*
Ochappan is
the pseudonym of Henk, from Belgium. An ace photographer - not interested in
taking snapshots of our temples or our celebrations. Instead he likes to
capture the dynamic lives of people on the roads and at their homes. He is an
avid visitor of Madurai for the past two decades. Comes during our winter
months, roams around the rural Madurai photo-capturing lively and lovely
colour-filled scenes of our lives. Scanning his photographs will tell more
than a book could tell on our culture.
He likes Madurai and its people so much that he chose the Dravidian name,
Ochappan, whom he befriended in his first visit. All his photos are known in this name rather
than in his own name! The name Ochappan
has been immortalised by him on a very high artistic pedestal through his
photographs in the internet.
Last week we
had a chit chat. Talked about our countries and he projected the major
difference between our two cultures. He detailed how they were more linguistic
than us and protected their personal lingual entity and showed their love for
their mother tongue. On the contrast we have been keeping Tamil in a high ivory
pedestal with lovely adulations … as கன்னித் தமிழ்
.. தெய்வத் தமிழ் ... தமிழன்னை .. etc .. etc. But he questions whether we do the right thing to
our mother tongue.
Following
are the questions raised by Henk / Ochappan to everyTamilian:
Dear Sam,
The
Sint-Lievens College was founded in 1930 for the insight and the deployment of Lieven
Gevaert (Afga-Gevaert), an industrialist with an eye for social and Flemish
needs for Dutch school education. The pride of your
own mother-tongue, Dutch was the key for the revival of the
Flemish culture, dominated for years by French invasions and domination, which
chased away very famous Dutch writers from Antwerp (Belgium) to the
Netherlands. Nowadays Flanders grew out to a strong region at the top of world
technology, proud leaving behind the French hegemony.
Remarkable
reverse evolution happens in Tamil Nadu, people are dominated by the foreign language,
English. It is considered English-speaking ones are the elite of Tamil society. Many such are not
able anymore to read or write their own mother-tongue Tamil, making
them foreigners in their own land, alienated from their own
culture, looking down on their origin and the common Tamilians as
lower caste, copying the English, and exploiting other non-English-speaking
Tamils in a worse way. They can't be called proud Tamilians anymore as they chose to
reject all Tamil values and its tradition and culture, not aware that they lost
their personal-identity. They may praise themselves lucky for the tolerance of
the majority Tamils.
Only the
Tamil government can preserve their culture by making Tamil a compulsory medium
of education. Tamil is one of the oldest languages and still remains as a
spoken classical language, with its great Tamil culture, traditions and great
jewels of Tamil literature. The more languages you know the more cultures you
understand. But you have an identity
only when you master your own mother-tongue. A proud Tamil should know his
language and his culture.
Greetings
Henk
