My grandmother speaks English perfectly well.<\/p>\n
She simply refuses to use it for certain things.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat’s the English word for this?\u201d I once asked while she was serving dinner.<\/p>\n
She looked at the bowl.<\/p>\n
Then at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn’t one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere doesn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought she was being difficult.<\/p>\n
The word was from the language she had grown up speaking. I wanted an English equivalent for a school assignment.<\/p>\n
So I tried possibilities.<\/p>\n
Comfort?<\/p>\n
Warmth?<\/p>\n
Affection?<\/p>\n
Hospitality?<\/p>\n
She rejected all of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are pieces,\u201d she said. \u201cNot the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer annoyed me.<\/p>\n
Languages were supposed to translate.<\/p>\n
That was the point.<\/p>\n
Wasn’t it?<\/p>\n
Later, I began noticing how often the problem appeared.<\/p>\n
There were words my grandparents used for relationships that English reduced to \u201caunt\u201d or \u201cuncle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Words for different kinds of affection.<\/p>\n
Expressions that sounded hilarious at home but strangely lifeless when translated directly.<\/p>\n
Even scolding changed.<\/p>\n
My grandmother could complain about me in our family language and somehow make it sound affectionate.<\/p>\n
In English, the same sentence sounded like she was preparing a legal case.<\/p>\n
Slowly, I understood what she meant.<\/p>\n
Translation is not replacing one word with another.<\/p>\n
Words carry histories.<\/p>\n
They carry jokes.<\/p>\n
Food.<\/p>\n
Places.<\/p>\n
Relationships.<\/p>\n
Sometimes they carry the voice of the person who used them first.<\/p>\n
India contains hundreds of languages and countless regional ways of speaking. Many of us move between languages without even noticing.<\/p>\n
English at school.<\/p>\n
Another language with grandparents.<\/p>\n
A mixture with friends.<\/p>\n
A completely invented vocabulary in family WhatsApp groups.<\/p>\n
That movement is not confusion.<\/p>\n
It is richness.<\/p>\n
I eventually submitted my assignment.<\/p>\n
Beside my grandmother’s word, I wrote a short explanation instead of a single English translation.<\/p>\n
My teacher accepted it.<\/p>\n
Grandmother examined the paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now you understand?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA little.\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she used the word again.<\/p>\n
This time, I did not ask for the English version.<\/p>\n
Some words do not need to cross over completely.<\/p>\n
Sometimes understanding where they belong is enough.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My grandmother speaks English perfectly well. She simply refuses to use it for certain things. \u201cWhat’s the English word for this?\u201d I once asked while she was serving dinner. She looked at the bowl. Then at me. \u201cThere isn’t one.\u201d \u201cThere has to be.\u201d \u201cThere doesn’t.\u201d I thought she was being difficult. The word was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[600],"tags":[637,631,622,621,635,617,636],"class_list":["post-4816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-languages","tag-arts","tag-creative-writing","tag-fiction","tag-heritage","tag-history","tag-literature","tag-poetry","enable-dropcap","disable-2-columns"],"yoast_head":"\n