THE LANGUAGE MATTERS

 

The language matters

      The story goes that once there was this huge elephant in a London zoo. Children would come from miles around to visit it and hold out their little hands filled with peanuts and the elephant would gently feed off their extended open arms. But one day, for some incomprehensible reason, Raja changed. He almost killed the man who cleaned the cage. He would trumpet in anger at the very same children who came with his little treats. He seemed to be pinning away and refused to eat. He had to be put in restraining chains.

     His frantic owner wondered how he could recover the amount that he had spent on buying the elephant. He hit upon the diabolical idea of conducting a public execution. Raja was to be executed and all those who wanted to watch the spectacle could do so for a fee. A huge crowd watched in breathless anticipation as three men prepared to end Raja’s life with their high powered rifles. Before the final count could be given, a man stepped forth from the crowd and requested that he be given a chance to bring Raja around. The owner argued that Raja had been given enough of chances and had to be destroyed before he killed someone.

     The man stood firm and once again asked for just two minutes in a cage. He was reluctantly given permission since by then the crowd too was rooting for Raja. The man entered the cage of the bellowing angry elephant and began to speak to Raja in a strange tongue. The elephant seemed to immediately become quieter and started whining and trembling.

     He then gently picked up the man, put him on his back and walked around the enclosure with him. Everyone burst into applause. The man explained to the owner, that the Indian was an Indian one and understood only one language. He suggested that the owner found someone in London who could occasionally come and talk to the elephant in his language and he would have a complacent, contented elephant. The owner later realized that the person who had wrought the miracle was Rudyard Kipling.

 Even the animals depend on a language for communication. They pick up a language they listen to, from their owners or trainers. Although they cannot speak, they understand every emotion conveyed by the words in that language.

A mother tongue is the sweetest of all. A person may go around the world, speak different languages but hearing someone speaking his mother tongue is like listening to some sweet music for him.