My passion for learning English

My passion for learning English
                               -Dr Raj Bahadur Yadav

I must confess, English language has been  a passion with me since 1971 when I became a student of the sixth standard. I enjoyed memorizing the English alphabets from A to Z and creating simple words from them like bat,cat and rat. One day, when I was a student of the Jain Middle School, Hisar, my class teacher asked me,"What is the meaning of "Summer"?" I promptly replied," Yudh"[war]. She rebuked me,"Your answer is wrong!" I insisted,"Madam, you may ask anybody else. I am right."  My classmates roared with laughter. The lady teacher was now furious at my foolish answer and she almost shouted at me," I have asked you to tell me  the meaning of the English word,"Summer!" Now, I was able to fathom my own sheer folly," Sorry, Madam! I do not know what this English word actually  means." An English proverb pertinently says,"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing". I humbly admit to being average in intelligence yet I have always firmly believed in the famous English saying,'Slow and steady wins the race". I thank Aesop,  a slave and story-teller from ancient Greece[620-564 BC] for having composed  the famous fable of " The tortoise and the hare" which teaches a common man like me not to brag about oneself but to work consistently to realize one's dreams.
                             My teacher's timely and thoughtful snub had left me deeply curious about the importance of English words and the rules of English grammar. I can still recall; I was sitting in a chair with my elbows on the table, watching the orange hue of the setting sun from the balcony of  our house when I heard one of my cousins calling me,"Raj Bahadur! Where are you? Do you know I have brought a wonderful book in English for you?" I almost jumped up in great surprise,"Say that again,please!" He told me in chaste Hindi," Ye angreji grammar ki kitab hai "[ This is a book of English grammar]. This bi-lingual grammar book[ in English-Hindi] proved to be the  "master-key" for opening the window to the world to a young learner of English like me. Within six six months, I was able to learn the parts of speech like noun,pronoun,verb,adjective, adverb and preposition and combine them systematically into meaningful sentences also. The basics of English grammar I had come to know, but the proper English words I still lacked for expressing my ideas and sentiments. One day, I asked Prof MM Sharma, the most popular lecturer of Government College, Hisar in late seventies," How can I improve my English vocabulary,Sir?" He told me very affectionately," When the period is over, follow me to my room!".  I still remember, Prof Sharma was usually dressed in spotless white and he closely resembled Pran[ the winner of Dadasaheb Phalke award in cinema] in physical appearance. He gave me an English dictionary, quoting William Shakespeare," Brevity is the soul of wit". He advised me to be  precise while writing in English and carefully avoid using superfluous words. I shall always remain greatly indebted to Prof Sharma for it was only because of his guidance and motivation that I opted for BA[Hons.] in English literature and was able to pass this prestigious examination also alongwith three other classmates.

                            Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, very thoughtfully said,"Diligence is the mother of good luck".I had learnt to read and write good English but  the ability to speak it fluently  still eluded me. I was in BA-I in 1978 when I mustered enough courage to participate in a declamation contest held on the college campus.I was hoping to get the third prize or at least "consolation-prize'' but when one of our teachers read out the results, I grew sad to know the bitter truth that I had drawn a blank. What became more agonising to me was his acerbic yet candid comment," We couldn't make any head or tail of what Mr R B Yadav said here". But I didn't give up my dream of becoming a good speaker in English language. Sometimes, I genuinely feel that I have inherited  a strong will power from my peasant ancestors to stay in the field despite all odds and fight back. In 1979, while speaking in English, on the United Nations' Day[October 24], I impressed my teachers and classmates both and bagged the second prize.

                                                I feel really beholden to my Kururksetra University teachers, late Dr R. S. Singh, Dr O. P. Grewal and Dr Bhim S. Dahiya for encouraging me to participate in the inter-university level literary contests  and  learn the nuances of academic debates.  I can never forget Dr K. K .Gautam who taught us the paper of "Phonetics" and made us carefully recognize the different speech sounds of English. I was lucky to read my research papers on the great Russian novelist, Fydor Dostoyevsky and the English author, Virginia Woolf in the literary symposia held in  the auditorium hall of the Panjab University, Chandigarh in the winters of  1982 and 1983 respectively. On both  the occasions, I got the first prize. In 1982, it was Dr Darshan Singh Maini,the renowned  scholar of Punjabi University, Patiala who himself patted me and gave me the prize. Next year, Dr Nirmal Mukherjee, the Head of the Department of English, Panjab University, blessed me and gracefully shared her own impression  about my performance,"I appreciate his eagerness to field questions from the audience and answer them promptly". When I broke the good news of my success to my  teachers, they were jubilant. To my pleasant surprise, the then Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Dr G. C. Gupta also congratulated me and gave me the rare privilege of having tea with him. I feel grateful to my learned and sensible  teachers who helped a rural boy like me in learning Queen's English.

Dr Raj Bahadur Yadav

Behind Kath Mandi, Kranti Nagar, Fatehabad[Haryana]