Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages!

I have had my own experience in the usage of the words Mr., Mrs., and Miss. Generally, among the ‘Indian’ feudal language speaking persons, it is a funny word. Many years ago, I have seen the local filmmakers using these types of words to extract a joke out of Anglo-Indian characters. Later when I started trying to train this communication code into my trainees, I had to face the distress of some low quality rich guys, going into boisterous laughter and introducing me with a ‘This man is a Mr. Remember that he is a Mr. Ha, Ha, Ha’. The Ha, Ha, Ha in Malayalam could be quite a distressing one. Especially when done by low-educated village-based rich guys.

Hassles of personality development

I was actually using this Mr. to give the persons who could go into subordination and address me as a Saar, a chance to escape that trouble. However, once this need for obsequiousness is removed, what usually replaces it is a feeling that I am a nonentity. So powerful is both the placing and removal of the word ‘Saar’. I had this very funny issue when many years ago, a young man, some 12 years younger to me at that time coming to me to make our website. He used the word ‘Saar’ as a substitute for the word YOU.

Naturally every other word connected to me should have to be maintained at ‘Saar’. ‘He’, ‘Him’, ‘His’ and also my name would be with a ‘Saar’ suffixed. He basically came from a Malayalam background. However I found that he could speak in English. So I shifted the communication to English so that he needn’t go in for such servitude in communication. When he used the Sir, I immediately told him to address me by my name, with a Mr. prefixed.

People coming from Malayalam and other feudal language systems, quite easily understand a soft attitude as a weakness. At that moment in my life, I was facing a lot of family issues, in that I was facing the brunt of the various claims over my family from various quarters including my wife’s low-quality joint-family members. Her uncles used to barge into my house and claim their right over me, my wife and my children. This was actually a deed they did on the secret provocation instigated by certain members of my own family members, who wanted to see me cut to size.

When I tried to keep them in their place, they very casually took my wife and children to their family house. Varuna and Ashwina were trained in English and did not know Malayalam. However, in their house, it was their wish that would hold good. Ashwina and Varuna could be made to bear the brunt of such words as Nee, Aval, edi, Aalae etc. even though they wouldn’t immediately understand this. Somehow, I went there and got Varuna back. However, Ashwina, around one year old then was in their hands. {For more on this issue, read this article on Thiyyas}

It was in the middle of this terrible time that I was trying to train this subordinate youngster in the niceties of a higher communication order. I was terribly weak mentally and physically. The way he started behaving was like I was his subordinate. Everything I was trying to do in a good jester, he was taking in a competitive manner.

I introduced Varuna, then around seven years old (but extremely good in English, good in swimming, good in computer typing, and also in certain computer software applications at that time) to him. He was very outspoken in his negative words about her also. He was not using the word Mr. when addressing me. He would simply call me by name on the phone. In Malayalam, addressing a person by mere name is understood as placing a person below him or not acknowledging any superiority. The minimum acknowledgment that is required is that of age.

Now, this is one intractable problem involved in improving persons from the feudal language systems. Any leeway given is understood as weakness and used as a route to climb on one’s head. Moreover, the usage of Mr. and Mrs. doesn’t last.

Another joker in the pack

There was another man who I met in a very remote area in Kerala, a son of a government department peon. He had worked in some places outside Kerala at the level of some hotel receptionist. He had an MA in English, which literally meant that he was a person whose information about English Classics were just what he read in the textbook guides that he had to go through to pass his MA exam. This man was also very young compared to me. When he first came and met me, he used the word Sir. Immediately, I told him that I could be addressed with a Mr. prefixed to my name. However, this type of communication is a very dangerous lifting up of lower class persons, who are in a very competitive mood for social climbing.

In the case of both these persons mentioned above, I used to use the word Mr. when I addressed them, so as to give the hint that I need to be addressed with a Mr. However, what would develop in a few days would be a communication relationship in which I would be addressing these much young persons with a Mr. and they would addressing me with my mere name. In a way, they would be feeling that by being so callous, they are arriving on the heights of English. This second man later could go to the US after his wife went over there as a nurse. Immediately on arriving there, he wrote to me with the word: Buddy.

Incidentally this was the person who came and demanded to me as to what I was up to teaching good English to the local guys.

How they take the mile!

I have seen this feeling of being at par with everyone, coming to people who emerge into English from very low ‘Indian’ social standards. See this quote of a comment by an Indian on an Indian website reacting to the US President Obama’s call to STOP OUTSOURCING: buddy barack must have gone out of his highly questionable mind, when he spoke all these crap. he must understand one thing.

Now this is a universal issue of ‘Give an Inch and they will take a mile!’ with giving a little leeway to lower class people. However, the person quoted just above wouldn’t be a lower class in India, but rather a rich Indian with one foot in the US. Now, these type of persons present an ambivalent stance.

For one thing, they would be the persons who would be keeping the other lower financially placed ‘Indians’ below them with lower indicant words. They understand the terrible levels of freedom that they can use in English in a most casual manner. It is this very understanding that makes them dislike the prospect of the lower-placed persons in India learning English. They understand that the moment their servant classes learn English, they would very fast lose their stance of obsequiousness.

Arming an adversary

Actually, this kind of language training is not based on innate and traditional English systems. Rather it is the direct encroachment of feudal language codes into English usage. Lower placed persons, the moment they feel they can bring down a person with no personal casualty, will go in for the using of lower indicant words. If they feel that they can get away with it, they will use words like Thoo, Nee, USS, Avan etc. and even words like Eda, Edi etc.

The innate English posture is to give a position of dignity to the other person. However, when giving such a leeway to feudal language speaking persons, what is being done is arming up of very dangerous adversaries.

Corroding the vitals

I wrote so much to denote the apprehensions that had gripped me many years ago, as I saw persons with bare understanding of English traditions getting accommodated in English nations. I had fears some more than thirty years back that the English usage of Mr., Mrs., and Miss would fast become a sign of some funny pert cockiness and soon get erased from common usage. I fear that my apprehensions have come true. It may however seem that a sort of outlandish egalitarianism has been achieved by this change. It is a false impression. What has been achieved is the corroding, by utterly low quality persons, of standards that had been built up by English over the centuries.

When newer levels of irritations bore in, the native-English speakers will be forced to react in the same tone. That brings in more dirtying of the nations and its antique population.

What the encroachers bring in

Now let me mention both the effects these encroachers into English are capable of doing. One they will strive to keep the local ‘Indians’ in a level of subordination and obsequiousness natural in their innate feudal language, and actively try to stop them from learning English. They will use the lower level indicant words to continue their despoliation. At the other end, they will move to English nations and try to bring down the class of people who they feel are of lower level jobs. For, their conceptualisation of the common man there would be based on their own native language social visualisation. See this article.

The words ‘lowly carpenter’ is used about carpenters in England. Even though the writer of this article need not be an ‘Indian’ born person, what she is extruding is the current social understandings based on a few items including that one I mentioned here.

See the below image. The fact is that it is dangerous to be under the Indian carpenters, than under the ‘lowly’ English carpenters, in terms of indicant code usage!

Computer Geniuses of India

It is here that I need to mention about the Computer Geniuses of India. Some fifteen to ten years back, I was intrigued by one fact. This was connected to my understanding that knowledge in English was the key to higher international information in its unadulterated form. In many ways, this understanding was not correct. Knowledge in English only brings in a particular quality to the information.

I started seeing people with bare capacity in English doing things which were quite obviously beyond their human abilities. Like bringing out ‘supernatural’ quality image designs, and many other things. It was all done using computers. When speaking about images, there was this thing that I had noticed many years ago. It is that usually when a Tamilian makes a drawing, a very specific Tamil feature will automatically get encoded into the image. Otherwise, it would be a neat copying. Even in copying the native codes would get in to a limited bit. Likewise other persons in India, usually. But not always.

{Here I need to digress and say this: I wrote a Children’s story based in an English setting and gave it to a publisher in Cochin, in the year 1999. He gave it to an English professor, who immediately told him that it was not written by a local person. For, there were no native codes inside the story. That it clearly was a pilferage from some English based website!}

Now, it was seen that relatively uneducated persons (I am not speaking about formal education, but the real education that insists on a good profundity in British English traditions), were bringing out items that were quite different from their actual intellectual and mental calibre.

Computers had started appearing on the social scene. People who had learnt its use were giving out the impression that it was something only fantastic geniuses could work on. Actually, in the year 1998, I did ask a young computer professional as to whether it was possible for me to study computer usage. For, he seemed quite at ease in computers, and at the same time, he had all the mental features of a mediocre. He processed my question through the social codes and understood the grave implications of my question. His answer was, ‘It is not that easy. You are not young and you will not be able to focus your mind on learning computers that easily’.

However, I was learning computer typing from a computer based business premises. Actually, I found that even in the case of learning typing, there were some secrets that were maintained. On the F and J Keys, there are protrusions that are there to help one bring the fingers to the same position. One of the instructors came and told me at an individual level that such a thing was there. He told me that he was giving me this information as a special case.

My next experience was that in this institution, when I asked one instructor as to how to Bold a word, he would come and do it quite fast, and would decline to inform me as to what was the key-board shortcut that he did to get the bolding. Asking for that information was remarked as being too bold or impertinent. That too remarked by lowly educated, youngsters, who would be donning the titles of Saar, Maadam etc. Their hold on to these titles as if their whole life depends on them. For that, what they need is small-time information like these which they try to keep as secret, as if they are Classified-A stuff, in US military intelligence terms.

Actually, one should bear in mind that these people actually have to act thus. For, in feudal languages, ‘respect’ is the most vital thing in social and professional life. This has to be gathered by limiting others’ access to information and skills.

I think that I have mentioned about the scene that I had seen in another institution with regard to teaching PageMaker. That happened barely one year after the afore-mentioned experience. I mention this to inform the reader about the tremendous change from a novice to a reasonable expert I had become in computer usage within a short period of one year.

During that one year, I had been in a metropolitan city and had come to use a computer in my house. Before going there, I once had an occasion wherein I had to print a leaflet. I took the matter to a place called Badagara, which is also a very small town, more or like a big village, on a highway, with feudal social communication everywhere. This is so, even though modern looking buildings are everywhere. I mention this to emphasise that modern infrastructure has nothing to do with modernity. It may also be mentioned that in every modern city in India, this kind of village or feudal social setup is in existence. For, people from these place barge into quality areas and setup small units with their own feudal cultures inside. It is happening even in England. That is the real tragedy.

When I went to a printing place, the general attitude of the village guy who was the owner of the printing shop was as if he was in possession of some exclusive knowledge. I had no problem with that. However, there was a particular level of stupidity that I was supposed to exhibit. However, whenever I speak this gets erased. I could understand his stance. I had experienced this much in government offices, wherein the staff try to make me go round and round with a paper just to make me submit my subservience in knowledge.

This printing shop owner told me that design work could not be done there, as there was heavy work there. It was understandable. He asked me to go to a DTP centre nearby and have it done. Before that he told me in a very grave and condescending manner, that I need to ask them about the software in which they were doing this, and I have come back and get it ‘sanctioned’ by him. {In that year, I had not much idea as to what a software was). I went to the DTP centre.

The person there was willing to do the work immediately. It was then that I asked him about the software and that I had to get the concurrence of the other shop owner. At first he looked a bit surprised. But then he fast caught the idea. He also went into a mood of exclusive knowledge. He took a paper and wrote down: PM4. He told me as if I was an idiot, to go and inform the other side that they would ‘create the file’ in the thing whose code name he had written down. I have to go there, get the ‘sanction’ and then come and inform him.

When I gave the paper to the first guy, he looked at it and brooded over it in a very grave manner for some time. And then he made some comments about some other intricate aspects and then ultimately told me that I could inform the other shop that it can be done.

The feudal power of a peon

I was a bit taken aback by the show off of such condescension by lowly-educated persons. The issue here is that I was used to such arrogance shown by Indian government officials of all levels to the native people here. Once I was going in our family lorry to Bombay from Kerala (around 1300 kms). At the Belgaum Sales Tax check post (between Karnataka and Maharashtra border), the officials were very crude to the driver and cleaner. (However, they were used to such behaviour and did not seem to mind it).

The fact is that in all check posts, this is an ordinary standard of behaviour by Indian officials to the natives of the land. Now, what intrigued me was that in this particular check post, the peon came and collected the Bill and other invoices from our driver, and simply walked away. Even though he was only a peon, in that particular circumstance he was quite powerful. He walked into a restaurant and was seen drinking tea and eating snacks. The driver and cleaner went after him and bowed to him, and cajoled him to return the bill and other papers. He did so after nicely enjoying the servitude displayed by them in front of so many other customers.

It was in many ways a social code for him that repeatedly send messages to the local people of his powers over so many lorry drivers. In fact, these minor scenes would enhance his indicant word levels among the local people there. He took some money and returned the papers.

The ease of a knowledge

Later when I had a computer at home, I was simply amazed to see how easy it was to work on computers. I had heard people who had computers give an impression that it was so holy a thing that children should not be allowed to play with it. That it could get spoiled. However, I could see no way by which it could be spoiled by a child, other than by banging the CPU on the ground. So, I gave my daughter full rights to work on the computer at age four. Actually, I had seen children as young as two and half also playing games on the computer at that time.

Within weeks Varuna mastered typing, learnt Adobe PageMaker (actually she first learnt it on Aldus PageMaker, which I think later got converted or taken over by Adobe), understood the rudiments of Adobe Photoshop and much else. She was only four years old. I have no claims that she was born super intelligent. At age six, I took her to study C+ which is the computer language that is taught at Software Engineering level. However, even before that she had become an expert in Adobe Acrobat. She also knew to make Websites on Adobe Dreamweaver (at that time it was Macromedia Dreamweaver) and knew to work on Adobe Flash, at around age six. At around this time she set up a Forum page on Active Board. Its current name is English Antiquity Page. (As of now, it is seen deleted by some wise guy in forum site).

Now, the issue that I found here was that computers are superb. Mastering it and also mastering the software part also is not very difficult. However, if Varuna were to study carpentry, brick construction, iron work or any other thing, she wouldn’t get this mastery in so small a time-period. That is the reality of computer knowledge. Actually, I was learning MySql at that time from a book and we two used to go through it. We had no other teachers. It was not a difficult learning. However, if anyone were there to teach us, we would have learnt faster.

{I must digress at this point and mention that by this time, I was facing a lot of antipathy from so many persons, who claimed that I was part of their re mote interior village society, and couldn’t bring up Varuna as I wanted. The police inspector who came to me (in the issue of Ashwina) was at first quite rude and told me that ‘This is India. We are here to enforce Indian rules on you’. So, ultimately Varuna was forced to join a school at age nine in class five, where the teachers were at best novices who could have been trained by her.

The uneasy brooding

This teaching methodology was used by me, when we were training others. They got the gist of computer usage within days, if not hours. Even N & S became quite good in computers. I remember an instance, when we had two CDs with 1000 games. Ashwina, then around four years old, insisted that it should be given to N & S. I had to ponder on that for a few moments. It was more or less making N & S improve their mental agility. For a brief moment, my mind moved through the local feudal language codes.

It was true that respect in local languages is connected to having persons around one, who are not as good as you. We have to be the Saar, Chettan, Maadam, Ji, Mahatma, Mash etc. This level difference can be maintained in the eyes of outsiders only if a certain very definite and clearly visible difference in knowledge or position is maintained. However, I had to take a stance that I should consistently follow English codes and not concede to the demands of the Malayalam codes.

However, when one functions in a Malayalam software, this is a very foolish thing to do. For one thing, neither they nor their parents appreciate the gesture. Once they get the capacity, they move among higher levels of interaction, based on this superior experience. It has been seen in the case of their physical training. They, who wouldn’t go out of their house other than with shackle-like adult supervision, were taken out for football, swimming, jogging etc. It is all later seen as some innate capacities in them. And other adults who do remember the difference would not mention it.

For, mentioning something like that is lending me and my systems power and respect. This they will not do, for it is a competitive social system. Only the poor Englishmen did the foolish thing. And they would not have looked foolish, unless the wise-guys back in England who did not know a penny value of understanding about ‘India’ took over the reins of power and plunged them and also the innumerable other lower class natives into dumbness.

0. Book Profile

1. INTRODUCTION

2. Essence of improving

3. Command codes in the language software

4. Spontaneous block to information

5. Forgetting as a social art

6. What the Colonial English faced

7. The third quandary

8. A personal briefing

9. Fifth issue

10. The sixth issue

11. Conceptualising looting