The following article is written by our regular participant Priyobhashini. The following account was her reaction to Syed Badrul Ahsan’s article titled ‘The Mangled Bangla That We Speak‘ - which was published at The Daily Star. Enjoy!

My reaction to Badrul Bhai’s article is a very deep “WOW”. And American as it might be, that’s the best way I know how to explain my reaction. I agree with almost everything Badrul bhai has said in his article, where did we get mangled is what I ask often too. And not only in the language spectrum!Boshonto Utsob, Photo: Farjana K. Godhuly @ Adhunika

We are such elitists (or purists) that we have no pride of our own sometimes. Many a times it is borrowed, be it in the form of a “accent” or a piece of garment. If you don’t speak pure Bangla but “Benglish” at a shop, to hail a cab or even across the counter of a bank…it helps to be very honest. Because I have seen people who do that get a quicker and more positive response. You are served with finesse swifter than what the ordinary customers get. Like I said, it helps. What helps, catches on just like what doesn’t really help.About a decade ago, when I first started working in Bangladesh, my colleagues would make so much fun of my non-ability to respond to their teases / jokes/ words in Bangla (as I had a more limited vocabulary) that I was left utterly ashamed of my inability to master the language. Given the few years in between I have worked my way up to a much more accepted level of communication. I am very proud of it.

At the same town when I returned to Bangladesh the second time round this time noticed the reverse of this happening. People who were fluent in the spoken language now seem far less equipped than poor-me-myself to voice their thoughts “Ami Banng-la bolth-the phar-chchi na”…..

It’s just, strange.

I have so far seen so many people so embarrassed of who they are, be it in Bangladesh or abroad that I have begun to realize that perhaps, just perhaps the root of the problem lies in the fact that we are not proud of ourselves, which makes us take cover in such lower form of behaviors.

People who go abroad and utterly deny the existence of saris, weaves and cottons.
People who (pretend to) shudder when they see someone eating with their bare hands.
People who are ashamed of someone who is Bengali AND a Muslim too.
People who will readily see the points of personal freedom as opposed to the freedom to practice their own believes (as in the case of Hijab, when I get so sick of listening to yet another who will denounce it straightaway as a bond forced by the patriarchal society rather than a personal choice out of personal faith.) etc!The list could go on for ever,

Personally I don’t like too much of Khadi, Endi or Cotton (that needs starch to look pretty) . I don’t necessarily go gaga over the latest collections of block-printed winter shawls from some boutique. I don’t like men wearing lungis. And I have certainly have grown SO tired of this Fotuwa craze that is sweeping this country (for God’s Sake I pray some designer finds an alternative to it that looks, please, please, please just a BIT different to what EVERYONE seems to be wearing everywhere!)

But I am not ashamed of them!

I don’t wear Khadi or Endi much, wouldn’t be seen dead in a cotton sari (personal choice of course though my mum would die if she heard me say this!) …….I would probably NEVER ever think of dating a guy who wears a lungi (!).

But I am not ashamed of them. I don’t denounce them in every aspect of my life!

I think when one is not ashamed of what one’s roots are; it’s so much easier to hold up one’s head high. Which so many of us unfortunately lack!

This lack of pride makes one reject so much that is good. We try to pretend we are something else than what we are, with the help of a bit of an accent or a piece of garment.

In rejecting what is essentially good, what it is that we are absorbing?
Ever heard of the (Bengali) folk tale of the crow borrowing the peacock’s feathers? Borrowed peacocks feathers on a crow do not a peacock make!

What’s the use of a country called Bangladesh, if we have so little pride in what is Bangladeshi? (As in language, culture, norms, religions, traditions and heritage…)

Denying it doesn’t make it go away. The truth stays.

If we have more pride in ourselves, we will love ourselves more, if we take more pride in who we are, as a nation we flourish more….

See? A little goes a long way…..I just hope it keeps that way!

So “dear pathok brindo”, Badrul bhai’s article is indeed thought provoking, I think I can happily add to it that on the same lines we all ought to be more loving to everything that belongs to us, as Bangalees, Bangladeshis and as human beings.