For Learning English Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

For learning English, I do not want that my personal life should be as such
That I like to keep it
With my wife speaking Angika dialect
Or Bhojpuri or Magadhi or Maithili
With their own tonal effects

And if live I in India, shall I fail in becoming an Englishman
And if not a native speaker,
Why can I not be a man
With impeccable English,
Pronouncing as a native speaker,
King’s English.

So, have I decided to leave India, the rural India
Of villages and the countryside,
The blunt bullock-cartmen and cowboys,
Wrestlers, thugs, dacoits,
Fatalists, astrologers and palmists,
Tikkiwallas and tikkawallas,
Those with the clamp of hair hanging from
And those with the red paste on the forehead.

Taking off the clothes as for crossing the waist deep waters
Of the villagerly river
As for to crossing it for the town,
I want to ask my attendant to take them away,
My dhoti, kurta, thin towel
As for to get my clothes stitched,
Englishman dresses.

I shall get new clothes made
With pants, shirt, goggles, wrist watch, handkerchief and belt
As for going to England
And becoming an Englishman,
Trying to get at what they speak in, how do they pronounce,
Their stress and accent,
Rhythm and intonation.

Even if I get a little bit of, I shall surely call myself
A great professor of linguistics and phonetics
Here in India
On my return from foreign,
At that time you will see me
With the French-cut beards, a little bit on the chin.