It is not uncommon to feel that the newspapers one receives on the tea table are thicker and heavier than usual. Sure enough they bring out supplements and issues on different occasions like the anniversary issues. But the particularly pregnant version is of an alien kind, made so by foster or surrogate babies if you like. On a given day, a number of brochures and handbills -a few of them wearing a pathetic look and others really smart works - of different sizes and shapes peeps out of paper folds. The sponsors of such handy ads range from barber's shops to beauty parlour to coaching centre to Chinese restaurant to department store to land developers and sweetmeat outlet to sizzling BQ caffes.
These small ad sheets may appear as an eye shore when the message conveyed is full of spelling mistakes. When the vernacular language is so abused, one really feels a twang at the heart. One such ad strip from a barber's shop has used 'nikhudh' (dh) in place of 'nikhut' (ta) in Bangla. Even four-colour adds are marred by such mistakes. Even schools for children open in a locality go for such tactics, so do physicians when they open a clinic. They publish such brochures or small advertising sheets in order to draw attention of the locality concerned.
However, when a health facility advertises that 'all cure is available in one point', one feels pity for its sponsors. Then there are tall claims that money will be returned if coaching does not help students secure A+. Do they really have magic wands in their possession? An array of such ads pours into newspaper subscribers' drawing rooms on a daily basis.
Would anyone believe that even the permanent billboards or name plates displayed in order to attract clients contain atrocious mistakes like "advocate's chember'. A classic example of 'ignorance is bliss' is the name of a tailoring shop. It reads, "Cent Michaels". How stupid! This particular blunder is not announcing its unwelcome presence at a shopping arcade on no other road than the Elephant Road.
In this connection, let it be noted that the patriotic fervour that reigned supreme in the first few years after the country's independence prompted people to name shops, institutions and organisations and dwelling houses in Bangla. But now the tendency is to go for anything foreign. Even cars carry such stickers as Oklahoma University. Even if one member of the car owner's fourteen generation did not have the opportunity to study at that university, who cares? Even there is no harm if anyone of that clan ever knew where Oklahoma is -in the USA or Japan!
Such is the great fondness for anything foreign that a tailor's shop becomes cent instead of Saint (St) Michael. More relevant, should any tailor's shop be named after such a saint? Do you name a barber's shop after Saint John? The kind of blind imitation has indeed exposed the bankruptcy of mind and culture. It cannot go on like this. There should be some sort of restriction on abusing holy names.
One wonders if 'Karotoa', 'Sugandha' and such other enchanting names could ever have been borne by the state guest houses, had not the nation been driven by the patriotic fervour! Even people named their residences like 'Punarbhaba', 'Sanjher Maya', 'Dhan Shiri' and the likes. What has gone amiss by this time that people are trying to copy things they even do not have the remotest idea. Culture is vibrant and it takes from all other cultures but unless it develops the power to assimilate what is gleaned, it creates indigestion. A man of Rabindranath's stature knew how to do it. Who else other than him could transform bougainvillea's local version into 'Baganbilas'!
Culture is hurt by blind imitation
Nilratan Halder | Published: November 15, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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