Yesterday while scrolling through YouTube, I came across a video footage of the 1993 Debate program broadcasted on Bangladesh Television. Even though I’m not a fan of Bangla programs, I was stuck and somewhat hooked when listening to the students’ speeches. All of them presented their speeches in Bangla in such a beautiful and easy manner. I was so marveled that I even tried to find one of the debaters on Facebook. I also tried to write this piece in Bangla and man, I struggled!
I realized Bangla is a beautiful and forsaken language. This realization led me to experience two types of emotions. Regret and sorry. I regret that I forgot how to talk or write in fluent Bangla. It is indeed a shame. And I feel sorry for our nation. Yes, we hold the glory of being the only nation to fight for our language. But did we really hold on to it? Every year, we hold numerous seminars, programs, and whatnot on 21st Feb, but does it serve the real purpose? Haven’t we limited our language day to Instagram and social outings?
In pursuit of portraying ourselves as smart and fashionable in our society, we have indeed distorted our language. I still remember one of my teachers saying, “Talking in fluent Bangla is also an art, and it is a shame we as Bangladeshi don’t learn it.” Our smartness is narrowed down to the use of English slang and prepositions such as “like.”
Now, it really leaves us with a question. Apart from screaming respect for 21st February, how much do we really value our language?
