The H phenomenon

Among the several differences I have noted between North and South Indians in the pronunciation of words, one of the most vivid examples is the pronunciation of the word 'Dosa'. The first time I heard a North Indian pronounce the 'd' as in day instead of 'th' in 'thus', I was at Bangalore, and corrected him. Little did I know then, that this particular pronunciation was one that was spread throughout Non-South India (do correct me if I'm wrong).

Almost all restaurants in Maharashtra that serve South Indian food spell Dosa as "डोसा" (instead of "दोसा" which is the right spelling) in addition to its waiters pronouncing it in that manner. It didn't take me long to realize that this was a result of English's incompetence in expressing the right phonetics of a word from another language (sometimes even in itself). Due to the lack of Hindi knowledge in several parts of South India, especially the lack of four variants of the letter "க" in Tamil, English has been the only medium of communication and transliteration between Tamil and the rest of India - and needless to say, English has served its purpose rather poorly. Another stark example of this problem can be seen when Tamilians pronounce the word Dhaba as दाबा (தாபா) instead of ढाबा. The issue is that letter combinations such as "th" and "dh" are used in Hindi to indicate sounds of ठ and ध respectively while the same combinations imply त (த) and द (த - yeah, this is again the same letter, with only a variation in pronunciation). In Hindi, the difference between ट and त is not indicated in its English translation - it is understood based on usage. And this difference, if at all noticed (most notice it, thanks to WhatsApp's forwarded messages), is only ridiculed.

This merely shows the incapacity of English to connect two languages of a land which its people ruled for three centuries. Funnily enough, this is a language known to borrow heavily from other languages - I can't help but wonder why they couldn't - well, um, never mind.

It is not that the British didn't notice it - but they chose to change things in India rather than improving their language - clearly a case of wanting to change a mirror to look better. This is quite known, thanks to the fact that the names they gave to Indian provinces and towns still remain, notable ones being Bombay, Madras, Ooty, Travancore, Tuticorin and Cawnpore among others. The re-renaming of cities and states seems to be a futile attempt by India to regain total control over itself. It is just painful to see that even over six decades after British influence exited India (or rather, merely the Indian administration), the policy of divide still exists (thankfully the 'rule' portion doesn't), albeit totally unconscious of itself.

It will not be wrong to say that (the) English (pun intended) is (are) the reason why the North and South don't "get" each other. I cannot help but say, "Well done, Brits!"

And while I hang my head in shame at my forlorn endeavours to convince my fellow Indians to pronounce things the right way, I am filled with delight when I say that Dosas made anywhere in India are as authentic and delicious as the dishes served at Punjabi Dhaba in Chennai.

Well, we've got something right.

Now that I'm done ranting, I'll let you brood over which is better while I go and help myself to a delicious Mumbai dosa. Or dhosa. Or whatever.