Fake Punjabis

I felt hungry earlier today, as I reached into the fridge
to get some pizza I saw:

 

I was a bit disappointed that it was ‘kaccha’(not fully cooked) and couldn’t eat it, but a part of me felt really good reading the note because this was one of the rare times when I get to read Punjabi in the fridge. In fact this is the only time I can remember reading something in Punjabi in the fridge.

So, why is this such a huge deal anyway? Because this is how you preserve your culture. Not with bhangara/giddah, drinking ‘Desi’ or even Punjabi music videos on ZEETV, but through reading, writing, learning and communicating in Punjabi we keep our culture alive. What’s the point of showing some kid a Punjabi music video when they can’t even understand what the artist is trying to say? I’m sure this happens a lot, when the only thing keeping them interested is the ‘beat’ and how good it sounds. This will be a big problem right here in surrey within the next 10 years.

This will be a problem because uneducated Punjabi women and men who can speak a few broken words of English want to pass on this newfound skill to their children. I see this everywhere, in the park, at the doctor’s office, at Khalsa School, even on the sidewalk in front of our house. Kids of my generation went through this too. And those who did ended up missing out on both Punjabi and English.

I think the reason why Punjabi parents talk to their kids in English is because they want their kids to have an advantage when they study English at school, just like other white kids. I don’t think this works at all. Do I have anything to back this up? YES! Most of the Punjabi kids who went to school with me couldn’t read a simple paragraph out of a novel in class.

There only used to be 2-3 kids out of the whole class who were able to read well at a good pace. Others had trouble with reading out even basic 5-6 letter words. I’m not bragging or anything but I was able to read quite fast because I read a lot growing up, that was the only thing that made me different then all the other kids. When I started going to Tamanawis in 1997 my level of English was like every other Surrey Punjabi kid-below average. It was when I started to read everyday at lunch that my marks in English went right up, reading improved as well.

I finished English 12 at QE night school a few years ago and out of the whole class only 4 people could actually read out the Salem witch hunt novel(cant remember the name) play. Not only that, most of the class couldn’t even follow along what was happening in the story. Only Waheguru knows how they passed the class (maybe online notes had something to do with it)

Last year I went to Toronto in the summer. The Singhs there did readings and discussed Jail Chittyan and Ranglay sajjan in Punjabi. I too had the opportunity to read a few pages. This was probably the most enjoyable reading experience ever. Most people don’t realize that the Gurmukhi script was given to us by Akalpurkh himself. Punjabi literature is not like writings in English or French or any other language. You can only feel the inexplanable joy of reading in Punjabi while reading something in Punjabi. I don’t know if I am the only person who feels this way but there is a big difference when you read a book in Punjabi compared to English. Good works like jail chittayan and others are an example where the Punjabi version has a much greater impact on a person compared to a translation. This might not be such a great example but try reading a book on the same topic in both English and Punjabi and you will note what I just wrote here…

It’s a fact that you can only preserve your culture if you preserve your language. Language is the foundation of any culture. Whether it were the Greeks, or Romans or Egyptians, or the Aztecs their basic foundation was their language on which they built their empires and legacy. Because they lost their foundation (language) they lost the supported structure (culture) as well. Today their languages and cultures are only studied by researchers and showcased is museums but don’t thrive in the real world.

Next time you see some person talking to their kid in broken English, feel free to talk to them and let them know of the great disservice they are doing to their children. Its worth mentioning here that one day almost by accident I tuned to 1600AM and the vice chancellor of Punjabi University Patiala(Punjab) was being interviewed by harjinder thind and he(not Thind ) kept saying ‘but’ while talking in Punajbi. That was really strange and disturbing at the same time because people like him should be setting an example by using exemplary Punjabi and instead he’s trying to impress Canadians with his ‘but’ usage. I’ve seen other people do this too.

I don’t think there’s any other language that can even remotely compare to Punjabi. I’m not saying this because of my bias against other languages, but Punjabi was the script of choice for GOD!(Gurbani) so it shell be your choice as wellJ