In twentieth century we were taught languages
and literature that pushed us beyond our daily lives. We learned words that we
hardy used in our day to day conversation. The stories, true, half true or
imaginary, we read depicted things that never occurred in our lives. We needed
teachers to explain what we were made to study. The content was historical,
sometimes idealistic in nature or based on facts not much know to us.
No
doubt, many of us considered it quite unnecessary and did not take much
interest in it. It is also true that we were often fed with distorted history
and were lured by modernity infusing unconsidered bias against what was
traditional. It was the time when the common man and the younger generation were
being exposed to the modern world that looked much promising. Perhaps it was
the time when the thoughts of philosophers of one or two previous centuries had
stated influencing the traditional world. However, the languages and literature
we were, then, exposed to gave us many opportunities to think about the human life
as such.
In
the latter half of the twentieth century political, economic and technological
changes acquired great momentum and language remained merely a medium of
clearer and quicker communication disconnecting the man from his past and disabling
him to imagine much beyond his day to day life. The modern man gradually but
quickly distanced himself from his history, his past, the way his ancestors
thought, the nature and the traditional ways of the nature.
To
the best of his understanding each one of us tries to move in the right
direction. But, whether he moves in the right direction depends on the
opportunity he has to know which the right direction is. We still have our rich
languages, our literature, histories and philosophies of our ancestors, the
scriptures and the nature, as beautifully functional as ever to help us view
our life more objectively and contemplate over it. This connection we are
losing fast, we must admit.
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A
Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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