The English & The Me's ;)

Hey!!!

You know what happens when you stop reading & conversing in a particular language?  Correct!!!  And what if that happens to be the most common language used worldwide?  Exactly!!!  And that's what happened to me.

I quit working post marriage and moved abroad with my husband.  Having worked for 8 plus years, I was only happy to be home.  It only meant I had surplus time to get to know my brand-new husband ;), have some "me" time, enjoy the new country, learn cooking (initial days were so horrendously disastrous that I would cook, taste, and dump it all right away into the bin a countless number of times :-| ...that my spouse was quite good at cooking saved us from dying of hunger in the cold wintry start-up days of our joint venture of marriage...ah...I can just sway off the topic like....mmm...like whatever!!! and now I can't remember what I was actually telling you...Oh yes!!), enjoy the freedom of waking up and sleeping at your own will and wish, and loads of other good things that came with it.

While all the "new" things in this phase of life kept me engaged, little did I realize that I was losing out on one of my most favorite things to do - Reading.  Forget finishing a book in a go, I wasn't even looking at one.  I was so much into this homemaker role that I would spend hours at the Tescos and PoundLands, grocery shopping & picking up those tiny-miny things to do up my home and admire the artsy side of me.  Am sure all the women out there (at least those whose lives traveled along the same path as mine) can relate to what am saying. I mean it all is just so fascinating that you don't even realize that you have given up things that you love doing.

And while abroad, meeting a fellow Indian would only mean chattering away in our native languages. Even if it wasn't my native language, it was typical of me to try and speak the other's.  I loved learning them (I still burst out into peels of laughter watching the videos my friends shot of me giving the Tamil Tirukurals a try ;-) ) , and somehow that made me feel closer to the person & I must say it does feel like I traveled overseas just to meet some really wonderful people, who today are my extended family, whom I shall stay connected for the rest of my life (Man, what was that!!! sentence or great wall of China O_o).  So there I was, unknowingly losing my command over the language, both spoken and written, over just a period of about 2 years!!! 

I happened to actually learn about what was going on when I began to pause trying to recollect the spelling of very simple words (you'll laugh your ass off if I tell you what words).  Good Lord!!!  The spoken language was going hazy too.  I recollected how my mom had gradually lost her language skills & then got home a copy of the well-known Rapidex English Speaking Course.  And there I was, going her way (maybe I would land up in an English-Vinglish scenario some day)!!! 

Good Lord!!!  It wasn't that bad actually, but somehow it all felt like a nightmare, giving a sudden jolt to my confidence.

When I shared what I was going through with a few of my friends who were travelling in the same boat as mine, they all echoed my experience.  Alas!!!  What a heartbreaking fact.  No doubt each one of us were happy in our own lives, but then we had lost ourselves in the humdrum (becoming drums in the process, as well) of life.

Well, the solution to regaining language skills was quite simple (well, I didn't want to invest in another copy of the latest edition - if any- of the English tutorial :P :P ) and something that I had always loved to do.  Reading.  Work is still in progress through blogging too ;). 

So I shall keep blogging and keep eating your brains.  Who knows, I might win a Nobel laureate for Literature some day ;-) !!!  Haha...

Keep Smiling until I catch up with you again...
TaTa !!!!