a South Indian College there was a ton of excitement. New culture, new language, new lifestyle, something almost everyone fantasizes about at least once in their lifetime. Fast forward a few months, I am living with my Nepali brothers in an International Hostel, eating food from mess which more or less tries to serve us our own style of meal and a very feeble connection with the Tamil locality. Initial excitement led me to learning a few things in Tamil, experiencing Tamil food, etc but that didn’t sustain because those were optional. Most of the interactions happened in English. There was no obligation, no need and the occasional excitements wouldn’t last that long.
One of my Tamil friends, on knowing my eagerness to understand the language and culture, even gifted me a 30 days Tamil learning book on my birthday. Since my initial desire was just to speak, the book which taught in Tamil medium didn’t catch my attention and the book remain shelved for almost a year.
At the end of 2015, in the month of December, I was in Kerala (another South Indian State) to take part in annual ACM ICPC programming contest and my team had two Tamil guys (my classmates) from the college. On a dire, boredom stricken day following the contest I casually took out my notebook and pen and asked my Tamil colleague to teach me some Tamil alphabets just to make my mind wander off. Most of the Tamil symbols are curvy, symmetrical and very beautiful to look at.
As I started learning a few letters I started becoming more and more familiar with the language constructs and it’s similarity with my own mother tongue, Nepali. I didn’t stop with the first few letters and I went on learning the entire alphabets (Vowels, Consonants and their combinations). I got some apps installed on my phone, downloaded Tamil plugin for my Swift Keyboard, started reading my “birthday present” and the fascinating journey towards learning a new language began. After returning to Tamil-Nadu from Kerala I started interacting more and more with my Tamil peers, texting in Tamil and so on. The positive feedback I got from them was really inspiring.
Now, I am living in Chennai which is 339 kilometers far from my college (Salem). I came here for an internship at a web startup company but my intentions are more than that. I want to live and experience the real Tamil life. I have been staying with Tamil friends in hostel, I work with them and spend most of my time with them. Whenever I am out in the street, which is quite often, I try to read what’s written in the billboards, shop banners, basically any Tamil writing that catches my attention and ask my friends for meaning. Tamil, being a significantly difficult language it gives me a sense of achievement at times.
This experience has brought back to me my childhood memories when I started learning my mother tongue. Isn’t that what we all used to do? Read whatever catches our attention and ask our elders what it meant. I have vivid memories of how I learned the meaning of hundreds of words in my mother tongue.
I am just happy to be learning Tamil and experiencing this change!! :)
