English is the major language of communication between nations. It is a difficult language to learn, full of idiosyncrasies beyond what is written in words. Can be frustrating at times. This is what I experienced on my first visit to London. Trying to find a place on the underground I needed help. Lo beholds! The name of the place was pronounced very different from how it was spelt. Added to the misery was a graffiti on the wall boldly pronouncing 'We was robbed'. It was obviously the expression of frustration over some unfairness. If this was the state of English in the mother country, what chances did we foreigners have? I can now understand laments of Oscar Wilde that 'England and America were two countries separated by a common language'. I thought the divide was the Atlantic.
As I settled down to the new environment at the university, there was much to learn beyond the academic programme. It began with the word 'sir' that we so freely use to address superiors. When I addressed my supervisor with the term, he was very embarrassed. There were many more surprises in everyday life such as wearing a suit. In those days people dressed casually and a suit was a formal attire not to wear in the classroom. Gradually I got used to such nuances as the panorama of life unfolded in various walks of life. There was Tariq Ali screaming at the Hyde Park on British hypocrisy. And there was Bertrand Russel who went to jail at the young age of ninety plus protesting the war crimes in Vietnam, not different from the travail of Galileo four centuries ago.
Otherwise, life was not very different from that at home. Weekdays passed quickly busy with the classwork. Weekends were days of shopping, some cooking and socializing. The cookbook of Ms. Kabir did not help. On the first day, I burnt my eyebrows trying to see if the onion had turned brown by lifting the lid of a steaming pan.
Time passed quickly and the graduation was done. I taught in a school before moving on to the next stage of studies. Not so easy. There were smart kids who were full of questions. How do you answer the innocent question of a child as to how big the infinity is? How do the infinities add up? And so on. As I taught, I also learnt that infinity is a place where things happen that should not. This is putting meaning into theories on how they relate to real life. In this never-never land parallel lines can meet. All the competitors in a race can win the first prize. Wizard of Oz was very handy as examples were sought.
Some of the things that we presume guaranteed in life today did not exist in those days. Talking to home on the phone was a luxury. So was air travel. Indian food was still an exotic food item in England. One had to go to an Indian restaurant to taste the food. Most of these restaurants were owned by people from Sylhet. The situation is very different today. There are Michelin star Indian restaurants in the country. Tikka masala is part of the British cuisine and can be had in major English chains. One reason for this transformation is the migration of a large number of diasporas from the subcontinent. British television also had a role through serials such as Curry and Chips, Citizen Khan and Mind Your Language. In spite of racial overtone these serials introduced many practices of the subcontinent that were not understood by the locals at the time. Very funny, somewhat racial.
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