Reflections

Malayalam was not the first language that I learnt to speak. I had a tough time trying to decipher the script which was a maze of swirls and twirls along with animal looking letters when I first attacked it head on. I still had my allegiance to German, having been born and raised there till the age of eleven, but I was curious enough to get myself acquainted with this new tongue which I was then told was not just my mother’s but my father’s tongue as well. It was my teacher in school, Sharada teacher as we called her reverently, in faraway Shoranur, a town which housed culture and art and history, who instilled a love for the language in me. I don’t remember how she did it but I remember listening to her speak in Malayalam with rapt attention and taking down notes with a fervour that I didn’t show in any of the other classes. It was in her classes that I got familiar with the most elaborate of details from the stories in the Hindu Puranas(epics). With college days came along the world...