In my first year, I wouldn't speak in Hindi because I assumed that English would be more commonly understood. That was misconstrued as "attitude". I'd been here for all of 5 months when I was labelled Ganchali. Like on a mic and stuff, at our socials.

Back then,I wasn't quite aware of what it meant but I did realise that it wasn't very polite and I spent a lot of time figuring out what led to this. I wanted to learn Kannada(it was one of the reasons I chose this college, I figured this way I could learn a new language as well

and someone told me Karnataka was the easiest to adapt to- generally and in terms of language. Also I had heard Raghu Dixit on MTV unplugged and thought he was cool, lol. Also totes had a crush on TRDP's then flautist.

But I was so used to being decent at languages(English, Hindi, spoken Maithili)that speaking in broken Kannada in front of my friends made me super conscious.They'd coddle me everytime I spoke in Kannada I would end up wondering if I was messing up,switch back to English or Hindi

I spoke the most Kannada on my trips to Bangalore because most taxi drivers didn't coddle but were glad that I was conversing in Kannada. Very wholesome. It'd mostly be sentences in English interspersed with a few Kannada words here and there.

I think it wasn't until final year where
you have the most clinical exposure that I started to truly stop caring about my shitty grammar ( and mixed accents/dialects because I've had many, varied teachers) because patients truly don't give a shit.

Also, my clinical learning is in Kannada and I sometimes have to search for words in Hindi when describing a symptom. During internship, I've managed cases with whatever Kannada I've picked up over the years and the fastidious old me is still not satisfied. But I can, instruct,

take histories, scold like a well-wisher and remind people to wear a mask properly in Kannada. And the Ganchali Bidi Kannada Mathaadi gang had nothing to with this. It was the, Kaliyuttidiri ashte saaku and the neevu Hindi helkodi, naanu kaliyuttini folks that helped.

My point is, it took me 5 years to learn a new language enough to actually hold casual conversations in it. And it's fun to learn a new language ( I am still worried I've messed up spellings and grammar here, which is why I avoid typing in Kannada). Tweeting this on Hindi Diwas

because I promise you, if you genuinely want to promote a language, forcing will not help. Sure, we North Indians are shitty and it's a very natural urge to punch someone for saying Kannad gottilla. But idk, try using pop-folk music first.

And if you're a Hindi speaker wondering, yaar kya bol rahi ho I'm just saying, maybe stop making fun of accents when people speak in Hindi. Stop acting like you're entitled to Hindi. I like Hindi. My Hindi has also improved since I joined college mostly because I started writing.

And it's definitely better than the last guy who told me yaar Hindi toh seekhni hi chaiye inn logon ko(sic), national language hai. If you truly want to exchange cultures, then do that. Exchange.