Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Mothertongue

Abandoning Odia, the Nostalgia, the Guilt

“I speak three languages, write in Two, dream in one. Don't write in English, they said, English is Not your mother-tongue. Why not leave Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins, Every one of you? Why not let me speak in Any language I like? The language I speak, Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses All mine, mine alone.”   -Kamala Das, An Introduction I have been asked, “Odia is dying, isn’t it?” I don’t answer the question. Because, I cannot answer the question.