Last weekend we attended the Triratna Mahotsava a three day festival honouring the three Marathi artists – Sudhir Phadake, Madgulkar, and P. L. Deshpande, in their centenary year. This is the second major event organized by Dilli Marathi Pratishthan. I am amazed at the level of organizing and greatful for the apportunity to attend the programs free of cost.
A few references however were instructive of who were assumed to be the ‘Marathi’ people in audience. A few conversations revealed how the others were painfully aware of it.
अत्रे, पु. ल. यांच्या लेखनावर पोसलेली पिढी was something that really drove home the ब्राह्मणी बाज of the presentation. A snarky comment about how people speak in Marathi now-a-days – मी आली मी गेली or मला कागद भेटला नाही instead of मिळाला नाही. The examples showed how clueless presenters were about language use outside their circle.
Praman Bhasha or standard Marathi. Who decides the standard? For Marathi the Puneri brahmani marathi has been the standard. Other linguistic practices are considered to be dialects or ill spoken, गावठी, not pure.
During the tea break, a couple sharing our table was talking about the jokes related to ‘marathi nowadays’. The wife said his Marathi is mixed with Hindi as he is from the borderland. The husband said, “no, that is how we speak Marathi. It is not a hodgepodge of marathi and hindi I am speaking.”
My comment that it was a very puneri, kokanastha brahman kind of snark and is insulting, was overheard by a गोरे घारे पुणेरी uncle. “you really feel that?”, he said perplexed. I remembered my mother once told me the story of how it was mindboggling when she realised that nobody other than her knew about PL in her class of Mphil, A cohort of people from different states in an institution in Pune. PL, a writer she thought was world renowned. And she realised how small her world was. I hope the gentleman thought on the same lines rather than taking it as a personal attack.
devayani tirthali 