Hinglish

I’ve always been vocal against the fad of Chetan Bhagat. His critics carp about his characters, his language (more Hinglish than English), the plots, and what have you. What caught my attention was the constant sniping over his Hinglish. Here, I would like to stand up for him. In the right classes in India English is still spoken with the proper accent and intonation. Ok. Anyone who can’t is an upstart, a wannabe. Not ok. Bhagat is perhaps unawares of the bridge he’s inadvertently been building between the two Indias. His ‘Chutnefying English’ doesn’t raise my eyebrows and neither should yours. I wait for Hinglish to become an acceptable idiom, like American English, African English and Creolised English. Bhagat has only taken off from where Shobhaa De stopped. I see no reason being apologetic about writing in Hinglish what with the commonalities and democratisation taking place due to it. Salman Rushdie used Indian words in Midnight’s Children and refused to italicise them. Appreciate it. Theirs is a world where the youths aren’t bothered about any Wren and Martin. And who am I bluffing? Even I had apathy for Wren and Martin in school... Well, at the end of the day it’s all about your story. A few years hence, Hinglish, now restricted to our quaint song and dance Bollywood routines and the ad world, may soon become as acceptable as it deserves to be... Inshallah!!!