Challenge 2 - 26-Oct-2013: Learn Gujarati

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It's been a while. For a while my Challenge was left to fend for itself like a little scared child that gets lost in the supermarket. But don't worry little kid, I got you.

The thing with Gujarati reading material is that us Gujarati's with your God fearing Gujarati mother's just keep religious books in the language. I didn't really want to read anything religious. I wanted to try the literary variety of the language.

So I went to the local club where I play Table Tennis everyday. It is called Kandivali Recreation Club. This club has a decent library of Gujarati books.

I asked my friend, Deepak Sanghvi (who, by the way, ALWAYS kicks my ass in table tennis, grrrrr) to recommend a book. He said, only if I become a member of his library for a nominal Rs. 200 (phrsht! These Gujarati's I tell you! wink wink). So I shelled out 2 blue Gandhi bapu's. He then gave me my very first Gujarati novel. Called 'Paralysis' by Chandrakant Bakshi. Ha Ha Ha. Talk about ironic. You know what is more ironic, a lot of the dialogues in the book are in english (written in gujarati of course). I mean, for God's sake. I'm reading something like "You are torturing me" in gujarati...literally! :-)

Anyways, I am consuming around 2 pages per day. I read aloud like a little child and after I have muscled through an entire sentence, I have to re read coz I was so busy forming the words from the letters, I didn't pay attention to the meaning. But patience is the key. I hope to get faster by the end.

I realize, a month is enough to at least kick start the literary campaign for Gujarati for me. But it is not enough if I want to become at least passable fluent in reading this language. So I am planning my next month's challenge along similar lines.

I will, obviously, talk about my new challenge next month. So stay tuned, or logged in, or connected, or whatever man. I gotta go read Gujarati like a 10 year old.

Front and Back cover of the book I am reading:

 

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Challenge 2 - 12-Oct-2013: Learn Gujarati

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So I was beyond the kiddy alphabet learning stage on the second day itself. After that I tried to write a couple of Gujarati paragraphs daily to get a feel. But after getting irritated by my horrible hand-writing (note to self: look up dyslexia), and after my wife's laughter had died down, I decided to simply practice reading everyday.

The reason for my fast progress is not because I am a fast learner like Mr. Data from Star Trek Next Generation. It is because I already know how to read and write Hindi, and I already know how to speak Gujarati. So this is literally about re-mapping the neural cells in my brain to map the new slightly different Gujarati text to the already familiar speech.

So everyday I take a gujarati magazine and read an article or two. Now, in english, I can devour a 1000 word article in a matter of minutes. In gujarati, it is another animal. I read slowly and painstakingly and if I do get all the alphabets right, I still get confused coz I don't understand the word. So I ask my dear wife. She shows a lot of patience for the first 48 times that I ask her. Then she quietly goes to the kitchen and makes as if working. :-\

But it is a lot of fun. My only complaint is the lack of good readable material in Gujarati. In English, there is so much variety in writing styles, from the amazingly witty Stephen King to the easily digestible Chetan Bhagat. I think in my early stages of reading, I have not come across much interesting stuff. This is, in a way, slowing down my learning progress.

So, for now, my challenge has morphed into finding good Gujarati reading material instead of learning to read Gujarati. If any of you can suggest something would be much appreciated and I would make every attempt to obtain it and read it.

Some interesting facts before I wrap up:

1. Per the 2001 census, 45.7 million people speak Gujarati. The population of New Jersey is 8.8 million, and New York is 8.3 million. We Gujarati's could easily invade New Jersey and New York....wait, we already have. Ha Ha Ha...OWNED!
2. The Gujarati script is based on the Abugida system rather than the Alphabetic system. In the Alphabetic System, each vowel has an equal standing with a consonant. Not so in the Abugida system. Here the poor vowel is demoted to being merely an attachment of the consonant to modify it's sound (Oh! The discrimination!).
3. The Gujarātī script is also known as the śarāphi (banker's), vāṇiāśāi (merchant's) or mahājani (trader's) script.  But then sometimes even Gujaratis are called bankers, merchants and traders (and NOT as a compliment).
4.  It is the language of Mahatma Gandhi (The Father of the Nation), and Mohammed Ali Jinnah (The Founder of Pakistan). This little fact invokes so many thoughts in my brain that I am rendered speechless! :-\

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Challenge 2 - 02-Oct-2013: Learn Gujarati

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It's October and it's time for a new challenge. This time, I will learn a new language. Well, it's not really a new language. In fact, it is Gujarati, my mother tongue. Blush Blush. And well, I already know how to speak Gujarati. So where's the challenge...you ask, with your eye brows raised and some of your patience evaporated?

Ok, here's the thing. I know how to speak Gujarati. But loath be to say, I cannot read or write it. I am an illiterate Gujarati. In my childhood, I was so busy learning English and Hindi (and a bit of Arabic too coz I studied in Dubai), I just neglected Gujarati. And here I am now, writing blogs and shit but can't read diddly squat in my own mother tongue.

So what better time to remedy this situation than now? And what better approach to take than a 30-day-challenge? :-)

This is what I'm-a-gonna do. I'm-a-gonna search for some good sites that will teach me the basics of the gujarati alphabet and I will practice reading and writing everyday till I get better. I believe I can do this in 30 days because the gujarati script is very similar to Hindi which I already know.

By the end of this challenge I wish to be able to fluently read Gujarati articles and books and also write passable sentences.

So wish me luck, and as usual I will post all the necessary reference links and my feedback on the sites in case anybody else would like to try them out. I will also keep posting interesting tid bits about the Gujarati language and it's history so that you guys don't get bored with my A for Apple, B for Ball routine this month.

By the way, it is 2nd October today. Gandhi Jayenti (Mahatma Gandhi's birthday). What a way to spend his birthday...by learning his language.


Here's a little something to play with until we meet next time:

Consonants:

Vowels: 

Numerals:

 
Sad joke: What language do carrots (gajar) speak? Gajarati! :-)

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