Birkarnelzelzit Thiyam
I woke up in a very sensitive world where we talk nothing but keeping up our culture and to not get mixed with any other. To that extent we stood where we are questioned for even speaking English for it seem to be brought in arena of hindrance in upbringing our own dialect. I was fired with so many question when DJ Soda was targeted for not speaking English in an exclusive interview with Impact Tv.
In the video that was uploaded in Impact Tv. YouTube channel which was an exclusive interview with DJ Soda from South Korea, something messy hurt me. At the outset, let me draw some outlines of my bomb. There were hundreds of comments on why she was not speaking in English, many laughed thinking her avoidance on speaking English was something that dressed her into the illiterate world. First of all, she comes from a non-English speaking first-world country which seem a little beyond necessity to learn English when she can pay millions for her translator. And on the other hand, India is the world’s largest English speaking country which might trigger her some inferiority complex that questions her confidence over the level of command in her English language. That could be one of the reasons why she was all on her translator, which was completely fair to me.
Manipur is the producer of football players for India, so this might be something really familiar, have you guys heard Messi and Neymar speaking in English, might have but keeping comparatively to the other it’s next to nothing. And something funny triggered for people made fun of her seemingly lack of English understandings but typing down comments with pathetic grammars and so much spelling errors which was noticed by other states.
But insanity of patriotism didn’t stop there, there were questions raised about why the interviewer was asking in English. For those who said that, I would like to observe two minutes silence for them. And the sarcastic idioms kept rising to the extent of calling the situation out as “Narol Erol Thai Mai,” in a way like she came out from hood. If I have to drag you all in a situation where you see in most of the UNICEF channels or national geography where a white journalist from USA goes to a remote place in Africa and dances and sings with the villagers in the area, take that in Manipur where a girl from first world country came to some village in a third world country and dances and sings with the local. How about that? Is it still “Narol Erol Thai Mai?”
Coming to those who were so proud to see her speak in Korean as a mark of respect to her own dialect, till that – it was fair to me. But giving a full on lecture in the comment section down below for why we should not have mixed with anything at all were all on my nerves. If we are so much sure that having our culture, dialect, dress and script was all we need to be the purest, let’s take a look at those amazon tribes, where they are so much pure of their own culture and tradition, who are not at all ready to mixed with the outside world. Would you call that something best for having everything our own?
And if we are so much into being pure with our fore-father’s parcel for us, we should all be naked for that’s how we came and that how we started. Listen, when we are so much into saving our culture, we are losing our grips from the fastest developing society in the world. Going with the development is not about losing or compromising on what we have but using the development as a fuel to rocket up what we have.
The writer is a Motivational orator, who currently resides in Canada. Subscribe to his YouTube channel “Live with Bir” where he uploads motivational videos every Sunday and also interview of inspiring personalities from all around the world. He can be reached at
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