Proto: Laura Spinney

The greatest achievement of this book is the crunching of a vast - multi-continental, multi-millennial - journey into less than 300 pages without being too dense.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that it is too easy either. Keeping track of the evolution of the mother language of what more than half the world speaks can never be easy.

Yet, Spinney succeeds somewhat, balancing information with insight quite well.

And what an epic journey it has been.

Take for instance one minor example of how words travel and evolve. This example is not from Proto alone, but cherrypicked from multiple sources, just to emphasise a point:

The idea of wheel/cycle/rotation:

An ancient obscure tongue split into proto-Indo-European and proto-Anatolian, according to one theory. Speakers of this mother language did not know of the wheel. So they had no word for it.

But by the time of the Proto-Anatolian-speaking Hittites, there was a word for the wheel: "hurkis"

Proto-Indo-European speakers called it "roteh" and "Queqlos/kwekwelos".

Apparently, the root of “hurkis” is different from that of “roteh” and “Queqlos/kwekwelos”, because by then they had become different languages — and people.

Roteh: returning periodically to the same point -- became rotate in the west. Periodically changing weather became "Rutu/Ritu". Menstrual cycles in Marathi and Malayalam: Ritu.

Queqlos/kwekwelos: This became cycle in the west. In Marathi and Kannada, the round shape of murukku made them call it "chakli".

Proto-Anatolian "Hurkis": apparently not part of Proto-Indo-European - still managed to enter Indian vocabulary as "charkha" and "chakra".

It is all so beautifully random and yet logical.

This somehow connects me to the idea of entropy in quantum physics. It basically means that matter is constantly decaying or degenerating into smaller, simpler matter or units, while giving out heat. Entropy is THE ONLY evidence of time according to many scientists.

Is the evolution of languages a similar process — if the standardisation brought out by the modern nation state or the smaller administrative units don’t create hurdles?

Like I have mentioned before, if there is no Kerala state, there is every possibility that “Kasargodan” and “Thironthari” could potentially be new languages in a few centuries or even less. I am almost sure that is exactly what happened to Kannada and Tamizh.

And for the North Indian “proud” Aryan nationalist, the book has got just one thing to say: “Go to Ukraine”!

STFU at least in foreign countries, dear Malayali male!

Torquay beach in Devon, UK -- which is less than a mile from where we now live and over 8,000 km from the nearest Kerala district -- is in frolick mode, with a fair making the seafront all the more lovely and lively.

Gayathri, my niece Meenakshi, and Rudra are soaking it all in like so many other kids who are enjoying the last few days of their school summer vacation. 

It isn't sunset yet, but they are walking back home, chirping, giggling, and gossipping uncontrollably. (And they are so much better at it than we ever were as kids!)

A car zooms by. A loud voice calls out in Malayalam: "Veettil podi" ("Go home, girl/woman". This is a typical male signal to women/girls to pipe it down and coop back into domesticity.)

My little ones -- all of 16, 15, and 14, precisely -- are stunned.

But Gayathri still manages to shout back: "Poda patti!" (Get lost, bitch!). 

Again, there is not a coconut tree in sight. Not a mundu-wearing Ammavan. No, this is not Kerala.

A few minutes later, before the three could recover from their first experience of public harassment, another car whizzes by. This time it is all catcalls and whistles at them, so it could not be ascertained they were Malayalis.

By the time they arrived home, the girls' sense of fury and shock was so thick that the mutton biriyani we made yesterday probably had chunks of it along with the meat.

Athayathu Utthama...we know we Indian/Malayali males are toxic. We have proved it time and again, especially in recent weeks. 

You don't have to prove it across seven seas and in the backwaters of other countries. Stop embarrassing us and dump your macho meanness behind in the Indian/Kerala shit hole before traveling overseas. 

Sick fucks!

Smile, dear Jeeves!

I have now slowly begun to make sense of the non-filmy, real-life British sense of humour. Three instances from the recent past:

Sometime in December 2023...

A bus to "Paignton" arrives. As I board it, my Indian/Malayali insecure self is turned on.

Me to the driver: "Does this one go to the 'Paignton Bus Station'? (Abbey bhootni ke, Paignton dekh ke chadha kaahe ko?)

Driver, a faint smile breaking out: "If you insist..."

I go hide behind a seat.

...

Sometime in January...

Gayathri and I get chatty with a cab driver. Now, imagine him as the Jeeves type -- mid-40s, balding, chin up, and stone-faced.

"Are you from around Paignton?"

"Born and bred in Paignton, sir. Never left town. Though my wife is the other kind."

"Ah ok. Difficult imagining you as a couple. One who never left town, the other who never saw Paignton till marriage."

"Not much to complain about, sir. We have a good relationship. Especially financially."

"How is that?"

"I earn, she spends."

....

Last week, on a bus...

A couple walks in with a handsome black labrador. Settles somewhere in the back seat of the lower deck of the double-decker.

A little later, another couple walks in with a breed that looks like a smaller version of a boxer. Active chap, this brown dog. Sits across the aisle from me.

Still later, a lady in her 40s walks in with a beagle-like breed. The driver has a brief chat with this one -- the lady, I mean.

She walks up to the boxer-like dog's owners and speaks (Here, imagine the voice of Bernadette of the Big Bang Theory): "Darling, could you take your pet to the upper deck. The driver says only one per deck. I would have gone up, but mine's broken its leg. I am sorry."

The boxer-like dog is taken up without any fuss. Then an elderly lady reminds the Bernadette-like one: "But there's another one behind, my love."

The lady with a Bernadette-like voice takes a peek at the back of the bus, nods with a smile and screeches, but politely: "I know, but what could be done? Anyway, they are better behaved than most people on a bus. Drivers should start throwing bones at people boarding, you know? Who knows, they could be trained, too!"

Go, garbage, Goa!

The garbage disposal system in Paignton is even more complicated -- and involves a steeper penalty (£1,000) if done wrongly – than in Swansea. There are four different types that garbage-generators need to segregate before disposal in 3-4 separate bins.

But then, why should that matter to the garbage collector’s Kerala-Goa plans this winter?

We haven’t been able to lose the rubbish since moving into Paignton. The house was filling up. Today, finally, I was ready to clear it all after days of confusion over the time and day of collection.

So, I was up at 5.30am at -2 degrees, having readied cardboard cartons – the local council’s new bins haven’t yet arrived and the old ones are a mess. Here I was waiting for the 6am collection truck that finally arrived only at 7 am, with a bunch of three men and a woman – all jolly and friendly.

I walk up to inform them of my situation without waste-bins. They brush aside my concerns and ask me to get all the garbage I want.

As I get the first carton down, one of the four asks me, “Are you from India?”

Trying to hold on to the plastic covers flowing out, I answer hurriedly in the affirmative. As I turn around to get the next one, he asks, “Which part?”

“Kerala…” and I hurry back. “Oh, Kerala…great…” I hear from behind.

On arrival with the next box – aluminium foil, food wrappers, milk cartons etc – he says, “I’m going there, mate. End of the month.” Meanwhile, the freezing sea breeze is killing me. But I’m amused, nevertheless.

“Nice. Been there before?”

“Nope. But heard a lot and am really excited…”

I smile. And return for the next carton -- and also to get away from the bite even if only for a few seconds.

This time it is thermocol, bubble-wrap, and the like. Light, but large, and even more unwieldy in the breeze…Gayathri’s trying to pick and collect whatever I’m dropping or what’s flying away…

But the man is irrepressible. “This is my schedule…first stop, Condolim,” he pulls out his smartphone to show me.

I’m trying to keep a straight face from behind the bubble wrapper that’s fluttering into my eye.

“Condolim isn’t in Kerala. That’s Goa. But it’s the same region, climate, and topography,” I manage to say with a smile.

His colleague then comes over to cheerfully explain what I need to do with my valuables the next time, which is the next weekend. He helpfully hands me labels for the bins that will arrive from the council shortly. “You’ll have to manage the plastic covers on your own the next time. There’s a public utility around…”

“How far is Condolim from Kerala? You been there?”

I am now strung. What or whom should I focus on? Garbage man explaining garbage, garbage man looking for tourist guide, garbage woman jumping on a cardboard box to flatten it, or the garbage-flutterer breeze…

Luckily, the explanation is done easier – so is the flattening. And I can’t do much about the breeze anyway. The tourist guide slips into me. I give him a brief of what to expect, talking about tropical heat and humidity in -2.

“Dad there’s one more…” Gayathri calls out. Oh, the food waste…

I head back again for the smallest cover and return quickly. “I’m looking forward to the warm sun…the beaches.”

“You have fun…”

Garbage man-going-Goa finally bids farewell because, before Goa there is more garbage. Two weeks more of garbage.

The truck, with its disco lights going crazy non-stop and bringing images from Koyi kahe, Kehta rahe to my mind, moves on.

Go, garbage, Goa!

I was returning from Aylesbury yesterday after having spent some time with my sisters Lakshmi Menon and Srilatha Menon and brother-in-law Harish Nair. I took a train from Paddington to Swansea. A minute into the journey a man and his little girl came and sat beside me. I was reading Art Buchwald — the article was on the Iraq war.

The man suddenly asked me what the book was about. I answered. He didn't let up. He asked me about Art...and then went on to suggest the podcast "Empire". Heaped praise on Dalrymple.

I gave up and shut my book to engage with him.

Turns out, Asim Vane is a Kashmiri -- Gilgit native -- from Lahore. A doctor who immigrated to the UK seven years ago and now works as a GP here. His wife's an anesthesiologist and he has another, elder, daughter.

He became visibly happier on realising I'm from India. Quickly slipped into Urdu. Very charming fellow in his 30s or early 40s.

Asim had moved to the UK for the sake of his daughters after seeing the conditions in his country deteriorate. As expected, he asked me about my move. I only said, "Humme zyada fark nahi hai, Asim." Didn't bother to elaborate.

Before stepping off at Cardiff, we exchanged contact numbers, hoping to keep in touch.

Interestingly, only two weeks ago, while returning from Leeds, I got into a taxi and was whistling "Ye raat bheegi bheegi..." when the taxi driver -- Gilgit native, again -- asked me politely if I could sing the song instead of whistling. I did. He was so thankful. Before driving away, he said: "Aap se milke bohut sukoon mila..."

I mentioned this to Asim...and he simply said: "You never know...we Kashmiris are separated only by a few degrees...he could be related to me."

The Malayali in me felt that familiar surge of endorphin at that moment.

:D

"Teff...I'm deaf, too"

Sometime in early July…

“Hello! May I join you at this table if it’s alright?”

The elderly but spry man approached me, looking to sit in the chair opposite mine at the Swansea city library. I welcomed him, and we immediately hit it off.

The Englishman-turned-honorary Welshman’s friendly demeanour was warm and welcoming, like those of so many other elderly persons I regularly meet at the library nowadays.

“I’m quite deaf…” he often said, reminding me to speak slightly louder than usual even though we met in a library. I thought of informing him about my own defective auditory problem but skipped it for now. His 85 years and my 43 weren't really comparable.

Like any good Englishman, he rarely missed a quip on the weather. Sometimes I’d, too, go faux British with a “Great day, eh?” if only to amuse him. He’d look out of the library window with stretched arms and a happy smile.

Around the fourth or fifth time we met, I walked away after the usual pleasantries, then turned around and walked back to him to finally ask: “Hey, I keep forgetting this…what is your name?”

He was lost as my voice hadn't reached him. I repeated my question, only slightly louder. He smiled, put his hand to his pinna, and said, “Teff…”

….

Over the next few months, we greeted and politely enquired about each other’s well-being and weekends, before passing the day’s edition of The Telegraph. I would often do a slightly louder-than-usual, "Hello Teff..." for his benefit.

We bantered; Teff briefly narrated his 85-year history as an Englishman in Wales, a banker, and an average British Joe. On my part, I fed—often twice over, given his hearing problem—his curiosity about India and my job as a journalist.

Teff is chubby but looks at least two decades younger than his age. A Tory voter, he is also a practitioner of Tai Chi and meditates regularly. He was widowed 25 years ago. He then made a girlfriend with whom he lived in his home of eight decades till she, too, died two years ago. Now he lives alone and is enjoying it.

“I am not going to be around forever, so I’m giving these last few days of mine my everything,” Teff said.

Two weeks ago, I told him that I needed someone to give me the British view on current affairs. Two days after he promised to look around, he offered his own service.

I was glad. I couldn’t have asked for a more experienced and enthusiastic Briton. So that was fixed. The first two and most obvious subjects for starters: The average Briton’s relationship with the monarchy and next year’s national election. Yesterday, over a cup of mocha, we had a good insightful hour-long discussion on these subjects.

After wrapping it up, I told him we should next go with “Israel-Palestine” and Britain's controversial “High-Speed Rail”. He put his hand to the ear and said, “Sorry…?” Teff then suggested I email him the subjects so that he could come prepared.

“Sure, gimme your ID.”

He wrote it down: davidmaddox****@gmail.com

I looked at him, perplexed. “David Maddox?”

Teff put his finger to his pinna again and said, “Eh? Sorry…Deaf”

I sighed, nodded, and mumbled: “So am I Teff, I mean David…So am I!”

All reac

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We are chatting a lot with nothing much to say

 

“Mazha undo avide?” (Malayalam for "Is it raining there?")

This question, asked without any genuine interest or reason, is a filler in most Malayali telephonic exchanges. It changes slightly with seasons: mazha replaced by choodu (heat), thanuppu (cold) and what not. A recent favourite is "Entha corona vishesham avide?” (What’s the latest on corona there?)

Others in the genre are “Pinne enthokkeya?” and “vere enthundu”, both meaning “What else?”, evoking the anodyne “Ingane ponu” (Going on as usual) response.

The moment these questions are asked, you know the dialogue has emptied out and could end anytime now. They indicate boredom and some level of impatience.

In recent times, these questions have begun to spring up much earlier than usual. Calls and video chats are, thus, getting shorter on average. The reason: The frequency of calls (to the same person) has increased, thanks to technology and cheaper data charges.

In the mid-1990s, mom used to call us on the landline from Kuwait once a month. Today, living in Thane, I often chat with people in Kuwait, London, Bahrain, and Kerala simultaneously -- every day.

Result: There is only so much you have got to say to individuals. Most of it has already been conveyed over WhatsApp. Calling over the phone is now more of a boring formality (A video chat may still carry some flavour, with its novelty yet to wear off).

The ease of communication has led to a paucity of content, thanks to mindless overuse.

Besides, it is also killing nostalgia. Fewer memories are being formed and retained as precious. Because there is no real separation, the glue that builds memories.

Take a class of school students, for instance. Till some 20 years ago, graduating meant most classmates are unlikely to meet for a long time and some never again. That gave our brain space to build an aura around old chums, switch on the mind’s sepia mode after a while, and indulge in the mythification of our pasts (Trust me. Most great things from our past were never really that great. We puffed them up to feel good about ourselves).

That doesn’t happen anymore. We are all only a message/call away -- often annoyingly enough. Chat groups have absolutely destroyed the process of nostalgia creation. Worse, they have even destroyed the treasures of the pre-internet generations’ mindscapes by pooling the old-timers back into reality.

So today, we chat, we don’t converse. We share random info, philosophical memes, and reactions (sometimes extreme and mostly miscommunicated) with each other -- and quickly forget. We don’t take time to internalise.

What we need is less chatting and more shared real experiences. Only those will revive conversations -- and nostalgia.