What language do you speak in mind?

Sitting with a sixth grader who was studying history, I was suddenly thrown into a world of yesteryears with a question of his — thousands of years ago when the kings and priests in India spoke Sanskrit, while women and other men spoke the language Prakrit.

His question was this, “How did the king and the queen communicate if one spoke Sanskrit and other spoke Prakrit?” Both are ancient languages. We know about Sanskrit and this is how Prakrit is defined as, “The Prakrits are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages used in India from around the 3rd Century BCE to the 8th Century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, excluding earlier inscriptions and the later Pali.” I was impressed that the question was posed on International Women’s Day. So even I was not feeling well I thought this is an interesting way to observe International Women’s Day.

So much for understanding between men and women. We definitely have come a long way. The pause was getting longer as I noticed the young one who had asked the question was still looking at me for the answer. So he went ahead and asked his next question, “So today when rulers from different countries visit each other how do they communicate with each other as they speak different languages?” This was easy! I explained to him the intricate job of interpreters and in most cases you can see the person sitting nearby translating the questions and answers to the leaders. And this probably was the case in the past too because there were pilgrims who would stay in kings’ courts for extended period, and there were ambassadors who would travel far to bring across a message from their rulers. Surely they would have picked up the language too.

“Hmm, true. But a conversation between King and Queen — would they need interpreters? May be they want to say something personal.” Now historians might differ with me, but this was the only answer I could think of — “One of them must have known two languages.” Imagine the translators’ plight if they wanted to argue. There were instances when alliances were from distant lands which would have included cultural shocks too.

He was happy with that answer but the topic allowed me to think further on the languages of the world. Humans have always wanted to communicate. In the olden days it must have been a very competitive world. The kings were always thinking of new ways to expand their borders to benefit the kingdom with resources. There were travellers and thinkers who were doing their part too. But when it came to simple communication the objective is to understand each other. In today’s situation we speak the same language but fail to understand each other.

Another year came to celebrate International Women’s Day and the spotlight continues to be gender equality. But it is not enough to be in print or in speeches and broadcasts. It is known about celebrations it is about pulling each other up to the level of success. Yes, of course we want to see more women in different job levels and jobs that were male dominated. But we need to talk about it together- men and women, to understand it is not about men vs women. It is about uplifting women to realise that she can achieve whatever she wants once she sets her mind to do. One does not have hurt others to achieve what one wants but others need not be the obstacles in her achieving the ambitions and dreams. The question is not about languages it is about the thoughts. Thoughts move to words and words become actions. That is important we have come till the words so what are we going to do to make it into actions? Even a small step will do. It is time for us to break our own ceilings whether you are a woman or a man. A young man once asked me, “Do your really believe women still need all this empowerment stuff? Aren’t they all empowered?” A nice question but my reply would be yes we are seeing a lot of empowered women, and some are on the threshold of empowerment, but the fact is there are many more talented women who are capable or need empowerment who are still contemplating whether to step out or not. The language Prakrit might have evolved to other languages but if Sanskrit is what the mother would have spoken, it still could have been the mother tongue for many and would have been spoken more today. After all a mother is the first teacher. Just a thought like the tongue in cheek joke that did the rounds on the women’s day — “If practice makes a man perfect, then women must have been born perfect.”

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