If you hear to him
Delivering,
It will seem to
He is not in English,
But his vernacular
Or native tongue
An Indian in Punjabi,
Haryanvi,
Hindustani,
An Indian in Himachali,
Kashmiri,
Urdu
Going with the Burquawalli,
The Ghumtawalli,
The Purdahwalli.
Indian English is no English at all,
A written English,
Grammatical English,
I mean
A grammarian's English,
Foreign tongue,
Deshi not, vilayati,
Native not, alien.
A library language is it,
A link language,
Learnt laboriously,
Not natural,
But artificial,
an Indian speaking
in English,
An Indian English professor's
Bogus English.
An Indian speaking
In Tamil,
Telugu,
Malyalam,
Kannada,
Marathi,
Gujarati,
Rajasthani
Appears he to be.
The Jats speaking
In English,
The Haryanvis,
The gwalas from Bihar,
I mean the buffalo men
And the herdsmen, the cow boys,
How can it be,
How can it be, sir?
Rubbing tobacco,
Putting into the mouth,
Chewing paan
With the mouth red,
The Indian professor
Speaking in English,
The Bhojpurian with tobacco,
The Maithil professor
With the paan
Taking classes.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem